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Gutted Black Stick Shea McAleese during their loss to the Netherlands. - Source: Reuters
New Zealand's chances of reaching the Olympic men's hockey semi-finals took a nosedive after a 5-1 loss to the Netherlands.
The men's Black Sticks led for 20 minutes but the Dutch scored three goals by the break.
The New Zealanders found it difficult to break the Dutch down while proving vulnerable on the counter-attack.
It took the world No.3 Netherlands to nine points while leaving the Black Sticks on three points, rueing a loss to South Korea in their first game.
They will need to beat Belgium and Germany and hope some other results go their way to have any chance of the top two placing they need to qualify for the semi-finals.
New Zealand took the lead after five minutes, Nick Wilson being put into space down the left wing before crossing for Simon Child to put the ball away.
A Dutch goal was disallowed two minutes later but penalty strokes to Roderick Weusthof and Mink van der Weerden put them in front, and they had another goal in the bank before the break when Billy Bakker finished off a counter-attack.
The second half started off more evenly, but the Black Sticks went further behind after Rogier Hoffman put Bakker through for his second goal.
The Black Sticks had a couple of chances in the last 10 minutes but were denied by a couple of fine saves from Jaap Stockman.
Robbert Kemperman put the seal on the victory with a spectacular strike from the edge of the circle.