Modern day sport is focussed on attack and scoring goals. Maybe that is why one Olympic record has been missed by many, one that the Hockeyroos can now claim.
Many will tell you that goals and goal-scorers win you games. Yet your defence and goalkeeper play a crucial part too.
Any goalkeeper will tell you that as much as one save can turn a match for them to be successful they need the players in front of them to do their job well. The defenders need to close down the opposition attackers, limit their shooting opportunities and also reduce the angles from which they can manage a shot. If they do succeed intaking a shot then that is when the specialist comes into their own.
The great English football manager Brian Clough shelled out £270,000 in 1977 for England goalkeeper Peter Shilton. It was a vast sum of money at the time. Clough justified the expenditure by famously saying ‘Some stupid people questioned me spending all that money on Peter Shilton. But I’ll tell you one thing – a team with only an OK goalkeeper is always looking over its shoulder.’
Well the Hockeyroos may still have to look over their shoulder in the Olympic Hockey tournament in Tokyo, but they don’t when it comes to breaking a record in one Olympic Games.
Their 2-0 Victory over Argentina means that Rachel Lynch and her team of defenders have not conceded a goal since the 33rd minute of their opening match against Spain in Tokyo. They have kept four consecutive clean sheets and have not conceded a goal in four hours and 27 minutes of playing time, or 267 minutes.
The previous best performance by a women’s team in one Olympic Tournament was the Netherlands four years ago in Rio de Janeiro. Joyce Sombroek and her defence conceded kept three consecutive clean sheets before conceding a goal in the 59th minute to Kayla Whitelock of New Zealand. That was a total of 239 minutes.
It should be noted that Joyce Sombroek and her defensive team prior to that run in Rio kept a clean sheet in the Final in London when they won Gold. So if we go back to the last goal they conceded in Olympic competition it was in the 49th minute of their semi final, again against New Zealand. Matches in London were of 70 minute duration so that means that the Dutch went a total of 330 consecutive minutes in Olympic competition without conceding a goal.
The best performance by Australia prior to Rach Lynch and the Hockeyroos was back in 1996 in Atlanta. Karen Marsden was the goalkeeper for the Hockeyroos when they went 2-3 down to Korea thanks to a goal by Cho Eun Jung in the 60th minute of their fourth match. They did not concede another goal in the next three games as they progressed to the Gold Medal match. Here that run was broken by none other than Cho Eun Jung in the 30th minute. Again matches were 70 minutes in duration at the time so Marsden’s defensive team went 250 minutes without conceding.
As an aside in the first game with Korea the current Hockeyroos coach Trini Powell scored the equaliser, and while the current Dutch coach Alyson Annan scored the first two in the final, Powell scored the third.
When it comes to the overall Olympic record it is unlikely that India’s record from 1928 will ever be matched in the modern era. India won the gold medal in their very first Olympic Games appearance. They played five matches in this one Games, and won every game without conceding a goal. They scored 29 goals and conceded none. So a total of 350 minutes without letting in a goal.
When the 1932 Games came around in Los Angeles remarkably India conceded their first Olympic goal in the opening minute of their first match. Japan’s Junzo Inohara writing his name into the record books.
Four years later India came close to matching the feat of the 1928 team going all the way through to the Gold medal match without conceding a goal, but Germany’s Kurt Weiss made sure that they didn’t match it scoring a consolation goal in the 51st minute for the hosts in a 1-8 defeat. This team scored 38 goals in five matches and conceded one. They went 331 minutes without conceding a goal at the one Olympic Games.
So when it comes to overall Olympic shut-outs the Hockeyroos are closing in on India’s record but will at least need another clean sheet in their quarter final match and deep into their semi-final, should they get that far. However for the time being they have a new Olympic record; but their target is obviously still a medal!
