Olympics Dec 07, 2025

Great Britain beat United States 2-1 to top women's hockey Pool B

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By Admin
Sports Journalist
Great Britain beat United States 2-1 to top women's hockey Pool B

Great Britain's women beat the United States 2-1 in their final hockey Pool B game to top the table and maintain their 100 per cent record at the Olympic Games in Rio.

Britain looked like being denied by USA goalkeeper Jackie Briggs for long spells, but they finally found a way past her with two quick goals in the final quarter.

The match pitted two unbeaten teams together and victory for Team GB means a meeting with the fourth-placed team in Pool A, which is most likely to be Spain.

Briggs made some astonishing saves to keep the game goalless during the first-half, among the best of them a tip-over the bar with her stick to keep out Crista Cullen's early penalty corner.

Cullen must have felt victimised soon after when Briggs performed heroics to keep out another fierce effort, and she repeated the dose to deny Sophie Bray.

United States eventually made the breakthrough, against the run of play, when Michelle Vittese broke through the GB defence and fired past Maddie Hinch into the corner.

An unlucky defeat looked to be on the cards until two goals in three minutes as time wound down, Bray finally getting a shot past Briggs in the 53rd minute.

Briggs was helpless when Great Britain took the lead with four minutes remaining through Alex Danson and, despite losing two players to yellow cards, Helen Richardson Walsh's side was able to hang on for victory.

Danson said: "We are absolutely delighted with our performance. I think we felt we had the balance of play and played some really good hockey.

"When we went one goal down, we have been in that situation before and knew what we had to do. It was just sticking to our processes.

"We have got momentum, but it is very much a match-by-match basis for us. It's fantastic when you are winning games, because you have that belief. We will recover now - eat, rest and sleep - and then it's heads on and ready for the next game."

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