New Delhi - Germany and
Australia will meet for the third straight time in the field hockey
World Cup final, with Australia finally hoping for victory on Saturday against the two-time reigning champions. Germany thrashed England 4-1 in the semi-finals on Thursday while Australia edged three-time champions Netherlands 2-1 in the second semi.
Australia lifted the trophy in 1986 before losing the 2002 (2-1) and 2006 (4-3) finals against the Germans, who themselves want to be the first team to win three World Cups in a row. Apart from the Germans,
Pakistan have managed back-to-back titles, in 1978 and 1982.
Germany scored twice in the opening 11 minutes, from Jan-Marco Montag and Oliver Korn, as they avenged a surprise 5-3 defeat against England from the 2009 European championship final.
England rebounded from Richard Smith off a penalty corner, but Martin Haener got Germany's third shortly before halftime.
England pressed after the break but a third successful penalty corner, this time from Linus Butt, with nine minutes left, ended the match as a contest.
Now Germany run into the Australians yet again, just a few months after Australia beat them in
Melbourne for the 2009 Champions Trophy title.
Australia went on top against the Dutch from Luke Doerner's successful penalty corner in the 27th minute which put him atop the scorers list with seven goals.
The Kuckaburras continued to dominate but it took until midway through the second half that Glenn Turner soothed their nerves with a field goal for 2-0.
However, the Australians had to sweat it out in the last 12 minutes as Taeke Taekema halved their lead with a penalty stroke, his seventh goal as well at the tourno.
Earlier Thursday, Pakistan completed their worst World Cup performance when they finished last in 12th place from a 3-2 defeat against
Canada in the match for 11th place.
