MADDIE Hinch laid on a goalkeeping masterclass but couldn’t prevent Melrose's Sarah Robertson and Great Britain slipping to a 1-0 defeat to Netherlands in Tokyo.
The 32-year-old made 12 saves, some of which were stunning, and repelled seven penalty corners in a re-run of the Rio Olympic final where her legend was born.
Only a penalty stroke could beat her and Great Britain’s undoing came when Frederique Matla sent her the wrong way from the spot on 15 minutes.
It’s Britain’s woes in the attacking circle that are causing most concern and Hinch couldn’t hide her frustration at wastefulness at the other end of the pitch.
“It’s always nice to play a part and we defended well as a team,” said Hinch.
“There was stuff in there that I thought I should save, they were forcing shots from good angles for me and it was a big team effort to keep it down to one.
“It’s not often you go up against the best team in the world and have that many chances. We had the chances so I’m disappointed we didn’t get at least a point today.”
Great Britain sealed a place in the knockout stages with a 4-1 win over India in their third game and Ireland await in the final group match.
Since their defeat to Team GB in the gold medal match five years ago, the Dutch have won the World Cup and three European titles.
As it was in the 2016 final, Netherlands created a host of chances and Hinch denied Matla’s drag flick with her right kicker on eight minutes.
She had to make three saves from successive corners, twice from Caia van Maasakker and then from Lidewij Welten.
The flashpoint came on 13 minutes when captain Hollie Pearne-Webb was deemed to have impeded Welten when she had a clear shot at goal, and a stroke awarded.
Britain referred the decision and were denied, with Matla beating Hinch to her right from the stroke.
Mark Hager’s side grew in stature from the second quarter onwards and came close when Fiona Crackles’s deflected effort from a great position was tipped over the bar.
Momentum built as Sarah Robertson went on a barnstorming run and earned a corner, from which Giselle Ansley’s low drag flick was saved.
Hinch had to be at her very best when the Dutch ran a smart corner routine and the keeper had to smother Malou Pheninckx from close range.
Then she threw a right glove up to deny Eva De Goede from point blank which was probably the pick of the bunch.
Great Britain threatened in the dying moments and the ball fell to Crackles at the back post with seconds to go but she badly mishit her shot and it rolled into Dutch hands.
“We deserved to come out with something from the game,” said Pearne-Webb.
“We’re disappointed not to get a result but we’re proud of the way we performed against the number one team in the world.”
Stream every unmissable moment of Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 live on discovery+, the Streaming Home of the Olympics.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here