Germany, the 2012 Sultan of Johor Cup champions, were forced to dig deep into their ‘bag of experience’ for this come-from-behind 4-3 victory over Great Britain at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium today.
Before the start of this Group A match, Both Germany and Australia shared four-equal points but the Germans top the table standing on a better goal average. Great Britain is in third position on three points while South Africa are at the basement with no points following two consecutive defeats.
Following this triumph, Germany pooled seven points to advance into the semifinals on Friday.
Great Britain was first to get off the block and sounded the board in the fourth minute. Rory Penrose flicked a knee-high ball straight into Germany’s goalkeeper Joshua Onyekwue Nnaji who palmed the ball away but Johnny Sturch Hibbitt picked it from the rebound and sneaked it into goal to give the three-time champion a 1-0 lead.
Action then shifted to the Germans, ranked World No 2, who got the better of the Britons. They went ahead 2-1 through penalty corner conversions by Jacob Brilla and Paul Glander in the 20th and 33rd minutes respectively. It was Glander’s second goal in the tournament.
Germany had four penalty corners against four by Great Britain by the end of the third quarter. Great Britain came out in attack in the fourth quarter and continued to pose another real threat, this time Tom Morehouse knocked in the second goal in the 50th minute to level score 2-2.
But the action did not stop there. Michael Struthoff (52nd) extended the score to 3-2 (52nd minute) but Henry Markham converted Great Britain’s fifth penalty corner in the very next moment to equalize 3-3.
The high-octane drama came, however, came to a halt when Florian Sperling scored from a field goal with just four minutes remaining.