England's last Champions Trophy win came against Korea in 2001, winning 4-3. This time they went one better when they beat Korea by 4-2.
England started well in their final group match. A smart move in the first minute between HGC teammates Ashley Jackson and Barry Middleton could have resulted in a goal if the players in the circle had been able to control the ball. Shortly afterwards England won their first penalty corner, but the shot by Jackson was charged down by Moon Kyu Kang.
Twenty minutes in and England had three corners in quick succession and finally a shot by Jackson was followed up by Ali Wilson to open the scoring. Korea pressed forward and with two minutes to go a decision by the umpire against England left them exposed at the back and Korea took full advantage to equalise through captain Sung Hoon Yoon. 1-1 at half time.
England came out strongly in the second half and the ball was put in the back of the net by Richard Alexander, after his initial shot was parried and Middleton's follow-up hit the post. The umpire gave a penalty corner for a Korean foul, but a video referral by captain Middleton showed that the whistle had gone as the ball crossed the line and so the goal, and the lead, were given to England. 2-1. Ten minutes later and a super move started by Jackson, to Jonty Clarke in the circle gave Nick Catlin chance to score his first senior goal for England for a 3-1 lead.
England were caught napping though midway through the half when Nam Yong Lee turned and shot past keeper Brothers.
Mindful of the Korean comeback against Spain, England kept up the pressure and in the last minute earned another penalty corner, this time put away by Richard Mantell to earn England a 4-2 win.
Our image from Daniel Carson shows Richard Alexander battling with Korea's Seung Il Lee.
England will play Spain for the 5/6 match on Sunday.
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In the second game of the day the Australian team rewrote Champions Trophy history when they played Spain. Not only did they score the highest number of goals in a Champions Trophy match, but the match itself saw the record smashed for the most goals scored in the history of the tournament, a massive 13 in total.
It wasn't until the second half that the rout started. Indeed in the first half after goals from Grant Schubert and Eduard Tubau, Pol Amat produced a wonderful individual goal, likened in elegance to Zorro wielding a sword, to give Spain the lead. Luke Doerner equalised from the penalty corner before half time.
Schubert took the lead in the goal scorers list when he took his tally to six soon after the half time restart from a penalty stroke. Spain equalised through David Alegre, from the penalty corner before Doerner scored his second, again from the penalty corner to give Australia a 4-3 lead. From then on in it was Australia all the way, goals coming at regular intervals until the end of the game. What was even more satisfying was that all of them were field goals. Taylor and Kavanagh with two apiece, Dwyer and Ockenden completed the scoring to make the final score 10-3.
In the third game of the day, goals were also forthcoming as the Dutch attempted to beat Germany by four goals in order to make it through to the final, courtesy of their earlier 7-2 loss to Australia earlier in the week. In the end it was too much for them.
The Netherlands got off to a good start when a superb individual run by van der Horst was stopped by a German foul and the resultant penalty stroke was converted by Taeke Taekema. Matthias Withaus equalised five minutes later before the youngest player of the tournament, Florian Fuchs, gave Germany the lead. Rob Reckers scored before half time to level it up at 2-2.
After the break the Dutch stepped up a gear and Teun de Nooijer made it 3-2 three minutes into the half. Reckers then made it 4-2 following up from a Taekema penalty corner rebound. There followed two more penalty corners for the Dutch but they were unable to put them away, the German defence holding strong. Fuchs scored his second in between to make it 4-3 and nearly made it a hat-trick before the end of the game. Germany will now play in the gold medal match against Australia on Sunday with The Netherlands playing Korea for the bronze.
