Germany win Four-Nation Hockey Final, New Zealand win Bronze
Germany won the final of the Four-Nation Hockey Tournament against England in what was a repeat of their group stage performance against the hosts. The game was tied after 70 minutes of play and it took a golden goal for the Germans to defeat England at home on Monday.
Earlier in the day, New Zealand clinched the third place in a play-off against Japan after losing all three of their opening games. Japan looked good to win another game against New Zealand when they scored twice in the first half. Tomonori Ono scored both the goals, one from a penalty corner and the other from a layoff by Sakamoto.
New Zealand seemed helpless in the opening half but they turned things around in the second period. Stephen Jenness produced a spectacular volley in 46th minute to score the first goal and a minute later, Steve Edwards blasted a low reverse hit into the far post to equalize. In the 60th minute of the match, New Zealand took the lead when Andrew Hayward dispatched a penalty corner high into the net. Two minutes later, Jenness wrapped things up for Black Sticks when he scored his second goal of the game through a well worked penalty corner.
Later in the day, the hosts England surrendered a 2 goal lead to Germany who came from behind to win the final in a closely fought 3-2. Germany tested the England goalkeeper early on but the hosts were quick to respond when Ashley Jackson led a counter attack and fed Simon Mantell who won an early penalty corner. The Germans did well to fend off the attack through their swarming defenders in the circle.
The moment of delight for the local crowd came when Barry Middleton produced the goal of the tournament in the third minute. Middleton picked up a loose ball from the German defence and made a run towards the goal. As he entered the area, the goalkeeper Max Weinhold charged off his line to block the attempt but Middleton disguised his shot and chipped it over the keeper’s head and into the goal.
England mustered a few more attacks and put the ball into the goal once more before the umpire spotted an infringement and ruled it out. In very next minute, England won a penalty corner and James Tindall dispatched a powerful shot from Kirkham’s injection into the goal through the legs of Weinhold.
Germany showed flair and forced a few saves from Fair but they failed to score during the first half and England went into the halftime with a 2 goal lead intact.
The Germans started the second half with a majority of the possession. After ten minutes into the second half, Germany won their second penalty corner and Linus Butt opened the scoring for Germany. On the other end, Tindall and Brogdon troubled the keeper on a few occasions in an attempt to extend their lead. Weinhold made another important save from the penalty corner when Jackson flicked the ball at the target.
With only six minutes remaining, the Germans came up with their second goal to equalize the score. Martin Zwicker gathered a ball in the circle after some scrappy play from the British side which allowed the Germans to put the ball past the helpless keeper. In the last minute of extra-time, Jackson took another shot on goal from a penalty corner which was deflected away by the German keeper to send the match into extra-time.
England carried their dominating play into injury time and gave the German defence a scare early on with a blocked shot and a penalty corner attempt that flew off the post. In the last minute of first extra-time period, Germany won two back-to-back corners and Montag took the lead from the second attempt to secure the championship.
England Captain Barry Middleton expressed his disappointment after the loss and said that the game was very close and despite the fact that there were certain areas for them to work on, they were happy to be competitive against the second best team in the world.
Tags: