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Olympic champions Germany sealed their 2014 Rabobank World Cup berth in style, thrashing hosts Malaysia 6-0 to progress to the semi-finals of the 2nd men’s FIH Hockey World League Round 3 tournament being played in Johor Bahru.
Playing in front of a 3, 500 noisy crowd, Germany were undaunted by the prospect of the majority of the fans rooting for Malaysia as they lived to their billing, dishing out champions stuff to ride roughshod over their opponents.
They took the lead in the fourth minute through a penalty corner goal by Christopher Zeller – ensuring he has scored in all the matches so far. Linus Butt capitalised on another short corner four minutes later to stun the home crowd to silence.
The Germans wasted little time celebrating as they struck the third goal in the same minute through Moritz Polk. Zeller further compounded the woes of the Malaysians, converting another penalty corner to notch up his fifth goal of the tournament in the 13th minute.
Malaysia were clearly rattled by the early German onslaught as the white-and-black brigade continued to punch holes in their defence.
Skipper Moritz Fuertse, who guided Ranchi Rhinos to glory in the inaugural Hero Hockey India League earlier this year, got his name on the score sheet in the 16th minute as Germans threatened to run away with the match.
The score line read 6-0 in the 18th minute as Thilo Stralkowski pumped home the sixth goal. Germany’s overwhelming dominance pointed to a massive win for Germany, but Malaysia regrouped to tighten its defence and ensured the score line remained the same at half-time.
The home side struggled to create goals in the second half but at least managed to deny Germany any more goals as they went down 0-6 much to the disappointment of the animated supporters.
In another match, Pakistan once again brought their erratic ways to the fore after crushing South Africa in their earlier match.
Pakistan begun on an impressive note, netting two goals through Waqas and Muhammad Tousiq inside the first 16 minutes.
Kweon Kang Moon struck twice to level the scores 2-2 before the green-shirts pulled ahead again through experienced Shakeel Abbasi.
Woo Nam Hyun fired home a short corner to even things up before Jin Young Kim scored in the 49th minute to help his side take a 4-3 lead.
Korea kept Pakistan at bay for the 20-odd minutes and emerged 4-3 winners.
In another game, England crushed Japan 5-0.
Mark Gleghorne and Captain Barry Middleton sounded the board in the first half, while Harry Martin, Simon Mantell and Dan Fox scored in the second half.
In the semi-finals, Germany take on Korea, while England play Argentina.
