Germany men continued their fine form in the FIH Pro League with another double header win over Argentina, following up last month’s double set of wins over Holland. Three months out from the Tokyo Olympics and not having played for a year, Argentina were just happy to be back playing.
Germany men completed an impressive double over reigning Olympic champions Argentina, running out 3-0 winners thanks to goals from Christopher Rühr, Martin Zwicker and Constantin Staib in a fiery encounter. It followed Saturday’s 3-2 win over Los Leones in Buenos Aires.
“It was a very hard-fought game against Argentina, who are very good, very physical”, said player of the match Christopher Rühr. “It is always tough to play against them. We tried to be physical as well, and emotional and keep that up against them. I think we did that really well yesterday and today. We are really, really happy with six points.”
For Argentina, Nicolas Keenan said the team was just happy to be back competing after one year off the field following the pandemic.
“Apart from the result, we are happy to be back after one year. Even in the negative points, we can take something positive from those.
“We are just three months from the Olympic Games so we are happy to be back. We did a lot of negative things, but in this moment, it is good because we have time to improve them.”
Victory sees Germany move up to second in the FIH Hockey Pro League standings, 13 points behind leaders Belgium but with five games in hand over the world champions.
Meanwhile, Germany women bounced back from their first shoot-out defeat against Argentina by recording a 3-1 triumph on Sunday.
Charlotte Stapenhorst’s cool finish just three minutes into the contest proved to be the perfect start, with Pauline Heinz doubling the advantage for Die Danas.
The Europeans made the perfect start to the third quarter by scoring from their first attack, with Pia Maertens firing home on the turn to establish an unassailable lead before Agustina Gorzelany netted what proved to be a consolation goal nine minutes from time.
Argentina remain second in the FIH Hockey Pro League standings, although now find themselves some ten points behind table-toppers Holland having played the same number of games. Germany are fifth in the League, having claimed 10 points from their six matches.
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