Germany survive scare

Prabhjot Singh

Tribune News Service

Defending champions Germany survived some anxious moments and a scare to get past Argentina in their third pool A match at Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium here tonight. Pan-Americans were on the attack, needing a goal to square up with their more fancied opponents, when they ran out of the time to end the game as gallant losers at 3-4 in perhaps one of the best and well fought matches in the tournament so far.

Germany, who split points with Korea in their first game, have now seven points and are behind pool leaders the Netherlands with maximum nine points from three games. Germany started with a flourish taking the lead in the opening minute of the game as a follow up of a brilliant understanding between Witthaus and Martin Zwicker, who shared among themselves three of the four goals Germany scored today.

It was Martin Zwicker, who did the mop up operations of the first assault on Argentine goal initiated by Witthaus. Stung by the reverse, Pan Americans shot back, when Lucas Martin Vila, got past the packed German defence to restore parity.

Matching their opponents move by move, Argentines were unlucky not to end the day by sharing honours as they had a couple of brilliant moves in the last five minutes but were unlucky not to get past Tim Jussalat, the German goalkeeper, who executed at least a couple of brilliant saves.

Argentina was first to get a penalty corner in the seventh minute that went waste and Germany got its first five minutes later.

It was from the second penalty corner that Martin Zwicker, on the right flank deflected in the flick taken by Martin Haner for Germany’s second goal

A minute later, Witthaus made it 3-1 with a brilliant goal. Even after conceding 1-3 lead, Argentina continued with its top performance of the tournament. It was the spirited fight back that saw Mathias Paredes to score from their third penalty corner to make the score 2-3 before the game broke for half time.

While crisp and fast exchanges continued to provide a rich feast of vintage hockey, Germany took advantage of their third penalty corner in the 50th minute to score through Martin Haner. Up 4-2, it looked as if Germany would wrap the match comfortably.

But Argentina had different plans. They wanted to match their superior opponents and give them back whatever they had got.

In the 54th minute from their fourth penalty corner, Argentina inched in closer with a brilliant penalty corner conversion by Pedro Ibera. They did try for the fourth and the equalizer but luck was not with them