BY TERRY MADDAFORD
In New Delhi
Two-time losers by the odd goal at the previous two World Cup finals against Germany, the Australian bridesmaids finally got to take centre-stage with a richly-deserved 2-1 win at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium last night.
And to complete a good night for Oceania countries, New Zealand picked up the Fair Play award at the 12th World Cup.
Played at frenetic pace throughout and with a fair proportion of the near-capacity crowd doing their best to urge the Germans to a third successive Cup triumph, the game was eventually decided 10 minutes from time with an almost obligatory Luke Doerner penalty corner.
After withstanding an open flurry from a German attack who carved through seemingly at will to get in behind the eager Australian defence, the Kookaburras sent their band of supporters wild after just six minutes when Eddie Ockenden swooped to get his stick to the ball and push it into the German goal.
With few clear scoring chances at either end, apart from unsuccessful penalty corners efforts from German Martin Haner and Doerner, the teams turned without addition in a game which seemed destined at that stage to be the lowest-scoring of the tournament.
It was not until the 49th minute the Germans set the stadium alight when from their second penalty corner, and with a useful variation, Moritz Furste converted his second goal of the tournament.
Midway through the spell Grant Schubert was just wide from the top of the circle as Australia went in search of another go-ahead goal.
It came eventually from the third of the four corners they earned in the match as Doerner dragged home his eighth of the tournament to finish top equal of the goal-scoring list with Taeke Taekema.
Three minutes later as his team went in search of the equaliser, German captain Max Muller, who later took the Man of Steel award as the tournament’s top defender, won his team a vital penalty corner but the variation and second phase effort was kept out by goalkeeper Nathan Burgers’ well-positioned glove.
In quickly turning defence into attack, Australia went close at the other end, denied only by desperate German defence.
It was a fitting end to a World Cup at which some outstanding hockey was played.
Australia’s triumph ended 24-year wait for a second title. They last won in London in 1986 when they beat hosts England by that same 2-1 scoreline.
Earlier, the Dutch scored first and last but had to bounce back from 1-3 at halftime to beat the English 4-3 in the bronze medal match.
And, they did it with only minimal help from drag flick exponent Taekema whose sole contribution came with his 48th minute strike in converting the Netherlands only penalty corner of the match.
England dominated the first half but, somewhat surprisingly, fell behind in the 23rd minute when the world’s most experienced player Teun de Nooijer -- in his seventh game here and an amazing 419th altogether -- gathered a ball from Robert van der Horst who had broken from midfield and scored.
Earlier, England had a chance to open the scoring in the 12th minute but a good save from Guus Vogels in the Dutch goal denied them. Vogels, playing the last of 260 games for his country, was honoured with the captain’s armband, and turned in another solid effort. His night got even better when he was later named both the goalkeeper and player of the tournament.
Two minutes later the Netherlands appeared to have opened the scoring but the goal was disallowed by the video umpire.
Stung, by de Nooijer’s strike, England hit back a minute later to punish the flat-footed Dutch when Alistair Brogden scored. Two successful Ashley Jackson penalty corner strikes in the 31st and 35th minutes -- the first following a referral to the video umpire as the English successful protested a Dutch foot -- stretched England’s lead to a handy 3-1 at the break.
Taekema’s goal, after firing the ball into the bottom corner of James Fair’s goal, in the 48th minute closed the gap and earned the 30-year-old his 21st all-time World Cup goal to see him join another Dutchman Ties Kruize on that number. They remain five behind the World Cup’s leading all-time goalscorer Paul Litjens (also from the Netherlands) who scored 15 at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina.
Fourteen minutes from time the Dutch got to 3-3 when a shot from Klaas Vermeulen took a deflection from an English stick before nestling in the goal.
With both teams determinedly chasing the winner, it was the Dutch, who at one time were reduced to nine players with two sidelined after being shown green cards, who struck in the 68th minute when Rogier Hofman pounced on a loose ball and hit home.
They held out the brave British before charging to join their band of faithful fans and celebrate their second bronze medal -- eight years after their first. It followed gold in 1998 and silver in 1978 and 1994 and left England to contemplate their best effort since they won their only medal. It was a fourth loss in five matches for England in World Cup meetings with the Netherlands.
The win snapped a three-match losing streak for the Dutch here -- the longest since they lost four in a row, including the bronze match against Australia, in 1982.
Results
Final: Australia 2 (Eddie Ockenden, Luke Doerner) Germany 1 (Moritz Furste). HT: 1-0.
Bronze match: Netherlands 4 (Teun de Nooijer, Taeke Taekema, Klass Vermeulen, Rogier Hofman) England 3 (Alistair Brogden, Ashley Jackson 2). HT: 1-3.
5th-6th: Spain 2 (Pol Amat 2) South Korea 0. HT:
7th-8th: 4 (Tomas Argento Innocente, Lucas Martin Vila 2, Facundo Callioni) India 2 (Sandeep Singh, Shivendra Singh). HT: 1-0.
9th-10th: New Zealand 4 (Hugo Inglis, Andy Hayward 3) South Africa 4 (Justin Reid-Ross, Lloyd Norris-Jones, Taine Paton, Thomas Hammond). HT: 0-1. New Zealand won 5-4 on penalty strokes after extra time.
11th-12th: Canada 3 (Connor Grimes, Mark Pearson, Scott Tupper) Pakistan 2 (Rehan Butt, Akhtar Ali). HT: 1-1. FT: 2-2 (Canada won with golden goal in extra time).
ENDS
