Australia versus Germany: 2011 Rabo FIH Champions Trophy – Preview
The Australian women hockey team will be face-to-face with Germany, on June 28, in the Pool B match of the 2011 Rabo FIH Champions Trophy, being commenced at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen, Netherlands.
Australia
The Hockeyroos will have a tough time today at the field as they will have to post at least two goals against Germany to make it into the Pool C for the medal-winning matches.
Unfortunately, the team faced two defeats in equal number of appearances at the Champions Trophy this year that were played against Netherlands by 3-0 and New Zealand by 3-2, respectively.
Since 2008, this is the poorest performance displayed by the Australian squad. This year, it is among the two teams to concede the highest number of goals in its two Champions Trophy appearances (6).
The squad includes a lot of the young talent of the country with very low capped players making up the team’s key positions.
However, Australia’s top Champions Trophy goal-scorers, like Casey Eastham and Madonna Blyth, the team captain, are also present that are the two highest capped players in the team.
Germany
The team is to win the match to comfortably and make it into the Pool C where four teams will fight for the top three medal positions.
For the safe side, the team will have to make sure to hold back the Hockeyroos from scoring in the match that will allow them to notch up the New Zealand team on the condition that the Black Sticks lose today’s match.
Germany has played two matches in the Champions Trophy 2011 in which Germany won one match against New Zealand by 1-0, whereas lost the second match that was played against Netherlands by 2-1.
However, the team is confident to have some world hockey stars including the third ranked Natascha Keller with 19 goals in Champions Trophy, following the foot-prints of the German record setter, Nadine Ernsting-Krienke with a total 22 total Champions Trophy
goals in her career. With just one goal, the second position is held by an Australian player with 20 goals.
Moreover, the highest capped player, Keller at 381, is the only player in the German team that holds an Olympic gold medal of year 2004.
Players to watch
From the Australian side, Renee Trost will be the worth-watching performer, whereas from the German side, Julia Muller will be the stand-out for her team.
Head-to-Head Statistics
The Hockeyroos have had an encounter with the German side for about 15 times at the Champions Trophy platform and has won eight times with the most recent in 2009 by 2-0. Moreover, Germany managed to win twice with 2-1 in the year 2000 and the recent 1-0
in 2004.
Additionally, Germany defeated Hockeyroos in the 2010 World Cup, held in New Delhi, India by 1-0 and the recent most victory was in the Berlin’s Four-Nations tournament, where Germany pounded the Australian side by 3-0.
Prediction
It is predicted that Australia will beat down Germany by 2-0.
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