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Australia have reached the final of the men’s field hockey Champions Trophy after beating the Netherlands 3-2 in Rotterdam.
The Kookaburras will play Spain in the decider, after Spain outplayed Germany to win 3-0 and top the round robin stage of the tournament.
Australia’s win was crafted by Jamie Dwyer, Eddie Ockenden and Robert Hammond while it was assisted by the pressure of expectations of the capacity crowd expecting nothing less than a Netherlands win.
`The defensive structure of Matthew Wells, Mark Knowles and Bevan George was once again solid for the Kookaburras, with coach Barry Dancer delighted with the way his team finished the must-win match.
“We overcame a sluggish start to wear down the Dutch and secure a well-deserved victory and a shot at the gold medal,” Dancer said.
“However we will now turn our attention to the final where we meet an in-form Spanish team.”
It was the Dutch who struck first when Roderick Weusthof drilled his side’s second penalty corner into Australia goalkeeper Stephen Lambert and the rebound fell to Geert-Jan Derikx at the left post to make an easy push into goal behind Lambert.
For 10 minutes from the middle of the first half Australia camped in Netherlands defensive quarter, pressuring for the equaliser which finally came when Grant Schubert punished a defensive error by Robert van der Horst and drove into the top of goal from the left with 11 seconds to play before the break.
Australia continued to pressure Netherlands in the second half, gaining several shots on goal.
Dwyer picked up a rebound off the pads of Guus Vogels in Netherlands goal to slap a volley into the back of the net, followed by Netherlands objections that Dwyer’s stick was over his shoulder.
Midway through the second half Netherlands broke out of Australia’s high press.
Netherlands captain Jeroen Delmee passed over 40 metres to Jeroen Hertzberger who deflected high into goal to level scores and bring the Rotterdam crowd to its feet.
But Ockenden silenced the crowd with seven minutes to play, when he punished another Netherlands defensive error, ran the ball into the circle and pushed hard to the right post for Travis Brooks to scored the decider.
Spain meanwhile started impressively, scoring 12 seconds after the start as Santiago Freixa passed to defender Ramon Alegre, running through on the right, to drive to the left post where Pol Amat crashed a backstick deflection into the net.
Spain maintained a high tempo to run Germany around as Sebastian Biederlack was under suspension for the match and Germany played with one less player.
David Alegre scored a field goal and Santiago Freixa converted Spain’s third penalty corner, getting a deflection into goal off the stick of Germany’s runner to seal the match.
Argentina will play the Netherlands for third place.
The final will be played tonight at 11pm AEST.
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