Spain defeated the Netherlands 3-1 on Saturday to set up a hockey Champions Trophy final showdown with defending champions Australia, who downed hosts New Zealand 2-1. In the bottom half of the eight-nation tournament, Germany crushed Pakistan 5-0 to leave the Green Shirts facing a wooden spoon play-off with South Korea, who were defeated 4-3 in a thriller against Great Britain.
--- Germany shatter Pakistan dreams for taking 5th place
--- Pakistan slumped to fourth loss in five matches
Germany shattered Pakistan dreams to finish at fifth place for qualifying for next Champions Trophy with a splendid 5-0 at North Harbour hockey stadium. Australia will meet Spain in the Sunday's final. Kiwis will play the bronze medal match against Holland. Germany will clash with England for the fourth and fifth place match as the English side defeated South Korea 4-3.
Pakistan's fourth defeat in the tournament means that they would be playing Korea for the 7th and 8th place. World number nine Pakistan demonstrated poor run and lost to England, Spain, Australia notched up their only win defeating 6-2 Korea and then lost their most important match of the event to Germany losing an ideal opportunity for qualifying for the next years Champions trophy being played in Australia.
The former world and champions trophy holders, looked a place shadow of their glittering past and could not make a single move throughout the play against Germany which kept them under immense pressure with brilliant switching of players on specialised positions to take the life out of Pakistan attack. With Pakistan struggling German side was on rampage, converting two short corners in the first half to go 2-0 up, from a total of the play.
A much rejuvenated German side deservedly took the lead when Tobias Matania sent a low penalty corner shot into the bottom right corner after 13 minutes. They doubled the lead in the 26th minute when Marco Montag sent a ferocious penalty corner flick into the top right corner to leave Pakistan in extremely bad situation. Australia, chasing a record fourth straight title at men's hockey's last major tournament before the London Olympics, have won 11 times overall, while Spain's sole success came in 2004.
Spain, out to make amends after placing sixth at the European Championships, maintained the attacking game they have adopted at the Auckland tournament and never relinquished the lead after Eduard Tubau scored in the second minute. Spanish coach Daniel Martin said he expected a tough, physical final and his team would aim to upset the Australia's rhythm early. "The most important thing is to break the defence first, (we can) if we can play like we did today against Holland," he said.
Australia's Dwyer was named world player of the year for a record fifth time before the 2-1 win over New Zealand, which had no bearing on the final day's play Sunday as the Kookaburras qualified for the decider with a game in hand. "The Germans played the game of the tournament, they did not make mistakes," Pakistan team manager Khawaja Junaid said of the reigning Olympic champions.
"We tried to hold them but they played at top pace with long bounces and (pressure) coming from both sides. It's clear there's still a difference between Pakistan and Germany." In the other Pool D match, South Korea squandered a 2-0 lead to go down 4-3 to Great Britain. The never-say-die Koreans equalised through a Nam Hyun-Woo penalty shot but were left stunned when Britain's Mark Pearn latched onto a cross in the area and fired a tightly-angled shot past the keeper to seal the win.