KUALA LUMPUR: Sports journalist turned hockey coach Jesse Mahieu was full of antics and emotions by the sidelines, before the Netherlands turned the tide from losing to winning 5-3 against Belgium in Group D of the Junior World Cup on Thursday.
Mahieu walked into the press room looking more tired than his players, as Netherlands opened up their chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals.
In their first match, the Dutch drew 3-3 with Pakistan and will play New Zealand to complete their fixtures.
"It was a tiring match for my players as well as for me because both teams wanted a win and when we were down 2-1 by the end of the first quarter, I told my players that if they want to win they must play much better and they did just that.
"Now we have to play with the same determination against New Zealand in our last match to ensure the quarter-finals spot," said Mahieu who was a journalist for 15 years before turning to coaching.
Group D is now wide open with Pakistan and Netherlands sitting pretty with four points each. Pakistan will have a tough Belgium match as they, too, are still quarter-finals contenders, while the Dutch should be more comfortable with their match as New Zealand are out of the knock-out race.
"It was a real bruising match as we tried our best but lost the match in the later stages. My players were down after the match, but when I congratulated them for playing good hockey and said that I am proud of them, they picked up their heads and are now looking forward to the Pakistan encounter," said Belgium coach Jeroen Baart.
As predicted, Group D turned out to be the Group of Death as one of the top three contenders will be out of the quarter-finals after the Saturday fixtures are completed.
The Netherlands' goals were scored by Timo Boers (9th, 60th), Casper van der Veen (18th), Lucas Veen (40th) and Menno Boeren (53rd).
Hugo Labouchere (10th, 35th) and Maximilian Langer (12th) scored for Belgium.