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Germany’s hockey women with difficulty in the World Cup quarterfinals

Mith the final siren of the World Cup round of 16 between the German hockey women and South Africa, the national coach first put his hands in front of his face, then he turned and leaned on the railing near the team bench. And practiced harsh self-criticism. “I bet on the completely wrong variants for the corners, so we could have made the game much clearer earlier,” said Valentin Altenburg, shaking his head. And stressed: “Today it’s completely on my cap.”

Because his team had only defeated the African champions 1-0 (0-0) in Amstelveen and thus struggled to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup in the Netherlands and Spain. The vastly superior fourth in the world rankings had plenty of chances to make the game clear on the scoreboard, but the goal was the big weak point on Saturday.

“We pulled a lot of corners and created chances on our own initiative and strength, so I have to compliment my team,” summed up Altenburg. The statistics of 52:7 circle entries, 20:1 shots on goal and 17:2 penalty corners also spoke volumes, but in the end it was only the converted penalty corner by captain Nike Lorenz in the 38th minute that ensured progress . Co-captain Sonja Zimmermann promised improvement: “In the future we will work on our efficiency and then I will continue to be confident.”

For the Germans it was the third win in the fourth tournament game before the quarter-finals against the still undefeated New Zealanders on Tuesday (5:00 p.m.), also in Amstelveen. As the winners of preliminary round B, the “Black Sticks” qualified directly for the round of the top eight and avoided the detour via a “crossover”.

In any case, this encounter will be the Germans’ fifth and last game in the Amsterdam suburbs. Because the winners travel to Terrassa in Spain after the Final Four, for the losers the World Cup is over. “We still have a couple of goals left, but we can build on our super-sovereign game against South Africa,” said Viktoria Huse from Hamburg.

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