22/08/2008 12:50 AM
The Kookaburras will contest the bronze medal match in men's hockey after giving up a two-goal lead to go down to Spain 3-2 in Thursday night's semi-final in Beijing.
The Kookaburras opened the scoring inside the first minute with their first raid of the match when Travis Brooks' cross from deep on the left found Des Abbott whose deft deflection beat Francisco Cortes in the Spanish goal.
Australia's best work for the half, however, came at the other end where 'keeper Stephen Lambert pulled off three outstanding saves, all from penalty corners, and all in the space of three minutes.
Lambert twice dived full-length to his right to palm away flicks that were goal-bound, and the third shot he stopped with his feet.
The one time he was genuinely beaten from the field in the 33rd minute, Kiel Brown was on hand to stop the ball inches from the goal-line.
Just two minutes into the second half, the Australians opened up the Spanish defence with a beautifully-worked move involving Mark Knowles, Abbott and Eddie Ockenden who was on hand to score from close range to put the Kookaburras two-up.
Spain replied two minutes later after Lambert smothered two attempts to score but was unable to stop Eduard Tubau from chipping a rebound into the net.
In the 43rd minute, the Spaniards were level when Tubau scored his second from a penalty corner.
The Australians came within a whisker of breaking the deadlock in the 56th minute when an Abbott deflection fizzed inches wide.
Eventually however, Spain scored again three minutes from time from their eighth penalty corner for the match through Freixa again - a low hard shot that beat the diving Lambert.
Lambert was immediately subbed and the Kookaburras played the last couple of minutes without a 'keeper in a bid for a miracle equaliser that never came.
"When the score was 2-0, we were not playing as well as we would like to," was Australian coach Barry Dancer's assessment of the early going.
"Spain was the more dominant team and the scoreboard did not reflect what was happening on the field."
"At that point, it was important that we lifted our game if we wanted to maintain the lead but, unfortunately, we could not do that."
"I thought as the second half progressed we had more ascendancy but, in the end, it was not enough."
Australia will now meet the Netherlands in the play-off for bronze while Spain advances to the gold medal clash against Germany.