Great Britain, USA and the Netherlands all maintained their strong start to the women’s Olympic competition with their second straight wins.
The US recorded their second hugely impressive win of the campaign, adding a 2-1 win over Australia to their opening victory over Argentina to put them in control of their own destiny in Pool B.
Goals from Michelle Vittesse and Caitlin van Sickle gave them a commanding 2-0 lead and while Kathryn Slattery got a goal back, the hockeyroos fell to a second successive defeat.
And Vittesse said that they have developed an inner-strength of will that is pivotal to their success.
“We have this grit, this resilience because we have previously failed; because we’ve been in unfavourable positions. Regardless of our past or current ranking, regardless of our previous results we play hard and I think the results of that show.”
Argentina bounced back from their opening defeat to run up a 4-0 win over Japan, Noel Barrionuevo scoring twice in the victory.
GB beat India comfortably 3-0 with goals from Nicola White, Giselle Ansley and Alex Danson.
For Ansley, she said of the performance: “It wasn’t our most polished performance but three points are three points and six from the first two games, well you can’t ask for more than that really. It was my first Olympic goal tonight so I’m over the moon.”
“It’s been surreal walking into the village even just getting on the plane to come to an Olympics to be honest. Now we’re here we’re fully focused on the hockey and that’s the only thing for us right now.”
In Pool A, Germany beat New Zealand 2-1, coming from a goal down to win thanks to Pia Oldhafer and Anne Schroder, adding the three points to their opening day draw against China.
Kelly Jonker’s hat trick under-pinned a second successive commanding win for the Netherlands as they proved far too good for Korea who are without a point to date. She scored the first three goals before Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel completed a 4-0 win.
Spain fell to their second blank, this time a 2-0 defeat to China to leave them needing a big couple of results to reach the semi-finals.