KUALA LUMPUR: Germany were forced to dig deep into their vaunted teamwork for a come-from-behind 4-3 win over Britain in their Sultan of Johor Cup (SoJC) final Group A match at the Taman Daya Stadium today.
In another Group A match, Australia beat South Africa 4-0 to finish top of the group and also qualified for the semi-finals.
Both Germany and Australia finished with seven points each after three matches, but Australia have one goal more.
Britain were first to get off the blocks and sounded the board in the fourth minute. Rory Penrose flicked a knee-high ball straight into Germany goalkeeper Joshua Onyekwue Nnaji who palmed the ball away, but Johnny Sturch Hibbitt pounced on the rebound and hit it into goal to give the three-time SoJC champions a 1-0 lead.
Germany, ranked World No. 2, equalised and then took the lead at 2-1 through penalty corner conversions by Jacob Brilla and Paul Glander in the 20th and 33rd minutes respectively.
The match then went neck-and-neck with both teams scoring and at one moment, it stood at 3-3 before the Germans scraped into the semis at 4-3.
The other German goals were scored by Michel Struthoff (52nd) and Florian Sperling (56th).
Henry Markham (52nd) and Tom Moorhouse were the other Britain scorers.
Australia, who played with 17 players because Brodee Foster was suspended after a scuffle with Germany the day before, took their time and scored through Cooper Burns (15th, 51st), Will Mathison (24th), Dylan Downey (41st).
