GERMANY 7 IRELAND 0
Germany showing 6 changes from their opening game in the London stage against India, are the current World Cup holders, and were up against World ranked #11Ireland, currently in bottom place in the FIH PRO League table.
Elian Mazkour gave Germany the lead in the 17th minute to make it Germany 1 Ireland 0. Germany then went on to score two goals in around a minute. Malte Hellwig increased their lead in the 28th minute to2-0 with Captain Marco Miltkau making it 3-0 a minute later and they led 3-0 at half-time. Marco Miltkau got his second field goal of the game to put Germany4-0 in the 42nd minute. Malte Hellwig converted a 52nd minute penalty corner to make it 6-0 and Thies Prinz with a field goal in the 54th minute made it 7-0.
Germany went into this, their fifth game of the campaign in sixth place having lost one game in normal time, been beaten twice in shootouts following drawn matches and with two wins to their name.
Ireland went into this their fourteenth game of the campaign in ninth place having only won two games with six points and three difficult fixtures, including this one, to see out the series. Both these teams came into this game on the back of heavy defeats. India thumped Germany 3-0 yesterday and Ireland had been on the wrong end of a 1-5 score line against Great Britain.
The first quarter was reasonably close and scoreless, with no penalty corners and very few opportunities for either team and gave little or no indication of what was to come. In the second quarter over all Ireland had abetter showing but ended up conceding three goals without reply. Elian Mazkour capitalized on a rebound from a Jamie Carr save. While the Irish keeper was trying to find out where the ball was Mazkour pounced to give the World Cupholders the lead. Ireland enjoyed a purple patch thereafter forcing along corner in the 18th minute and generally holding their own. But the errors happened, and Germany were not ones to look gift horses in the mouth. In the 28th minute Malte Hellwig increased their lead. Thies Prinz capitalized on a turnover of possession and sent a through pass into the Irish semi-circle and Hellwig rifled into the top corner of Jamie Carr’s net. They further increased their lead in the 29th minute when Marco Miltkau the captain, scored. After yet another turnover of possession, Elian Mazkour’s pass was finished to the net by Miltkau to make it 3-0. Germany goalkeeper Jean-Paul Danneberg denied Ireland a possible goal in the closing seconds of the half. So, Ireland went in at half-time having played marginally better in quarter two but three goals worse off.
Things went from bad to worse in the third quarter Marco Miltkau was left unmarked in the 42nd minute and had the easiest of tasks to make it 4-0. A pass by Shane O’Donoghue across the face of his own goal was capitalized on by Timm Herzbruch who pounced and rifled the ball high into the net past Jamie Carr. Germany then had a goal ruled out when Malte Hellwig hit his penalty corner high into the net but without the ball hitting the backboard first. Ireland finished the third quarter with a pair of penalty corners but neither of Shane O’Donoghue’s drag flicks found the goal. In the48th minute Carr saved another German penalty corner, but they finally scored one in the 52nd minute through Malte Hellwig.
Ben Walker found himself inside the German semi-circle soon afterwards and his shot forced Jean-Paul Danneberg to dive to his right for only his second real save of the day. This proved to be Ireland’s best chance of the game. Sean Murray was dispossessed by Constantin Staib and the ball ran into the path of Thies Prinz who scored from open play in the 54th minute to make it 7-0 to Germany.
Matthew Nelson broke into the German semi-circle and shot to force another save from Danneberg in the German goal. And in the dying seconds of the game Ireland were once more on the attack and inside the semi-circle but the final hooter went before they could fire a shot in anger. The game ended Germany 7 Ireland 0.
After the match Head Coach Mark Tumilty said:
“I was very pleased with how we played in Quarter 2 in the first 12 minutes. And then again today individual errors set in. We shot ourselves in the foot. We didn’t do ourselves any favours with that performance today. They were exceptional in the circle today. These teams just capitalize on errors , same as GB did yesterday.”
“We need to stick to our own process and our own way of playing while at the same time adapting to the way our opponents are playing. That’s the challenge we face at this moment. And if you don’t get your performance up to the highest level, against this calibre of opposition, you get punished and we deserved to be punished for some of the mistakes we made out there on the pitch.”
“There have been phases of play, in both games over the past few days, that have been pleasing but we need to have more of those phases. And we need to recognise what’s stopping us having more phases of good play. We tend to go from one extreme to another. The challenge is to learn from it and finish this block (of games) and finish on a high.”
“It’s a tough lesson but sometimes I think that you always learn more from defeats than you do from winning.”
GERMANY: Jean-Paul Danneberg (GK); Benedikt Schwarzhaupt; Constantin Staib; Timm Hertzbruch; Paul-Philipp Kaufmann; Niklas Bosserhoff; Michel Struthoff; Marco Miltkau (C); HannesMuller; Antheus Barry; Moritz Ludwig SUBS USED:– Elian Mazkour [4mins]; Thies Prinz [4 mins]; Hugo Von Montgelas [4 mins]; Malte Hellwig [4 mins]; Lucas Wolff [4 mins]; Mario Schachner [6 mins]
IRELAND:- Jamie Carr (GK); Tim Cross; KyleMarshall; Nicholas Page; Shane O’Donoghue; Jonathan Lynch; Peter Brown, SeanMurray (C); John McKee; Jeremy Duncan; Alistair Empey SUBSUSED:– Daragh Walsh [3 mins]; Ben Johnson [3 mins]; Matthew Nelson [5 mins]; Mark McNellis [5 mins]; BenWalker [6 mins] ; Michael Robson [7 mins]