S2H Team
Germany scored one of their most memorable successes over arch rivals The Netherlands over the weekend. Die Honamas humbled the Oranje in both FIH Pro League matches at the iconic Wagener Stadion in Amstelveen, winning the second on Sunday 3-1 to add to 4-2 achieved on Saturday.
Justus Weigand scored two goals (11th and 51st minutes) while Mats Grambusch hammered in the third with a minute left after Dutch goalkeeper Pirmin Blaak, playing his 100th international, left the pitch for an outfield player.
Seve van Ass scored a peach of goal to level scores in the 38th minute, running the ball around the edge of the circle before entering the area and firing in past the goalkeeper.
The second win took the Germans to fourth place, thus displacing India who slip to fifth. Kais Al-Saidi’s team now have 13 points from six matches and while humbling the Dutch in two back-to-back matches have won bragging rights and a psychological advantage ahead of important contests coming up – the EuroHockey Championship and the Olympic Games where they have the Oranje for company in the pool.
The Dutch will ruefully look back at the two defeats in as many days as, now, they will have lost significant ground to Belgium, the table leaders, who have 32 points from 13 matches. The Netherlands have 18 from 11 and look unlikely to overtake the Red Lions. In third place are Australia, the defending champions, with 14 from eight matches.
Germany outdid the Netherlands in circle penetrations (20-16) and penalty corners (5-2) and pulled through difficult phases like the last quarter where they coped with three green card suspensions.
Not only did they keep their goal intact but regained the lead as Weigand scored his second after Martin Haner was sent to the sin bin.
The Dutch appeared to re-invent themselves after Saturday’s disappointment but Germany showed the propensity to shift momentum and Player-of-the-Match Christopher Ruhr went close to scoring within a minute – hitting Blaak’s right post in the seventh minute and then firing wide the next.
The Germans rarely allowed the Dutch to organize their pretty little triangular patterns and were quick to make the play in and around the 23-metre zone, the pressure yielding five penalty corners in the first half, three of which were thwarted by Blaak.
“When you (look at) our last one or two years, I wasn’t 100 percent sure that we would win twice in the Netherlands”, said Germany attacker Christopher Rühr, who was named Player of the Match. “We have developed very well as a team in the past few weeks, and that has shown today and yesterday. I think we put in 100 percent in both games, and that is very important against a strong Netherlands side, because we know it is always tough against them.”
Dutch goal-scorer Seve van Ass said: “Obviously we are here to win games, although I think today was a bit different to yesterday. I felt we had control today in most parts of the game. The first half maybe not so much, but definitely in the second half, where we felt really in control. At 1-1 I felt we were going to push through to 2-1. They had some cards, and we missed that opportunity.”
Germany travel to Argentina to play the next league match on April 3 followed by another the next day.
Netherlands won the women’s match 3-0 played earlier in the day to consolidate their position at the top of the table with 29 points from 10 matches. Argentina are second with 17 from eight. Germany lie seventh with six from four.
The United States play Australia on April 3 in the next match of the league while Argentina take on Germany the same day.
FIH Hockey Pro League
Sunday 7 March 2021 – Amstelveen (NED)
Women’s result: Netherlands 3, Germany 0 (Match 2 of 2)
Player of the Match: Lidewij Welten (NED)
Umpires: Celine Martin-Schmetz (BEL), Coen van Bunge (NED) and Jonas van ‘t Hek (NED – video)
Men’s result: Netherlands 1, Germany 3 (Match 2 of 2)
Player of the Match: Christopher Rühr (GER)
Umpires: Laurine Delforge (BEL), Jonas van ‘t Hek (NED) and Coen van Bunge (NED – video)