Gluckwunsch, Germany!

10/03/2002

GERMANY finally lifted the World Cup trophy after nine unsuccessful
attempts at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil last night.
But you can say that they have nine lives as they came back from a goal
down and in the second half, the Aussies were left wondering what hit them
as they limped to the sidelines as the final whistle blew.
The Germans fell flat on the turf and there was much hugging and kissing
going on but Sascha Reinelt, who played a sterling role to hand Germany
their first title, stole the limelight by climbing on the goalmouth and
sat on the bar.
Then they held hands and formed a straight line facing their fans. After
a short sprint, they dived, and slid towards the sideline as the crowd
cheered them to a deafening roar.
Australia started with 10 strikers as even fullbacks Bevan George and
Matthew Wells made some superb runs into the German semicircle, but stout
defending by skipper Florian Kunz and Philipp Crone stopped the Aussies
from getting the goal which they worked so hard for.
Germany were not their usual confident side as they were reduced to
defending as the Australian players went for an early goal to break them.
The only good move by Germany was in the fifth minute when Christoph
Bechmann made a backstick attempt at goal but Aussie goalkeeper Lachlan
Dreher only had to ward off the ball.
Australia were in total control of the match for the first 15 minutes as
they troubled goalkeeper Clemens Arnold with well-placed shots, but from
the stands, it was clear that the Aussies were only testing the waters.
By the 29th minute, the capacity crowd at the National Hockey Stadium
had yet to make their pick on which team to support as they cheered every
good move towards goal.
As for the Germans, they picked the left side to launch their attacks,
and they had to use their reverse stick to take shots at goal.
In the 23rd minute, Matthias Witthaus came close to giving Germany the
lead when his deflection headed towards the goalmouth, hit the post and
went out. That was the only serious attack from the Germans.
Australia won the first penalty corner of the match in the 25th minute
but the ball went straight to goalkeeper Arnold and off the clearance,
Germany's Dr Michael Green mounted a swift counter attack and only luck
sided the Aussies as they miraculously survived Oliver Domke's darting run
and sizzling shot at goal.
But in the 32nd minute, Australia won their second penalty corner and
this time they tried a variation with Matthew Wells doing a dummy and Troy
Elder pushing in for the goal. Even German goalkeeper Arnolds gestured
skyward with his hands signaling that there is no way he could have saved
that one.
But Germany, true to what their coach Bernhard Peters said, made a
tremendous comeback into the match after that and with a minute left in
the first half, they won a hard-fought penalty corner.
The towering fullback Florian Kunz did not bat an eyelid as he sent in a
sizzler crashing into the net and Germany were back in the game.
Upon resumption it was clear that the 18,000-odd crowd were not there to
support a particular team, but hockey played at its highest level by two
top proponents of the modern game.
Australia earned three penalty corners in a spate of five minutes but
the German runners made sure that the ball never got off the stick of
Elder, and the score remained tied with only eight minutes left in the
match.
Then the twin terrors of Germany - Reinelt and Domke - brought down the
house in the 64th minute with a field goal which the fans will long
remember and talk about over beers.
Reinelt made a pass from the right and it was connected, like an ice-
hockey pug, by Bjorn Michael towards Domke who sneaked it past a rushing
Australian goalkeeper Dreher, and it was all over for the Aussies.
RESULTS AT A GLANCE
FINAL
GERMANY 2 AUSTRALIA 1
Florian Kunz (34th) Troy Elder (30th)
Oliver Domke (64th)
THIRD-FOURTH PLACING
NETHERLANDS 2 SOUTH KOREA 1
Sander van der Weide (68th) Song Seung Tae (9th)
Jaap Derk Buma (73rd)
(END)