The Black Sticks’ prospects of advancing to the Olympic quarterfinals were brutally snuffed out by a 5-0 drubbing by Australia in Paris on Thursday night.
It was New Zealand’s fourth consecutive defeat at the Olympics.
The Black Sticks created some good opportunities despite the lopsided score.
They fizzed a couple of crosses passed the goal mouth but could not catch up with the ball to deflected it into the net.
And they were unable to convert any of their penalty corners.
Midway through the second quarter, Tom Wickham deflected the ball into the goal to open the scoring.
The on-field umpire called no goal. He felt the ball had hit an attacking player’s foot on the way through, but Australia referred the decision and the video umpire overturned the decision and awarded the goal.
Three minutes later Blake Govers slammed in the first of his three goals. He pounced on a rebound, which had bounced from the post, and drilled it past the sprawling Black Sticks goalie Dom Dixon.
Australia went further ahead when Wickham rolled in a cross and Ky Willott banged it in.
The other two goals came from penalty corners by Govers to complete a hat-trick.
New Zealand’s last game was against Ireland at 3am today.
