Melbourne: Australia claimed consecutive Champions Trophy titles and their 10th overall by beating Germany 5-3 in Sunday's final thanks to four unanswered second-half goals.
Australia trailed 3-1 at halftime before scoring three goals in 15 minutes to open the second half, with Luke Doerner finishing with three goals.
Also on Sunday, South Korea scored four second-half goals to beat the Netherlands 4-2 and claim third place. Spain defeated England 5-2 to take fifth.
Australia started strongly and had the lead inside two minutes when striker Des Abbott scored.
But Germany came back with three goals in 11 minutes — one from Florian Fuchs, a Martin Haner drag flick and another to Matthias Witthaus from open play.
Australia started to convert their penalty corners in the second half. First Liam de Young tapped in a rebound from close range, before Doerner found his range with a drag flick in the 41st minute to level the match.
Nine minutes later, Doerner scored again to give Australia the lead.
The home side added an insurance goal with three minutes remaining when Fergus Kavanagh latched on to a long Doerner pass and flicked the ball over German keeper Max Weinhold's head.
"It was tough, Germany were the best team," Australia's Brett Livermore said. "But when we came back from 3-1 down, it was a good test and challenge for us and shows our team's strong character."
Germany captain Maximilan Muller said his team "tired in the second half."
"It has been a long tournament for us and we struggled to keep up with them as the game wore on," said Muller. "We lost a lot of power going forward."
Earlier on Sunday, Australia's Jamie Dwyer was named world player of the year, adding to his earlier wins in 2004 and 2007.
Argentina's Luciana Aymar shared the women's player of the year award with the Netherlands' Naomi van As. It was Aymar's sixth world player trophy.
England midfielder Ashley Jackson was named men's young player of the year and Australia midfielder Casey Eastham women's young player.
Comments
0 comment