MELBOURNE: Reigning world and Olympic champions Germany got their Champions Trophy campaign off on a winning start with a 3-2 victory over England on the opening day of the tournament on Saturday.
The Germans stretched their unbeaten run against England at the top six-ranked teams tournament to three with the winning goal by captain Maximilian Muller four minutes from fulltime.
The nine-time Champion Trophy winners won both their previous encounters 2-0 at the 1995 and 2001 tournaments.
Germany opened the scoring when Christoph Menke collected a loose ball in England’s defensive circle and made a backstick drive into goal, with England’s deep defence out of position.
England replied from its second penalty corner chance, Ashley Jackson driving a flat backstick hit from the top of the circle for James Tindall to deflect in at the left post.
Jan-Marco Montag’s conversion of Germany’s third penalty corner, high into the right of the net to go 2-1 up, looked to have stamped Germany’s authority on the match.
But Jackson equalised with a quick, low penalty stroke into the left side of goal to get England back in the match.
Muller, who converted Germany’s seventh penalty corner in the final minutes, said his team had difficulty in adapting to the pitch.
“We played indoor hockey in Germany last weekend and we had difficulty today stopping bouncing balls,” he said.
“The tempo of the match was not as fast as we played in the European Championships and we can play much faster than we did today.”
England coach Jason Lee was relaxed about his team’s first-up loss.
“I am not really that attached to the result as we are targeting the (2010) World Cup and this is just a tournament along the way,” he said.
Australia take on South Korea in the second match later Saturday followed by Spain against Netherlands.