Australia made winning look easy for the second successive day as they humbled world champions Germany 6-1 in the Champions Trophy hockey tournament at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen, near Amsterdam, on Wednesday.
Needing nothing but a victory -- and a big one at that -- to stay in the race for the gold medal, the seven-time champions ran roughshod over the inexperienced Germans to post their second victory in four matches and take their points tally to seven.
Germany, fielding a developmental squad, suffered their third straight defeat from as many matches to go out of the title hunt.
The inexperience of the Germans showed as they left yawning gaps in midfield for the speedy Aussie forwards to exploit. And the one who made the best of the situation was none other than Grant Schubert. The speedy forward not only displayed good opportunism while scoring twice to take his goal tally in the tournament to seven, but also laid the ground for the other goals with some excellent running down the right flank.
The Aussies were four goals up by the 20th minute, and had goalkeeper Ulrich Bubolz, who replaced old warhorse Christian Schulte for the match, not brought off some fine saves, the Aussies may well have crossed over at the breather by a bigger margin.
Using the width of the field like they did against India, the Aussies had the German defence in tatters as early as the fifth minute, but Bubolz warded off the danger, saving attempts from Craig Victory and Adam Commens. But he could do little when Schubert tore down the right in the eighth minute and fed Michael McCann with a defence-splitting pass right in front of the goalmouth. McCann had the easiest of tasks volleying home.
Five minutes later, Commens increased the lead following another probing run with Brent Livermore.
Then Schubert got his name on the scoresheet with his sixth goal of the tournament, finishing off a swift run down the right and scoring after a one-two with Troy Elder.
McCann made it 4-0 in the 19th minute, after which Aussie coach Barry Dancer decided to relax his team's hold on the match and bench Livermore, Elder and Wells for the remainder of the half.
With the Aussies playing at half pace and fielding some of their bench strength, the Germans were given a respite in the second session. But they couldn't stop Aaron Hopkins from making it 5-0 in the 53rd minute and Schubert getting his second of the match two minutes later, putting the ball over the onrushing Bubolz into the net for his seventh goal.
Five minutes from the end, the Germans got a consolation goal when Alexander Sahmel scored against the run of play from the team's only penalty corner with a low flick to Mark Hickman's left.
Match Summary:
Australia 6 (Michael McCann 2, Adam Commens, Grant Schubert 2, Aaron Hopkins) beat Germany 1 (Alexander Sahmel).