Germany, USA pull off shock wins in hockey

johannesburg — Argentina had a last-gasp goal disallowed and England flopped in a shootout late on Thursday as unfancied Germany and the United States reached a Women’s Hockey World League tournament final in Johannesburg.

Germany prevailed 2-1 over Argentina and the United States pipped England 2-1 in a shootout after a 1-1 draw to win semifinal thrillers at the University of the Witwatersrand.

The Americans and Germans, ranked four places below their rivals in the world, meet on Sunday for first place after the Argentines and English contest third place.

Germany survived a late Argentine onslaught and the Americans levelled through five-goal leading tournament scorer Jill Witmer three minutes from time. “I am proud of the confidence shown by the girls,” said German coach Jamilon Mulders. “They have developed a winning mentality.

“Defeating a great hockey nation like Argentina is a wonderful achievement. I am over the moon after this result. The team has grown individually and collectively as the tournament progressed and this was easily our most satisfying performance.”

Naomi Heyn gave Germany a seventh-minute lead off a penalty corner and Lucina von der Heyde equalised in the opening minute of the second quarter off a subtle deflection.

Julia Gomes missed a great scoring owing to a foot offence and the South Americans were made to pay when Charlotte Stapenhorst put Germany ahead again just before half-time.

As Argentina pressed desperately for an equaliser, they were awarded a penalty corner with one second of the match to go.

From it, they scrambled the ball into the net only to be denied a levelling goal as a video referral ordered by an umpire showed a foot offence.

Skipper Melissa Gonzalez and goalkeeper Jackie Briggs were the shootout stars as the United States triumphed having started slowly before dominating the second half of regular time.

Gonzalez scored off the first shootout shot, and succeeded again off the second shot in the sudden-death phase to take her country through.

“We faced a greet England team, but fought for 60 minutes and our resilience won the match,” said Gonzalez. —