Burras Clipped by Germany
Australia’s U21 men, the Burras, will not contest the medal places at the 2013 Junior World Cup after they lost 4-3 to defending champions Germany in the quarter-finals on Thursday night.
National Junior Coach Paul Gaudion declared after the match he was “extremely proud” of Australia’s performance saying, “The desire and fight the boys showed tonight was excellent. We gave ourselves a great chance to win against a very good team – a team we should perhaps have met later on in the tournament.
“We were very well planned and although we couldn’t quite carry out those plans fully the boys played their hearts out.”
The defeat leaves Australia facing New Zealand on Friday in the first of two matches that will determine their final classification position, from fifth to eighth. Gaudoin added, “We’re aiming for fifth place now; that’s the best we can do. We’ll lick our wounds tonight and then refocus in the morning. There are lots of lessons we can learn from tonight and I hope that the guys will understand how to take the experience of tonight and apply it to becoming Kookaburras in the future”
Victorian Will Gilmour had given the Burras an early lead with a swept strike inside the near post but the sides went in tied at the break after Christopher Ruhr’s penalty corner levelled for Germany.
An evenly balanced contest between two previous winners of the tournament exploded into life midway through the second half with five goals scored in a remarkable final 15 minute period.
No sooner had Dieter-Enrique Linnekogel put Germany ahead for the first time just over midway through the second half Queenslander Dylan Wotherspoon drilled a low shot into the bottom corner to make it 2-2. But less than 60 seconds later Germany were ahead again after a well worked team goal unlocked the Aussie defence.
As the match entered its final five minutes and with Australia chasing an equaliser, the Burras threw the dice. Removing goalkeeper Andrew Butturini to play with an additional outfield player they were caught out almost immediately as Niklas Wellens made it 4-2.
Wotherspoon’s bundled close range goal with a minute remaining gave the Burras a glimmer of hope but there was to be no grandstand finish.
Australia’s Burras will meet New Zealand’s Junior Black Sticks at 5:45pm local time (11:15pm AEDT / 8:15pm AWST) on Friday as they begin the two match playoff for positions 5-8.
On Sunday, the winner will face the winner of the match between Belgium and Korea for fifth and sixth places, while the loser will play the loser of the Belgium – Korea fixture for seventh and eighth spots.
-HockeyAustralia
