Thursday, July 4, 2013

Class act from Germany..

OLYMPIC champions and World No 1 Germany rubbed Malaysia's nose on the Taman Daya turf when they outclassed the hosts 6-0 in the World League Semi-finals yesterday.
  The famous hammering not only saw Germany reaching the semi-finals, but also qualifying for the World Cup next year.
  Germany will play South Korea, who beat Pakistan 4-3, in the semi-finals.
  It was a nightmarish start for Malaysia as they conceded six goals in 18 minutes to Germany and the match was over even before it started.
  The Germans were in fantastic form as they never even allowed Malaysia out of their own half, and scored off their first penalty corner in the fouth Minute and Christopher Zeller nailed the lead.
  And then the floodgates opened as the Germans scored at will as goalkeeper S. Kumar and his defenders were totally off form.
  Linus Butt (eighth), Moritz Polk (ninth), Christopher Zeller (12th), Moritz Furste (16th) and Thio stralkowski (18th) completed the first half rout.
  And in the second half, even though Malaysia woke up from their slumber and started attacking, the German defense held stout.
  The capacity crowd, about 5,000, kept cheering and singing motivational songs, but Malaysia had lost the match in 18 minutes, and there was no turning back the German tsunami.
  Malaysia play Pakistan in the Fifth-Eight classification match tomorrow.
  England also hammered the daylights out of Japan to not only cruise into the semi-finals, but also the World Cup, on a 5-0 score.
  And they will play Argentina in the last four, after the Argies beat South Africa 2-0 in the other quarter-finals.
  In a complicated World League calculation, England and Germany are assured of a spot in the World Cup next year even if they finish fourth in Johor Baru, as in the first World League semi-finals in the Netherlands, the hosts also qualified when they finished third and left the fourth spot open to the highest ranked team in both the semi-finals.
  New Zealand finished fourth in Netherlands, but they are ranked World No 6, while Germany are No 1 and England No 4.
  Argentina are world No 10, while South Korea No 8 so they must finish top three to qualify.
  RESULTS: Quarter-finals -- Argentina 2 South Africa 0; England 5 Japan 0; Pakistan 3 South Korea 4; Germany 6 Malaysia 0.
  TODAY: REST DAY
  TOMORROW: Fifth-Eight: South Africa v Japan (2.45pm); Pakistan v Malaysia (5pm).
  Semi-finals: Argentina v England (7.15pm); Germany v South Korea (9.30pm).