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Preview Day 13 – Women
Classification 11th-12th: South Africa v New Zealand
> New Zealand will record their worst ranking ever at the Olympics. So far they have finished eighth in 1992 and sixth in 1984, 2000 and 2004.
> Two previous Olympic appearances led South Africa to 10th place (in 2000) and ninth place (in 2004).
> At Sydney 2000 New Zealand beat South Africa 1-0 in the Pool phase.
> Their last meeting came in the final of the 2005 Champions Challenge when South Africa beat New Zealand 2-0.
> New Zealand's six goals so far have been scored by six different goalscorers.
> New Zealand have netted five of their six goals from penalty corners.
> South Africa have netted only twice so far with Kate Hector and Vida Ryan being the goalscorers.
> South Africa's two goals both came from penalty corners.
Classification 5th-6th: Australia v Great Britain
> Australia have won two previous encounters with Great Britain at the Olympics: at Atlanta 1996 (1-0) and at Sydney 2000 (2-1).
> In 2000 Nikki Hudson scored the opening goal for Australia against Great Britain.
> If Australia finish in sixth place, this will be their worst result ever at the Olympics.
> At Athens 2004 and Barcelona 1992, the Hockeyroos finished fifth, recording their worst result so far at the Olympics.
> GB finished eight in their last Olympic appearance at Sydney 2000, their worst ranking so far.
> Casey Eastham is the leading goal scorer for the Hockeyroos at Beijing 2008 with four goals.
> Crista Cullen is top goal scorer in the GB squad with three goals.
> Australia have converted 6 of 18 penalty corners awarded (i.e.33%).
> Great Britain have scored five from 24 penalty corner attempts (i.e. 20%).
Bronze Medal: Germany v Argentina
> Both Germany (gold) and Argentina (bronze) were medallists at Athens 2004.
> If Argentina claim the bronze medal, they raise their own medal streak to three straight Olympic Games, adding to the silver in 2000 and bronze in 2004.
> Germany are also chasing their third medal, following silver in 1952 and gold in 2004.
> Six players on the current German squad won a gold medal at Athens 2004: Tina Bachmann, Mandy Haase, Marion Rodewald, Fanny Rinne, Anke Kühn and Natascha Keller.
> In the Pool phase Argentina beat Germany 4-0 through goals by Alejandra Gulla (2), Claudia Burkart and Luciana Aymar.
> The only previous Olympic encounter between these team came at Atlanta 1996, when Germany beat Argentina 2-0 through goals by Vanessa von Kooperen and Heike Lätzsch.
> This match is a replay of the 2008 Champions Trophy final in Mönchengladbach, when Argentina beat Germany 6-2.
> The last time Germany beat Argentina in a competitive match was at the 2006 Champions Trophy (3-1).
Gold Medal: China v Netherlands
> Hosts China will play their first ever Olympic Hockey final and will collect their first ever medal in Olympic Hockey.
> Netherlands are only the second team to reach back-to-back Olympic finals. Before 2008, that feat had only been achieved by Australia, the 1996-2000 Hockeyroos.
> At Athens 2004, the Dutch went down 2-1 against Germany.
> The Netherlands will collect a record sixth Olympic medal. So far they have won one gold (1984), one silver (2004) and three bronze (1988, 1996 and 2000).
> Team manager Sandra le Poole was part of the Dutch team that won gold in 1984.
> In the Pool phase the Dutch beat China 1-0 through a Maartje Paumen penalty corner goal.
> Holland are the strongest team in terms of penalty corners, having scored 14 out of 36 penalty corner goals (i.e.38%).
> Their 14 penalty corner goals account for 74% of their entire production (19).
> China are the weakest team in the tournament in terms of converting penalty corners, taking a 1-for-23 performance into the final (i.e.4%).
> China and the Netherlands have the strongest defence at Beijing 2008, having conceded only five and six goals respectively
> Maartje Paumen needs just two more goals to equal Alyson Annan's (AUS) record of 13 goals for all-time top scorer at the Olympics.
> Paumen (NED) and Fu Baorong (CHN) are the only players to have recorded a hat-trick in this tournament.
> Fu Baorong is China's leading goal scorer at Beijing 2008 having netted five goals all from open play.
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