Stockmann not at his best against Oz

In the first final against Australia since the Champions Trophy series, Jaap Stockmann was unfortuantely not at his best as Holland lost. Given how much he has been proving himself to be one of the best goalkeepers in the world, and the strong performances that drew praise and his being awarded Goalkeeper of the tournament, somehow things didn't come off as planned in the finals game. After making changes to his approach seeing a full split keep the ball out of goal, he reverted to his old game and seemed to regress, perhaps hitting a mental barrier with the weight of expectations. Not to sound overly critical, but given how well he has been playing, you would hope he would be playing at his optimum best, even if his team didn't really help out (by pitching in on the scoring front!).

For example, for the first goal, he really needed to extend as he had been, to push the ball away for the save. On the third and fourth goals, diving would have been an option to get to the low ball in the corner of the goal. Indecision or improper application of technique is going to be fully exploited by shooters at this level, and after the third goal , heads down, things seemed to get worse from there on in. It won't be long until Stockmann hits the training ground and the domestic season to be able to work through these technicalities and hit his peak again.

• On the first goal, he pushed out with poor rotation at the hips meaning he dropped the knee and couldn't reach the ball with the left toe
• On the second, he did not raise his RHP well, or attack it 'punching up', being beaten by a screamer to his top right
• On the third, the defence really broke down and in a scramble (which he couldn't do much more than cover as he did), the ball rolled over the line after the defense in front of him weren't man marking well enough
• For the fourth and fifth goals, he needed to dive as he wasn't going to reach the ball from the upright like that - needs to work on his tendency of going with everything with his feet which could otherwise become a liability (goalkeepers at the elite level need to constantly evolve - as shooters work out ways they can beat them, the goalkeeper has to work harder at these to maintain unbeatability)
• On the fifth, his defenders stopped defending: he needed to either commit to a baseline run and slide tackle with good timing (as the ball carrier drew him off the post and would do even then), or get his defence to cover