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KUALA LUMPUR, March 7: Germany moved within smelling distance of the 10th World Cup Thursday after overcoming a stubborn South Korea 3-2 in an epic semifinal while Australia laid defending champions, the Netherlands, to rest with a 4-1 rout at the National Stadium.
It was only the second time in nine attempts that the Germans qualified for the final of the tournament, their last shot at the title coming at the 1982 World Cup in Mumbai.
Australia on the other hand made it to their first final since 1986 when they won the trophy in London.
The Germans, who have never won the World Cup, were odds on favourite to beat South Korea, the Olympic silver medallists. But the South Koreans showed that they wouldn’t be pushovers, scoring first, five minutes after the start of play, Woon-Kon Yeo making his side’s intentions immediately clear.
The Germans, who had more ball possession in the match, evened matters the very next minute when Bjorn Emmerling scored off a short-corner set-piece, their first of the game, with a fiery flick.
Germany, the European champions, then had to wait for a good 35 minutes for their second goal that was scored by Christoph Bechmann on the run of play.
However, the South Koreans did not seem to give in, fighting tooth and nail to put the match on an even keel in the 47th minute, Kyung-Seok Kim emerging as their star.
The South Koreans, who finished in second place in Pool ‘B’ behind Australia, looked good on the break but being the underdogs appeared under pressure and it was not long before Germany got the badly-needed goal, Matthias Witthaus nailing the rivals, after being set up by Christian Mayerhofer on the 56th minute.
But South Korea, when they were 2-3 down had a goal disallowed off their only short corner of the match as the umpire ruled the ball had not been stopped properly. And then Seung-Tae Song, was denied a penalty corner in the later stages with the umpire giving him an advantage when he had three defenders in front of him.
UNBEATEN RECORD: Australia, who now have gone eight matches without a defeat in this World Cup, were in the driving seat once Scott Webster set the ball rolling in only the 9th minute with a powerful strike from close range.
The Aussies, in awesome form, doubled their lead soon after when Jamie Dwyer sent in a rocket into the net that hardly gave goalkeeper Guus Vogels any chance.
The boys from Down Under were simply too good for the Dutch, who just could not put up the kind of display that has seen them win three World Cups as their hopes of winning back-to-back titles were effectively dashed.
The Aussies could not have asked for a better start as they went for lemon-time with a well-deserved two-goal advantage. And when they returned, they had more surprises for the Dutch, who were aiming to match Pakistan’s record of winning four World Cups.
All those Dutch ambitions were sealed when Mathew Smith scored from a difficult angle in the 37th minute and Dwyer followed up his good work with a 60th minute goal.
It was simply not Netherlands’ day and despite forcing 13 short corners, they could score only once, and that too in a late follow-up to the set-piece for their consolation goal that was converted by Menno Booij.
Germany 3 South Korea 2
Australia 4 Netherlands 1
Malaysia 1 Pakistan 2
Argentina 2 England 1
Spain 0 India 3
Japan 3 New Zealand 3
(New Zealand win 7-6 on penalty strokes)
South Africa 5 Cuba 1
Poland 1 Belgium 2
