2010 Hockey WC set to become most high scoring

New Delhi: Thanks to some attacking hockey by the 12 participating countries, the ongoing World Cup is heading towards becoming the most high-scoring one with a whopping 117 goals scored so far at the halfway stage here.

The 12th edition of hockey’s showpiece event at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium will have 38 matches, including the classification games. The ongoing World Cup has seen 117 goals so far being scored from 21 matches at an average of 5.57 per game. The average of 4.98 goals per match in the 1998 edition was the highest before this World Cup, whereas the last two editions in 2002 and 2006 had seen average goals of 4.17 and 4.14, respectively. This edition has seen many high-scoring matches, the most goals coming from Australia’s 12-0 mauling of South Africa, which was a new record for the biggest win surpassing the 12-3 defeat of New Zealand by Pakistan in 1982. The ongoing World Cup has also seen just one drawn match – a 2-2 result between South Korea and defending champions Germany in their campaign-opener on March 1. The least scoring matches in this World Cup so far were three 2-1 results – Pakistan beating Spain, Korea defeating Argentina and New Zealand’s victory over Korea. This World Cup is also producing more goals from penalty corners as compared to the 2006 edition. After 21 matches, 46 out of 117 goals scored so far came from penalty corners (39.3 per cent), while only 46 goals (of a total of 174) came from penalty corners in the whole 2006 edition. The 46 came from 170 penalty corners, a conversion percentage of over 27. PTI