In an unfortunate incident during FIH Men's Hockey World Cup quarterfinal match between Netherlands and South Korea on January 25, German umpire Ben Goentgen was hit on the face off a penalty corner strike.
Goentgen held his face as blood came gushing out. The umpire was taken off the field immediately and received medical attention. He was replaced by reserve umpire Raghu Prasad for the rest of encounter.
The incident took place in the 28th minute. South Korea earned second penalty corner in a row. Their drag-flicker Jang Jonghyun struck the ball but it got deflected off Netherlands player's stick and struck Goentgen on the face. The umpire was in the firing line as he was just a few meters away from the goal post.
As Goentgen fell down immediately in agonising pain, his co-umpire Gareth Greenfield called for the medical staff who rushed to his aid.
Netherlands beat South Korea comprehensively by 5-1 to progress into semi-finals. Koen Bijen struck twice inside four minutes whereas Justen Blok, Steijn van Heijningen and Teun Beins scored one goal each for the Dutch side. For South Korea, Inwoo Seo scored the consolation goal in the last quarter.
Both South Korea and the Netherlands failed to score a goal in the first quarter despite two penalty corners each. In the 27th minute, Bijen broke the deadlock. In the first minute of third quarter, he struck again to extend the lead. Five minutes later Blok scored as Dutch continued to dominate the Koreans. In the fourth quarter two more goals were scored to help Netherlands to an easy win.
In the other quarterfinal encounter of the day, Germany beat England in penalty shootouts by 4-3. Germany looked down and out before the last three minutes of the last quarter as they were training by 0-2. But captain Mats Grambusch and his younger brother scored in 58th and 59th minute respectively to help the side come back in the game before they stunned the English in the penalty shootouts.
