England profits from weak German offense

21st August 2011, GANT EHC, Mönchengladbach: England - Germany 2:0 (1:0)

21.08.2011 - England took a giant step towards the semi-finals on the second day of the GANT EuroHockey European Championships with a 2:0 (1:0) defeat of the host German team. The player of the match was Crista Cullen, who scored both goals in the high-speed game.

In the first half 26-year-old Cullen converted her team’s second penalty corner to put the English into the lead 1:0 (18). She got past the German goalkeeper Kristina Reynolds with a stroke from a short distance out. After that the English striker continued to challenge the German defense with quick combinations. Luck and a strong performance from their goalie saved Germany from falling even further behind. It was also Crista Cullen who scored the decisive second goal by again converting a penalty corner in the 40th minute. Her scoop shot from the edge of the circle was unstoppable.

In the following minutes, England dominated the play and had further chances to increase their lead, but the score remained 2:0. After the game Michael Behrmann, the German trainer, criticised his team’s offensive play. “We didn’t manage to perform as well as usual today. Most of all, we didn’t put them under enough pressure in the circle” was his analysis. On the other hand, English coach Danny Kerry praised his offense, who created seven penalty corners to the Germans’ one and converted two of them. The coach described the progress of his team: “Yesterday we had problems using our chances, but today we played forward with discipline and scored the necessary goals,”

Goals:

1:0 Crista Cullen (PC, 18)

-----------------

2:0 Crista Cullen (PC, 40)

Penalty corners:

ENG 7 (2 goals) / GER 1 (0)

Green card:

GER: Julia Müller (31)

Umpires:

Ashton-Lucy / Eskina