Kookaburras end Sydney Pro League leg with Dutch defeat

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Kookaburras end Sydney Pro League leg with Dutch defeat

Just 24 hours after losing to Spain, the Kookaburras have suffered another Pro League penalty shootout defeat to the Netherlands at Sydney Olympic Park.

Having beaten the Dutch 4-2 on Thursday, Mark Hager’s new-look outfit were confident going into the clash against the side who knocked them out of the 2024 Paris Olympics at the quarter-final stage.

After both sides went close, the defending Olympic champions took the lead in the seventh minute after Derck de Vilder sliced through and finished expertly past Mitch Nicholson.

Jeremy Hayward levelled in front of a boisterous home crowd, which also featured plenty of orange, firing home a penalty corner hard and low just before halftime.

The hosts netted again before the main break, with Ben White flicking home the rebound for his first goal in green and gold after another penalty corner was saved.

The world No.1 Dutch beat Spain 4-2 and 2-1 earlier in the week, but another clinical Hayward set-piece drag-flick conversion pushed Australia out to a 3-1 lead early in the third quarter, and White extended the advantage in the 34th minute, finishing off a wonderful Nathan Ephraums pass.

But then the Dutch went into overdrive. Pepijn van der Heijden pulled one back early in the final term, and it was 4-3 with just over 10 minutes to go after Miles Bukkens deflected another penalty corner home.

And it was 4-4 on 57 minutes when, yet again from a penalty corner, van der Heijden netted his second.

To the shootout it went and Kookaburras goalkeeper Jed Snowden was unable to stop any Netherlands efforts, while the Aussies had three of theirs fail to find the net past Maurits Visser.

The 3-1 shootout win keeps the Dutch top of the table on 14 points from eight matches, while the Kookaburras (five) are fifth after four games.

The Hockeyroos will aim to make it a perfect four-from-four in Sydney when they play leaders China later on Sunday.

The Pro League takes both *********** sides to Argentina this month for Tests against the host nation and Belgium.

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