Germany have beaten Poland 4:1 in the men’s final of the Samsung Indoor World Cup. The match was a thrilling end to a wonderful tournament. The Netherlands women won the Samsung Women’s Indoor World Cup for the first time, beating Spain 4:2 in an exciting final.
THE FINALS
WOMEN: Netherlands 4 defeated Spain 2
The Netherlands have won the Samsung Women’s Indoor World Cup for the first time, beating Spain in an exciting final.
The Netherlands totally dominated the first half of the match, and opened the scoring with a superb goal – Claire VERHAGE gave goalkeeper Maria Jesus ROSA no chance of making a save. Belle van MEER made it 2:0 with a shot into the bottom right corner after Spain failed to clear. Spain’s first clear cut chance of the game came with nine minutes played, when Pilar SANCHEZ picked up the ball at the top of the circle, but her effort was straight at Claire HENDRIKS in the Netherlands goal. HENDRIKS made a sensational diving stick save with three minutes left of the first half to keep the two goal advantage. That advantage was nearly extended from a Netherlands penalty corner at the end of the first half, but ROSA charged it down to keep her side in the game.
Spain started the second half much better than they did the first. They won a penalty corner in the 22nd minute, but HENDRIKS made another good block to frustrate the Spanish players. However, in the 28th minute Alessia PADALINO made the score 3:0 with a field goal, and the Netherlands were almost home and dry. Maria ROMAGOSA pulled a goal back for Spain with a well taken penalty corner to add drama to the game, but with four minutes left to play VERHAGE flicked a field goal into the net to re-establish the three goal cushion. Spain grabbed a late goal through Nuria CAMON, but The Netherlands were crowned as the Samsung Women’s Indoor World Champions with a 4:2 victory.
MEN: Germany 4 defeated Poland 1
Germany came back from a goal down to beat Poland 4:1 in the men’s final of the Samsung Indoor World Cup. The match was a thrilling end to a wonderful tournament here in Vienna.
Germany had the better of the opening exchanges, with Poland seemingly content to soak up the pressure. Three minutes into the match Germany had a shot that beat keeper Mariusz CHYLA, but Tomasz DUTKIEWICZ cleared the ball off the line and away to safety. Piotr MIKULA almost set up the opening goal when delivered a defence splitting pass to Marcin GROTOWSKI, but the Polish player’s shot was well saved by Ulrich BUBOLZ. The large number of Poland supporters in the crowd were sent into raptures when Dariusz MALECKI scored a 17th minute field goal despite Germany protestations of an infringement. For the last three minutes of the half Poland began to rip through the Germany defence at will, with MIKULA and Dariusz RACHWALSKI at the heart of many of the best attacks.
Germany came out firing at the start of the second half, and scored an equaliser through Benedict SPERLING in the 22nd minute. Moritz FUERSTE moved Germany in front with a wonderful finish in the 26th minute which forced Poland into action, searching for an equaliser. Nine minutes from time Lucasz WYBIERALSKI deflected a shot just over the bar, and GROTOWSKI again went close two minutes later, but Sebastian DRAGUHN put the defending World Champions 3:1 up with four minutes left to play. Poland replaced their keeper with an outfield player and pushed further up the field, but Oskar DEECKE put the ball into the empty net to spark wild German celebrations.
