Pak pays for penalty misses, crashes out

kuala lumpur: it was all about incisive penalty corners. and there were just two players in this contest - german skipper florian kunz and pakistan’s sohail abbas. what tilted the scales in favour of the former was that he was able to deliver whenever it mattered. it took the germans into the semifinal of the 10th men’s world cup hockey tournament - the ninth time they have done so.at the main pitch of the bukit jalil stadium here on tuesday morning, germany were on target from three of the five penalty corners they earned, never mind that the one that fetched them the second goal was a gift from umpire jason mcracken of new zealand. pakistan, on the other hand, managed to net only two of the eight penalty corners awarded to them. the early birds who hauled themselves into the stadium were treated to a high-quality contest. it was a do-or-die situation for both teams. the pakistanis held a slight edge in the midfield for most part of the tussle. but they were never allowed to show their flair, their artistry, their finesse. the robust and rigid rival defence offered them little scope and space. and, oh yes, the umpires, too! and the germans, like most european teams, relied on the quick breakaway. hard off-the-ball running, long incisive passes, deft trapping to put pressure on the pakistani defence and penalty corners. from their second penalty corner, in the 19th minute, they struck. kunz’s low flick came off goalkeeper muhammad qasim’s pads and sasha reinelt fastened onto the rebound and placed the ball into the nets. four minutes had elapsed and germany were awarded another penalty corner. right half muhammad usman made a clean tackle to steal the ball from bjorn michael. but mccracken thought otherwise and kunz made no mistake to put his side two up. pakistan were down but not out. they forced the pace and during the last five minutes of the first half, they earned as many penalty corners in quick succession. from the last, almost on the buzzer, sohail abbas showed that he too could match his german counterpart. and he did it again three minutes after resumption to put the four-time champions on an even keel. but even as pakistan pushed forward in forlorn pursuit of a goal, germany struck once again through kunz from their fourth penalty corner in the 49th minute. and on the hour, kunz missed out on becoming the first player to register a hat-trick when the upright came in the way of another forceful flick that had qasim beaten all ends up. however, a minute earlier, pakistan were reduced to ten men when tariq imran was sent out by umpire clive mcmurray of south africa after he accidentally bumped into a rival player. pakistan were clearly at a disadvantage when germany got the match-winner.