Netherlands and Germany win their first game of Hamburg Masters 4-Nation Hockey Tournamen
Netherlands and Germany won their opening matches on the first day of Hamburg Masters 4-Nation Hockey Tournament played in Germany. The other teams in the tournament are India and Japan.
In the first match of the day, Netherlands defeated India by 6 goals to 3. Netherlands, the bronze medal winners in the World Cup, fielded a younger team. It included 8 players from the last Junior World Cup played in Singapore and Malaysia. Three players made their debut in senior international hockey matches. India, joint winners of the Azlan Shah Cup with South Korea, also came up with a younger side.
The match started with the Dutch side dominating the game, and they were able to score their first goal in the 9th minute of the game (Dutch forward Bob de Voogd scored off a cross from Verga). Robbert Kemperman scored another goal in the 18th minute to double the lead by 2-0. India scored on a penalty corner (when Rajpal Singh was fouled) in the 18th minute to minimize the lead by one goal. The Dutch side played some majestic hockey in the last 15 minutes of the first half, and scored 2 goals to make the score-line 4-1 at the end of first half.
India started the next half with enthusiasm, as Sandeep Singh scored on a penalty corner in the 8th minute of the second half. Mink ven der Weerden scored in the 11th minute of the second half when the third penalty corner was awarded to the Dutch side. By this goal, a 5-2 lead was attained by the bronze medal holders, and Indian hopes were all but dying by then. Ravi Pal managed to score the third goal for India on the pass of Dharamvir Singh. In the last 10 minutes of the game, Jonker scored Netherlands’ last goal that proved to be the final goal of the match. Netherland defeated India by 6-3 to gain 3 points from this match.
Netherlands’ new coach Paul van a*s, who has taken the responsibilities after the World Cup, was satisfied with his team’s performance despite some clear misses from the front line. The Spanish coach of India, Jose Brasa, was of the view that to win the upcoming matches, his team should emphasize on more and more passes.
The 2nd match of the day was played between Olympic Champions Germany and Asian side Japan. Japan took the initial lead in the 10th minute of the match, when Japanese striker Hiroki Sakamoto deflected the wonderful pass of his captain Kazuhiro Tsubouchi into the goal post. Few minutes later, German superstar Christopher Zeller scored an equalizer on a penalty corner awarded to Germany. Three minutes later, he again managed to score his second as well as Germany’s second goal over Japan. In the last 10 minutes of the game, the Japanese side played with more vigour and manage to equalize in the last minute of the half when Kazuhiro Tsubouchi scored on a penalty corner. At the end of first half, the score was level at 2-2.
Germany started the 2nd half in search of getting three points out of the first game, but the guests put up a good show and defended many German attacks. European stamina and energy was visible in the last part of the second half. Germans increased their attacks and the Asians start losing their ground. Germany scored three goals in the last 12 minutes of the match. Oskar Deecke, Christopher Menke and Kenji Kitazato scored beautiful field goals in 58th, 67th and 68th minute of the match respectively. With the last strike, Germans were able to win this match by a considerable margin of 3 goals. The score-line at the end of match was Germany 6 and Japan 3. With this victory, the German side grasped all three points from this match.
European Hockey teams played like their country-mates in the Football FIFA World Cup, 2010, where Netherlands and Germany won their quarterfinals to march into the semifinals of the World Cup. Tomorrow, two matches are to be played in Hamburg Masters, where Germany will face India and Japan will play against the Dutch side.
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