It was a brilliant contest to wrap up one of the two morning’s Field Hockey Olympic matches in Pool A between Germany v Japan at Stade Yves-Du-Manoir (Pitch 2). Japan were brilliant defensively while they had some moments up front off the back of Germany’s endless scoring attempts. But at the end of the day, it was the Germans who got away with the two-goal win – even though things were really scrappy for the most part despite leading 1-0 until they’ve finally added the 2nd goal within the last 15 mins of play.
Well done to Germany with their dominant possession every time they put the Japanese under pressure all over the pitch including the attacking third while they weren’t bad in defense as well. Yes, their finishing has been frustratingly poor at times which is something they need to watch out in their upcoming games. But they found the net though twice where it was enough to shut Japan down for the win – one via open play in the first 15 and another off a penalty corner during the 4th and last 15. Gotta credit the experienced No.4 Nike Lorenz and No.12 Charlotte Stapenhorst whom they both love to take cruise control with the ball by scoring goals into the net; They just need to have more ball within the middle of the circle and goals will come Germany’s way as a decent 3-0 or 4-0 win will do it for Germany’s female Field Hockey Olympic team campaign.
Meanwhile, Japan wasn’t bad on the pitch for the most part thanks to their basic solid defense & that star-stopping goalkeeper to stop the Germans in its tracks that greatly benefitted the opposition’s endless missed goal attempts at their own end. It gave them several opportunities for the Japanese to try and get the job done through the break on the counter-attack but then they lacked the finishing touches in the attacking third, especially when being isolated with a lack of numbers there. We’ve seen that struggle from Japan before when they’ve played v Hockeyroos during the opening April Perth tour game earlier this year. Although they’ve tried their best to hold them back at the last attempt like it was one today, but then Japan just simply couldn’t find a way to press the German defense and their goal keeper where a draw would be enough but an outside win would be even better if their finishing came back better than Germany.
Speaking of the April tri-series tour rivalry, we got China taking on Japan once again this time at a Olympic-level match tomorrow night at 6.30pm AEST before Germany will be back in the early hours of Tuesday morning v the high-flying Netherlands team at 3.45am AEST.
