Chinese women's hockey team were buried by goal avalanche when they lost to the Netherlands 6-1 in the penultimate round of pool games in the World Cup on Tuesday.

China's defense collapsed like a pack of paper cards as the Netherland scored two goals in the first half before adding four after the break.

China, having arrived in Madrid as a serious title-contenders, put on a string of mind-boggling, awful performance as they have lost all their previous four pool games.

The reasons for China's sudden loss of form were shrouded in mystery.

Their coach Kim Changback said: "something went awry with our training before the World Cup, I know what they are." Then he chose not go into details.

Everybody in the World Cup seems to be very puzzled by China's performance.

"Why are their performance so terrible?" asked Mark Hoogstad, a reporter from the Netherlands.

"They were a very impressive team this year before the World Cup, what happened to them," he said showing much angst for the Chinese team.

"If they can not finish top six in this World Cup tournament, they miss the chance to play the Champions Trophy, that will disrupt their preparation for the Beijing Olympics," he said.

After having thrashed China, the Netherlands reached the semifinals with four wins from as many pool games.

In an earlier Pool A game, thanks to a penalty stroke from captain Helen Richardson in the 38th minute, England upset Olympic champions Germany 1-0.

England leapfrogged Spain and Germany to the second place with 7 points and could reach the semifinals at the expense of Germany provided they beat Spain in the last pool round on Wednesday.

The penalty came about when Germany's Anke Kuehn handled Lucilla Wright's shot following a goalmouth scramble.

England were also grateful for some superb goalkeeping from Beth Storry in the first half.

Coach Danny Kerry said: "I am delighted with our application and effort - I can't really ask for any more. It just shows the great character within the team.

"Before the tournament if I'd been offered the prospect of going into our last group game with a chance of making the semi-finals I would have taken it, definitely.

"But we have an incredibly tough game against the home side tomorrow."

The situation looks rather grim for Germany, with 6 points, as they will meet the Netherlands on Wednesday.

When asked about his side's chance to reach the final four, the German coach Markus Weise appeared not so confident.

"I don't know, if we beat the Netherlands, we still have a big chance, but," he paused.

"I think our chance is 35 percent to 65 percent," he said.

Weise was upset that destructive approach has got an upper hand in the World Cup.

"Constructive approach lost to solid defense, you cannot creat many chances before a solid defense," he said.

"If the destructive approach get its way, the quality of the game will go down," he added.
 
(Xinhua News Agency October 4, 2006)