Aussies whip Dutch for men's hockey World Cup

[[JUGRAJ SINGH]]

Australia retained the men's hockey World Cup crown after outplaying Olympic silver medallists The Netherlands 6-1 in the final at the Kyocera Stadium in The Hague on Sunday.

Chris Cirielo's three penalty-corner conversions was the feature of the contest that saw Australia retain the trophy they won in New Delhi in 2010.

The successive men's World Cup title wins was a gift the Australian team had promised their coach, Ric Charlesworth, who won it as a player in 1986 and as a coach four years ago.

Playing their fourth successive World Cup final, Australia made up for the disappointment of losing two successive summit showdowns to Germany.

Before Australia clinched their second successive World Cup on Sunday, Germany were the only nation to have won it two consecutive times.

The Netherlands opened the scoring in the 14th minute through Jeroen Hartzberger, but the Australians came back strongly to slam six goals and make it the most one-sided World Cup final ever.

Australia equalised in the 19th minute through Cirello's first penalty-corner conversion.

They gained ascendancy with a 24th minute field goal through Kieran Govers's reverse hit from top of the circle to go into half-time with a 2-1 lead.

Glenn Turner beat goalkeeper Jaap Stockmann with a flick from close three minutes into the second half before Cirielo scored with successive penalty-corners in the 46th and 53rd minutes.

Jamie Dwyer rounded off the scoring in the 64th minute when he picked up a through ball on the left flank and darted into the circle to shoot home.

The result denied the Dutch a double title in front of their fans after their women's team defeated Australia 2-0 in Saturday’s final.

The Netherlands were seeking to improve on their performance in the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where they won the women's gold medal, but the men lost the final to Germany.

Even in 1998, the only previous time that the International Hockey Federation sanctioned joint hosting of the men and women's World Cups – in the Dutch city of Utrecht – hosts Netherlands came close to achieving the dream double.

The Dutch men won the 1998 World Cup defeating Spain in the final, but the women lost the title clash to Australia.

Earlier, Argentina's men defeated England 2-0 to clinch the bronze medal. This is the first men's World Cup medal for Argentina, whose women also got a bronze.

For the Argentine women, this was their fourth successive World Cup medal. They won the title in 2002 and 2010, but had to be satisfied with a bronze in 2006.[/img]