Hockeyroos Unstuck by Germany

Australia’s World Cup dreams have come to an end after losing to Germany 1-0 today in Argentina.

The Hockeyroos needed to win today to finish second in their pool and qualify for the semi finals. They will now play Korea for fifth place on Friday.

Things began disastrously for the Hockeyroos when Germany found the back of the net after only two minutes. However after Australia used their video referral the goal was disallowed, ensuring the scores remained nil all.

Despite only needing a draw to progress to the semi finals, Germany started the more aggressive team, seemingly looking for an early goal to mount the pressure on Australia.

Thanks to some brilliant efforts in defence from Nicole Arrold, Australia eventually steadied and began to produce some circle penetrations. However they were unable to generate any legitimate shots on goal thanks to Germany’s solid defence.

Germany continued to push for their opening goal, with Hockeyroos goalkeeper Rachael Lynch called on several times to make some great saves.

Turning defence into attack, the Hockeyroos worked their way on top in the final 10 minutes of the half, controlling the play and beginning to apply some pressure of their own around goal. Their best chance of the half came with Casey Eastham crossed the ball from the baseline, however no one was there to receive it and Germany were given a let off.

Despite controlling the final minutes the Hockeyroos were unable to produce a goal, with the scores remained tied as the teams entered half time.

Germany started the second half in the same fashion as they did the first, putting the Australian defence under pressure as they searched for the first goal of the game.

When Kate Hollywood was sent from the field for two minutes after receiving a green card Germany took full advantage, drawing a penalty corner which was converted by Tina Bachmann to give them the crucial lead.

With plenty of time still left on the clock the Hockeyroos gave it their all in search of the two goals they would need to qualify them for the semi finals. Despite their brave efforts and generating two penalty corners in the last 15 minutes, they were unable to do so and will miss the opportunity to play Argentina in the semi finals on Thursday.

Hockeyroos coach Frank Murray said that while he is obviously disappointed with the way his team played today, the Hockeyroos must now turn their attention to improving for the 2012 London Olympics.

“Obviously we are disappointed; not only in the result but in the way we played. In our view we didn’t play to our potential today, we turned the ball over far too easily in the middle of the field and we have a fair bit of work between now and London, so we look forward to that. Obviously we have the game against Korea to get over first, and then we have the Commonwealth Games but it’s now about finding a group for London and making sure we have the players with the ability and the physical capacity to play these types of games at this type of tournament,” said Murray.

Hockeyroos captain Madonna Blyth said Australia’s inability to score was the most disappointing factor from the match.

“We are obviously very disappointed that we couldn’t score, we did make a few chances but I think that our awareness in the circle both in attack in defence let us down. We created a few more opportunities in the second half and a few more corners but we didn’t have too many shots that really worried them. That is something that we have really worked on so to not do it tonight in such a big match was disappointing,” said Blyth.

Hockey Australia