Penalty-corner conversions can be decisive in the final

New Delhi: For Australia’s penalty-corner expert and their principal scorer Luke Doerner, breaching the German defence in the Hockey World Cup final Saturday will be a big challenge.

Doerner, the joint top-scorer of the tournament with the Dutch Taeke Taekama, has scored all his seven goals through short corners and is hoping that his stinging drag-flicks do not misfire in the tournament’s title match. “It has been a good tournament for me and I hope that I can make those chances count for my team in the final,” Doerner told reporters. “Penalty corners are very important in modern hockey. There is a lot of emphasis on a good penalty-corner conversion rate because it sets up the match. You need to have skill and lot of training to make it perfect.” “Germany have a strong defence and they improved with every match. But I don’t think there will be any pressure on me in the final. I have been steady and the timing of the strokes is going right for me,” said the 29-year-old defender. Doerner said the Australian team would be hoping to be third time lucky after losing in the previous two World Cup finals. “We share a good rivalry. Germany are good competitors and they excel in major tournaments. We are in good form but we know that we have to fight for everything against them,” said Doerner, a member of the Australian team that lost to Germany in 2006 World Cup at Monchengladbach. Both teams will look to convert their penalty corners as they have a good conversion rate going into the finals. Australia, after wasting a dozen penalty corners while going down to England in their first match, came back splendidly to score 10 goals from penalty corners in their next five matches with Doerner doing bulk of the job. Germany on the other hand, have scored 12 penalty-corner goals, and through nine different players. The defending champions have come up with some brilliant set-pieces using various combination to catch the rivals on the wrong foot. “They have been brilliant with their set-piece variations and I think we have to study and do homework for the final. We will have to work out a strategy,” says Doerner, also a defender. Another Australian player Mark Knowels agrees with Doerner’s observation that Germany’s defence has stood rock solid. “We know that we have to fight for every ball. We cannot afford to relax against Germany. They are very strong in defence and are also penetrative upfront. We have been playing an attacking game. It will be about taking chances in the final.” “We have been the top two sides of the world for a few years now. And it shows in top tournaments for which we reserve our best and come out on top. We have had a healthy rivalry and hopefully this time we can pull it off.” IANS