German hockey is threatened with the first Olympics without a medal in 21 years. After the quarter-finals of the women, the men failed in the semi-finals in Tokyo with 1: 3 (1: 2) to Australia and can only hope for bronze. Most recently, the men's selection of the German Hockey Association won precious metal four times in a row at summer games. In Sydney 2000, both German teams came away empty-handed for the last time. For the team of national coach Kais al Saadi it is now on Thursday (3.30 a.m. CEST in the FAZ live ticker for the Olympic Games, on ARD and on Eurosport) in the game for third place against the up-and-coming Indians, who previously beat the world champions 2: 5 Belgium had lost.
After a mixed preliminary round, the German selection had raised hopes with a 3-1 victory in the quarter-finals against Rio Olympic champion Argentina, as they had last seen in 2008 and 2012 to be able to reach for gold again. However, the world number one Australia had not yet lost in Tokyo and went into the game with a lot of self-confidence. A loss of strength after the 3-0 shootout against European champions Netherlands in the previous round was not noticeable for the Australians.
Under the floodlights of the Oi Hockey Stadium, Tim Brand completed a great attack by the favorite with the lead in the seventh minute.
The German team, however, was not confused and quickly equalized after a penalty corner (10th).
Lukas Windfeder has already scored his sixth goal in the tournament.
Even after that, both teams were on an equal footing before the Australians took the lead again.
Blake Govers gave DHB goalkeeper Alexander Stadler no chance after a penalty corner.
The European Championship runner-up around captain Tobias Hauke was now missing something in terms of the efficiency that was still shown against Argentina.
Some good opportunities for the sixth in the world rankings remained unused, and the German team had several bad luck with video evidence in favor of the opponent.
The Australians, who had not played any intercontinental games before the Olympics because of the corona pandemic since March 2020, withstood the growing German attack efforts after the break. Increasingly desperate, the DHB team pushed forward. Niklas Wellen failed after a nice individual performance with a shot at the Australian goalkeeper Andrew Charter, not much more succeeded. When coach al Saadi took the risk and replaced goalkeeper Stadler with an additional field player, Lachlan Sharp made everything clear with a hit in the empty goal (59th).