Field Hockey: Germany win 4-Nation Hamburg Masters 5-1, Japan finish 2nd
Germany won the Hamburg Masters, a Four Nation Hockey Tournament, played at Uhlenhoster Club in Hamburg, Germany. The Germans defeated a young Dutch side comprehensively by margin of four goals. In the other match played on the last day of the Hamburg Masters, Japan came back from behind to get a draw against India and captured 2nd position in the tournament.
The first match was played between two European sides Germany and Netherlands. It was a fully packed stadium with lot of support for the German side. Germany was up on the young Dutch side that recently tasted a defeat against minnows Japan. The Germans were phenomenal in their approach towards the game and were able to score goals at regular intervals. The first German goal was scored by Florian Fuchs in the 14th minute of the match, 5 minutes later Moritz Furste scored on a penalty corner. In the 20th minute of the match, highest goal scorer of the tournament and a veteran hockey player of the German side, Christopher Zeller scored a magnificent field goal. By the end of first half Germans were leading by 3 goals to nil.
This wasn’t the end of the Germans as they scored a fourth goal on the penalty stroke awarded in the 61st minute of the match when Moritz Furste made no mistake to push the ball into the post. Only Tim Jenniskens of the Netherlands was able to beat German goalkeeper Nicolas Jacobi in the 66th minute of the match and scored the maiden goal for his side. The Germans were not satisfied with this lead or they want to defeat their counterparts by four goal margin like the German side in football, Florian Fuchs scored a 5th goal for his country and his second in the match to win the Hamburg Masters by defeating the Dutch side by five goals to one.
In the second match of the day Japan surprised the Indian side by equalizing the match when they were down by 2 goals in the last 15 minutes of play. The match started with Indian dominance and they scored 2 goals in the first 15 minutes of play. Mohhamed Amir Khan and Danish Mujtaba scored the 1st and 2nd goal for their side respectively. Japan came back into the game when Hiroki Sakamoto converted the penalty corner into the 1st goal for his side in the 23rd minute of the match. At the end of the first half India was leading by one goal and the score was 2-1 in Indian’s favour.
In the second half of the match Kazuhiro Tsubouchi scored an equalizer in the 49th minute of the match when Japan was awarded a penalty corner. The Indians came into this match for face saving and they scored two consecutive goals in the 55th and the 56th minute of the match when Sandeep Singh scored on a penalty corner and Bharat deflected the ball into the goal post to double their lead in the last match of the tournament.
The Japanese were in no way ready to accept defeat and continued to attack the Indian goal post. In the 65th minute of the match Katsuyoshi Nagasawa scored on a penalty corner to decrease the Indian lead by one goal. In the last minute of the match, the Japanese attacked the Indian goal and their Captain Kazuhiro Tsubouchi in an attempt to score an equalizer passed the ball to his fellow player but midway it was deflected by the Indian defender into the goal and Japan scored an equalizer to get a draw out of a defeat. With the help of this goal Japan secured 2nd position in the Tournament and India was able to grasp 1 point out of this draw and hold fourth position.
Points table at the end of Tournament
Team
Played
Won
Lost
Draw
Goals
Against
Points
Germany
3
3
0
0
15
7
9
Japan
3
1
1
1
10
11
4
Netherlands
3
1
2
0
9
11
3
India
3
0
2
1
10
15
1
Individual Awards:
Best player: Maximilian MÜLLER (GER)
Best goalkeeper: Katsuya TAKASE (JPN)
Top scorer: Christopher ZELLER (GER) 5 goals in the tournament
Most promising player: Florian FUCHS (GER) 3 goals in the tournament
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