MEN'S HOCKEY / European Championship: Two monstrously roofed short corners, one pinging in off the under side of the cross bar, another whipped in from the German captain Florian Kunz and a reverse stick drill from Matthias Witthaus from play and Ireland ended their third match of the European Championships where they expected to be.
It's difficult to know what a team can extract from a 4-1 defeat except to say it could have been worse but for some clever defending.
No Irish side has beaten Germany in a serious, modern competition and although yesterday Justin Sherriff came close to taking what would have been a rare lead after three minutes when his reverse stick whack rebounded off the upright, Germany orchestrated the shape and style of the game, finally settling on their frightening short-corner routine to adjust the score line to their liking.
Coach John Clarke had a chance to admire Wesley Bateman in goal and to welcome back captain and first-choice goalkeeper Nigel Henderson, who finished out the last 10 minutes. Gordon Elliott, who was credited with Ireland's only score, also came through well, his first run sure to add a sharpness to his game when Ireland meet France tomorrow in what is their most important match of the week.
Jason Black and Nigel Buttimer, patrolling the left quadrant, also came out of the match well as Germany overloaded the left side, occasionally squeezing Ireland into their 25 for long periods while Paddy Brown and Erroll Lutton engaged the German forwards with shuddering tackles.
"What we're trying to do is reserve some ammunition for the next games without declaring too much," said Clarke afterwards. "Ideally, I would have liked to have rested more players but the Germans were very impressive especially as the match wore on, when we started to get a little tired and a little disorganised."
Witthaus started the goal run when he beat Bateman with a reverse stick strike on eight minutes. Soon after, Sherriff turned Michael Green, galloped into the circle and flicked at goal. From the wings Elliott seemed to play the ball in mid air as it beat goalkeeper Arnold Clemens. The two Pembroke players can arm wrestle over it back in Serpentine Avenue but the goal stood to Elliott, the teams level after 15 minutes.
Germany increased their tempo, Kunz striking just seconds before half-time from their third corner and Ireland, relying on counter attacking, had few opportunities. Zeller catapulted the fifth corner in on 50 minutes before Bjorn Michael arrived. The clunk off the steel crossbar from the velocity of his drag flick on 65 minutes is still echoing around Montjuic Mountain.
IRELAND: W Bateman, K Burns, P Brown, E Lutton, J Black, C Jackson, S Butler, N Buttimer, J Elliott, J Sherriff, M Irwin. Rolling subs:: A Barbour, D Hobbs, M Raphael, D Smyth, N Henderson (capt)
GERMANY: A Clemens, P Crone, F Kuntz (capt), B Michel, M Green, C Eimer, B Emmerling, T Weissenborn, T Wess, C Beckmann, C Zeller. Rolling subs: C Wein, S Biederlack, M Witthaus, P Zeller.
Umpires: P Elder, M Hoffman.
