Germany to meet Australia in World Cup final

Published Fri, Mar 12 10 12:47 AM

Holders Germany will meet Australia in the men's hockey World Cup final on Saturday for the third successive tournament.

Olympic champions Germany thrashed England 4-1 in the first semi-final on Thursday to stay on course for a third straight title. World number two Australia, beaten in 2002 and 2006 by Germany, then edged out Netherlands 2-1 in a closely fought contest.

Germany led 3-1 at halftime and defended solidly in the second half to stay undefeated in the tournament at a packed Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium.

"The whole team played well," said man of the match Matthias Witthaus. "Now we are looking forward to win the World Cup. With this performance there are possibilities."

Germany were 2-0 up by the 11th minute through Jan-Marco Montag and Oliver Korn.

Montag converted a penalty corner for his third goal of the tournament while Korn dived to deflect the ball successfully for an opportunistic goal.

England, who beat Germany in the final of the European championship last year, rallied strongly and scored through Richard Smith before Martin Haner scored Germany's third goal. Linus Butt added a fourth goal 10 minutes from time.

"We were just awesome together. We defended solidly as a team and allowed just one goal," said Haner.

Luke Doerner scored his seventh goal of the tournament and Glenn Turner his sixth to put Australia on top against the Dutch before penalty corner specialist Taeke Taekema replied.

"We knew it wasn't going to be easy. But with goals on the board we defended reasonably well," man of the match Grant Schubert said.

The Dutch played aggressively but could not find an equaliser.

"It is disappointing," goalkeeper Guus Vogels said. "We tried until the end," added Vogels who announced that Saturday's bronze medal match against England would be his last international game.

Canada beat former champions Pakistan 3-2 in extra time to finish 11th in the 12-team competition. Scott Tupper struck the golden goal in extra time.

Source: Web Search