By Rajeev kumar
Bhubaneswar, Dec 12: ‘Tactics’ is a war-time word. And field sports like hockey these days is in no ways lesser than a war. True, that no life is lost, but the sweat and emotions during the game never fail to leave a permanent impression both on the players and the fans.
When the World and five time reigning Champions Australia will take on Olympic Champions Germany in the first semifinal of the Champions Trophy here Saturday, it will be an absorbing battle of tactics between the two equally strong sides.
They will be meeting after two years since the semifinal of the Olympics 2012 when the Germans had handed a 4-2 beating to the Kookaburras.
While the Markus Weise-coached Germany have seven players from their 2013 Junior World Cup team with three seniors – Timur Oruz, Jonas Gomoll and Mathias Müller, the Kookaburras are also a young side who came to the tournament without some of their most experienced players.
But in a tournament like this, experience often plays second fiddle to skills and energy. Both the sides have proven that with their performance here so far.
The Germans started with a last minute win over India, and went on to lose against the Netherlands 1-4 and the Argentina 0-3. However, they played brilliantly to stun tournament favourites England 2-0 Thursday.
The Australians, started with 0-3 defeat against England, but came back strongly to score a 3-1 win against Pakistan. Then they drew 4-4 against Belgium in the pool and achieved a 4-2 win against Argentina in the quarterfinals.
So overall it would be a match to watch.
