Kookaburras return to Olympic gold medal game after defeating Germany in semifinal

World number one Kookaburras including WAIS graduates Aran Zalewski, Tom Wickham and Trent Mitton have secured a spot in the gold medal game with a dominant 3-1 win over Germany.

The win puts the Kookaburras within grasp of just their second Olympic gold medal after winning the 2004 title. First though they must face world number two, Belgium in the highly anticipated final.

Kookaburras Head Coach Colin Batch believes the Kookaburras are ready to face Belgium.

“Germany are a very hard and experienced team, they are very good in these situations so for us perform like that tonight will hold us in good stead for the Final,” Batch said.

“At the review after our quarter final the guys said they were a bit nervous, the threat of losing that match and being out of the tournament was there, but tonight they felt freer to play.”

“We are learning all the time, for many of the players they haven’t gone through this pressure situation.

“We keep improving and to experience that tonight against a good German side that has improved enormously in the last 12 months, is a great credit.”

The victory was all the more sweeter with co-captain Aran Zalewski celebrating his 200th international game for Australia.

“I will probably look back later in my career and look fondly on this night. At the time I didn’t think too much about it, there are bigger things at play with the semi-final of the Olympic Games,” Zalewski said.

“It was a full collective effort today, we finished our chances and denied them as best we could – we’re really happy with that result.

“Just to know that we can do it, play scrappy when we have to. Not every game is going to go your way, when you are leading it seems to be the pressure is on you and the other team has nothing to lose so they come at you.

“The boys held really strong – it was great to get the result we wanted tonight.”

It was a dream start to the semifinal with a goal in the opening minutes, before Germany managed to equalise 1-1 in the first 10 minutes. Before long the Kookaburras were back in front taking a 2-1 lead in to the half time break.

The score remained until the closing minutes when a desperate German team withdrew their goalkeeper to try and level the scores. The move backfired with Australia countering a failed penalty corner to put the result beyond doubt.