ROTTERDAM (The Netherlands), June 30: Australia defeated Spain 4-1 to win a record-equalling ninth men’s hockey Champions Trophy title here on Sunday.

Australia assistant coach Colin Batch hailed the win which matched Germany’s titles in the tournament as useful preparation for the Beijing Olympic.

“It was an excellent tournament for us and great preparation for the Olympics and to find our Olympic squad,” Batch said.

Australia will announce their Olympic squad on July 10.

Australia started with customary speed on the ball and long passes into space, creating early pressure on Spain’s defence.

Desmond Abbott came back from his one-match suspension and made amends by scoring. Eli Matheson hit the crossbar with the ball falling to Abbott’s backstick to tap into goal.

Xavier Ribas scored Spain’s only goal, throwing a penalty corner flick high to the left of Stephen Lambert in the Australian goal.

The match drifted away from Spain in the second half as Jamie Dwyer flicked high to the left of goalkeeper Francisco Cortes for Australia’s go ahead goal.

In the last 10 minutes Spain pressed in Australia’s defensive quarter which Australia broke twice to score.

Eddie Ockenden beat two defenders and Eli Matheson went one on one with Cortes and beat him with a backstick drive into the middle of the open goal for Australia to take the 4-2 win.

Earlier Argentina drew 2-2 with the Netherlands in regular time, and won a penalty shoot-out 5-3, to take bronze for their best finish in the tournament.

Argentina’s three Vila brothers — Lucas, Rodrigo and Matias — Juan Gilardi and Lucas Cammareri all netted their penalty strokes for a perfect conversion rate after five attempts.

Ronald Brouwer, Rob Reckers and Roderick Weusthof successfully scored for the Netherlands but Robert van der Horst had his low flick to the left post blocked by Argentina goalkeeper Juan Vivaldi.

The Netherlands put their poor pool performance behind them, attacking from the start with Teun de Nooijer getting the opener before Mario Almada equalised in the middle of the first half.

After the break Argentina employed their counter-attack through Juan Lopez to surprise the Netherlands with a goal by Matias Paredes to equalise at 2-2.

Earlier Germany scored twice in the last ten minutes to beat South Korea 3-1 and take fifth place.

Germany and South Korea fielded their second goalkeepers and each allowed a soft goal in the first half.

Myung ho Lee failed to stop Tibor Weissenborn’s free hit from outside the circle giving Germany’s Sebastian Draguhn an easy touch into goal behind Lee.

Max Weinhold in Germany’s goal allowed Woon Kon Yeo’s push through his pads into goal for the equaliser.

Neither team could break through the defences of the other in the second half until the last 10 minutes when South Korea took off a defender and put on a fourth striker in an attempt to go for a win.

Germany found the weakness of South Korea’s defence, played through the left and capitalised on a defensive error to give Tibor Weissenborn a clear shot past Lee.

Florian Keller evaded South Korea’s defence to receive a pass on the left of the circle and hammered a backstick shot into goal.

Results:

Final: Spain 1 Australia 4

Third place play-off: Argentina 7 Netherlands 5

Fifth place play-off: Germany 3 South Korea 1.—AFP