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AMSTERDAM (Netherlands):
Germany thrashed Pakistan 6-0 in the first match of the men's
4-Nations field hockey tournament here Saturday.
It was Germany's fourth win over Pakistan in two weeks, having
won 3-1 and 2-1 in test matches in Berlin and 3-2 in Hamburg
last Sunday.
Sohail Abbas failed to convert four penalty corners and a
penalty stroke while Germany took full advantage of defensive
lapses by Pakistan to convert a high percentage of its scoring
chances.
"There was a total lack of organisation in the team and the
team did not play according to the game plan," Pakistan's
coach Roelant Oltmans said.
"There was a total lack of defensive structure," Oltmans said,
refusing to lay the blame solely on the goalkeeper.
Pakistan had three field goal scoring chances in the first
half and Abbas had a chance to even the match at 1-1 with the
penalty stroke in the thirteenth minute, two minutes after
Mathias Witthaus scored Germany's first goal.
Germany substituted Clemens Arnold in goal with Christian
Schulte, a specialist in defending penalty strokes, to defend
the penalty stroke. Abbas went high to the right and Schulte
deflected the stroke wide with his stick.
Bjorn Michel scored a field goal and converted a penalty
corner to have Germany ahead 3-0 at the break from only four
shots on goal in the first half.
Florian Kunz for Germany and Sohail Abbas for Pakistan each
failed with penalty corner attempts early in the second half
but it was Kunz who found form with two penalty corner
conversions in the fifty-second and fifty-seventh minutes to
have Pakistan reeling at 5-0.
With Pakistan's defence reeling, Christoph Bechmann sealed the
rout, scoring Germany's sixth goal three minutes from time.
On Sunday, the Netherlands
meet India at 1500 GMT. In the concurrent women's tournament
Saturday, Germany and Netherlands drew 3-3 after China and
South Korea drew 2-2.
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