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There is an old adage in football that, over the course of a season, luck will even itself out.
Unfortunately for England in the World Cup, one goal-line incident contributed to an immediate exit from the tournament.
However, in a remarkably ironic twist of fate, England's women's hockey team defeated Germany, thanks to another controversial incident involving the goal-line. The German's thought they had opened the scoring with a well-worked penalty corner routine that finished with Tina Bachmann rounding Crista Cullen before slipping the ball past goalkeeper Beth Storry.
Since hockey is a sport that benefits from instant replays, the England team immediately called for a technical referral. The third umpire found that one of the German players, Nina Hasselmann had illegally placed both feet on the pitch in taking the corner.
The English team went on to win the match 2-1 with captain Helen Richardson scoring both goals.
In addition to defeating Germany, they secured a superb 2-1 victory against Champions Trophy holders, Argentina, before notching an identical result in a come-from-behind victory against the Chinese team. Their only blemish came against the world's top-ranked team, Holland, with a 3-0 defeat.
The English looked all set to qualify for the gold medal play-off, needing a win against the poorly performing New Zealand team. However, despite dominating the early exchanges and creating numerous chances, they soon fell behind by two goals. England did manage to draw level but could only draw, leaving them to battle it out for bronze - against the Germans!
During the much-awaited repeat grudge match tensions were heightened as a result of the controversial decision taken to disallow Germany's first goal.
On this occasion the Germans took the lead through Maike Stoeckel's close-range deflection. The English fought back as they were forced to chase the game. They hit the post from Nicola White's diving effort before Cullen had an effort saved by the German keeper, Barbara Vogel.
England vastly improved in the second half and drew level. Walsh sent a reverse-stick shot wide before Cullen scored what proved to be the winner enabling England to secure their first Champions Trophy medal.
The final saw the world's highest-ranked team Holland play the two-time champions Argentina. In a sub-plot six-time player of the year Luciana Aymar, a veteran of 282 national matches was up against the player with whom she shared the 2009 title, Dutch forward Naomi van As.
Argentina got off to a great start with the tournament's leading scorer Barrionuevo firing home a short corner. Kelly Jonker equalised for the Netherlands half-way through the first half but their joy was short-lived as Rebecchi coolly slotted home for Las Leona.
Barrionuevo compounded the Dutch misery with her second shortly before half time. Goderie pulled one back for the Dutch with 15 minutes to go and should have equalised having created excellent chances in the final ten minutes.
However, their profligacy was punished as Barrionuevo secured her hat-trick in the dying minutes to secure their third title on the trot and their fourth in total.
Argentine captain Aymar lifted the trophy and the Player of the Tournament Award.
