Black Sticks defeat Germany by 4-3
The Black Sticks Women have scored a historical victory over German women, defeating them by 4-3 in the first of the two Test match series played in Berlin, the capital city of Germany.
The first half clearly belonged to the Germans as they scored all of their three goals in the first 35 minutes, whereas the Black Sticks could only score a single goal in the same time.
The Germans opened their account in the third minute of the first half when the Kiwis’ defence-line committed a mistake inside the circle and Germans got the crucial advantage. However, soon after the Germans, the Black Sticks Women also broke the dead-lock
when Krystal Forgesson scored a wonderful field goal.
The Germans were awarded a penalty-stroke in the 21st minute on which they scored their second goal and doubled their lead. They did not stop at that time, in fact they continued their efforts and more to their luck the Kiwis made a number of
lapses in their defence that led the Germans to score their third goal, ten minutes before the interval. The first half ended at 3-1 to Germans.
“In the first half it was our errors in defence that let us down, we probably had three miss-traps and Germany pounced on them and scored, but in the second half we really tightened up and they did not get a goal in,” Mark Hager, the coach of Black Sticks
Women stated after the victory.
However, the second half clearly depicts the helplessness of the Germans and the dominance of the Black Sticks Women who came from way behind to clinch the victory. The Kiwis scored their second goal in the 41st minute, thanks again to Krystal
Forgesson. Germans too tried hard to make their way to the Kiwis’ goal-post and their two best chances were saved beautifully by the Kiwis’ goal-keeper and their defenders. However, in the 60th minute, Charlotte Harrison scored the equaliser for
the Black Sticks and just after three minutes, Kayla Sharland scored the decider of the match in the 63rd minute. The match concluded at 4-3 to Kiwis.
“For the next game we just need to keep doing what we are doing, keep persisting and we should convert goals. Jetlag could be an issue in tomorrow’s game, it’s often a few days in that players are affected by it, so we need to be aware of that,” Mark Hager
further stated regarding their next game.
The coach was very pleased on the victory as it was their first ever victory over the Germans since 2004.
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