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Dutch Men Win Gold Medal

ATLANTA — Floris Jan Bovelander saved his best for last.

Bovelander, playing in his final international game, scored two goals Friday night as the Netherlands rallied to beat Spain 3-1 for the Olympic gold medal in men’s field hockey.

Bovelander, a 30-year-old midfielder, said he wasn’t sure what his future holds, but he is retiring from international competition.

"I scored two of the goals in the gold medal game. It’s heavenly," he said through an interpreter.

Then, in English, he said, "It doesn’t matter who makes the goals. Somebody has to make them, and I was lucky tonight."

Bovelander said he was concerned when the Netherlands fell behind 1-0 early in the second half.

"But we knew there were still 25 minutes to play," he said. "You’re never sure whether you’re up or down. You just go for it."

Reserve midfielder Victor Pujol gave Spain a 1-0 lead in the 45th minute of the 70-minute game.

Bovelander, who made 235 international appearances, then went to work.

He scored in the 52nd minute on a penalty corner. Then, in the 55th minute, he scored on another penalty corner to put the Netherlands ahead for good.

The Dutch team didn’t get a shot away on its earlier two penalty corner opportunities.

Bram Lomans scored the final goal for the Netherlands on its sixth penalty corner of the game, in the 67th minute.

"You could see the moment we fell behind, we started to play our best hockey," Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans said. "When it was 1-0, we started to play the way we had to. It is fantastic, unbelievable. We worked very hard for four years to achieve this."

In the bronze medal game, Baeden Choppy scored on a penalty corner with 1:19 remaining to give Australia a 3-2 victory over Germany.

Juan Antonio Samaranch, the president of the International Olympic Committee, attended the gold medal game at Morris Brown College as part of a capacty crowd of about 15,000 and presented the Dutch players with their gold medals afterward.

The Netherlands wound up 6-0-1 in the games, while Spain finished 5-2-0.

Choppy’s game-winning goal against Germany deflected into the goal off defender Carsten Fischer as Australia got a little revenge from the gold medal game of four years ago in Barcelona. Germany prevailed in that contest 2-1.

Jay Stacy of Australia scored his second goal of the game, in the 63rd minute on a penalty corner, to tie it 2-2. Stacy gave the Australians a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute on a penalty corner when he drilled the ball past goalie Christopher Reitz.

Germany tied the game in the 40th minute when Sven Meinhardt put the ball past Australian goalie Lachlan Dreher on a penalty corner. Oliver Domke scored on a field goal for the Germans six minutes later to put them ahead 2-1.

Australia and Germany each had 3-1-1 records in pool play. In Wednesday’s semifinals, Spain beat Australia 2-1 and the Netherlands topped Germany 3-1.

Earlier Friday, South Korea completed a dismal Olympics for Pakistan, beating the pre-tournament favorites 3-1 for fifth place in the 12-team competition.

Jeon Jong-ha, Shin Seok-kyo and Song Seung-tae scored for South Korea, while Kamran Ashraf scored for Pakistan.