World champions the Netherlands booked the first berth of the semifinals in the Olympic women's hockey tournament on Saturday, leaving the other spot of Pool A free for Australia and China.

The Netherlands, beating the fourth-ranked Australia 2-1, once again underlined their supremacy and remained the only unbeaten team in the preliminary stage.

Thanks to two penalty corners from Maartje Paumen, the Dutch came back from 1-0 down to beat the Aussies. Suffering the first loss, Australia have to fight hard with China for the semifinal qualification on Monday.

China, outplayed by the Netherlands 1-0 Thursday, swept past South Korea 6-1 and got nine points, closely following the Netherlands in Pool A and ahead of Australia with one goal difference.

China will get the second semi-final spot as long as they draw with Australia. But China's captain Ma Yibo said, "We should not only take a draw. We will try to beat them."

In today's game against South Korea, China got all the six goals from forward Tang Chunling and Fu Baorong, three goals for each. "The credit should go to all the team members. Thanks to them passing the ball, I could score the goals," said Tang.

As for Fu, coach Kim Chang-back said she is a talented player. "But it's the good teamwork making her shinning," noted Kim.

Pool B sees no obvious advantages for any team. Defending champions Germany now top the pool with nine points although they lost 4-0 to the second-ranked Argentina. Argentina, with two draws and two wins, rank second, one point less than Germany.

Britain ranked third in the pool with seven points. In the last round of the games, Germany meet Japan, Argentina take on New Zealand and Britain play the United States.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2008)