Moenchengladbach: Jamie Dwyer scored two goals on Tuesday to lead Australia to a 7-1 win over New Zealand and end their hopes of a semi-final berth at the hockey World Cup.
The Olympic champions sealed their berth with the win as they aim for their first World Cup title. New Zealand last won a match between the two in 1999.
"Australia has the measure of us obviously," New Zealand coach Kevin Towns said. "It's back to the drawing board."
Taeke Taekema's five-goal outburst gave the Netherlands a 6-1 win over Germany as his team joined Germany and South Korea atop Pool B.
Germany rolled past South Africa 5-0 and Japan picked up its first win, edging Argentina 4-3 on Akira Ito's goal with two minutes to play.
Australia, with Brent Livermore playing his 250th match for the team, took a 2-1 lead in the 26th minute against New Zealand when Michael McCann redirected a cross inside the left post.
After that score, the highest scoring attack in the game rolled with goals from Troy Elder in the 32nd, Matthew Naylor in the 49th and Travis Brooks in the 55th.
Dwyer, who scored in the second minute, added his second in the 64th, and Luke Doerner capped the scoring spree in the 66th.
Australia coach Barry Dancer still wasn't pleased with his team.
"I don't think we played up to our potential," Dancer said. "We played poorly on defence."
New Zealand leveled at 1-1 when Mitesh Patel put in a rebound at the far post on a waist-high swing.
A win would have clinched New Zealand's first semi-final berth. The country's best World Cup performance dates back to seventh in 1982.
Germany, the defending champions, face South Korea on Wednesday with a semi-final berth on the line in Pool B.
The Germans, as well as the Dutch, went after routs to pad their goal difference if that proves to be the tie-breaker in deciding which two teams advance from Pool B.
Matthias Witthaus scored his second goal in the 63rd minute. Oliver Hentschel added another two minutes later and Sebastian Biederlack made it 5-0 with two minutes left.
"I'm very happy with the late goals. It was good for tomorrow and for our self-confidence," Germany coach Bernhard Peters said.
Striker Christopher Zeller, extending a team mate's pass inside the left post, scored his sixth goal in the second minute.
South Africa, with just two points, didn't allow a penalty corner until the 44th minute. Chris Hibbert's saves, the post and a clearance at the line held the Germans in check until the late outburst.
Taekema now has a tournament-best nine goals -- eight on penalty corners. Roderick Weusthof scored the other Dutch goal, while Dilip Tirkey scored for India.
India finished at the bottom of Pool B, picking up just one point. The team was vulnerable through the event to penalty corners, yellow cards and late goals.
Japan had only one goal before the Argentina match, but Ito scored twice Tuesday. Kazuyuki Ozawa and Hiroki Sakamoto collected the other two goals.
The loss ended Argentina's hopes of making the fifth-place playoff. Rodrigo Vila scored a pair of goals, while Lucas Cammareri had the other.
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