Picture: Germany''s Benjamin Wess avoids a Glenn Kirkham strike during one of England's rare first half incursions into the German circle.All writers are told to avoid clichés, but it was most definitely a game of two halves. In the first half England's standard of play reminded me of the bad old days and, as coach Jason Lee later admitted, "Four or five players didn't play very well." And England were punished for it, until they managed to gain some composure in the second half.
England appeared to be unable to shake off an early setback, when Oskar Deecke opened the German account after only five minutes. Although the Germans failed to find the back of the net for another 25 minutes, a seven minute spell made it look as if England were facing a rout, with goals from Jan-Marco Montag, Martin Haner and Bejamin Wess, giving Germany a 4-0 lead at the break.
England looked a far more credible threat to the Germans in a second half, with Ashley Jackson scoring twice from rebounds from his own penalty corner strikes, but overall a worrying performance from a side which has shown so much improvement over the last few months. Lee attributed part of the problem to a mixed England and GB training programme of late but, in this writer's humble view, the absence of injured Middleton and Richard Mantell had reduced the performance of the team to a level where they could not meet the Germans on anything like equal terms.
If England had problems, they did not face anything half as humbling as New Zealand's 9-1 drubbing at the hands of Australia, with goals from Jamie Dwyer, Luke Doerner(2), Jason Wilson (2), Simon Orchard, Glenn Turner and Russell Ford (2). The ghost of Nottingham haunted this match when an Australian penalty corner goal was disallowed after a video appeal. The injector had his back foot on the line. My spies tell me that the umpires were briefed to warn the player if they had two feet on the pitch after the incident at Nottingham three weeks ago but somehow umpire Vasquez Lopez had not noticed.
The Netherlands beat Spain 5-2 in a lively match to finish the day's proceedings. England meet Spain in the final game tomorrow (Sunday).
Summary of first day:
Germany 4 England 2
Australia 9 New Zealand 1
Netherlands 5 Spain 2
Table after one match:
1. Australia 3 pts (+8)
2. Netherland 3 pts (+3)
3. Germany 3 pts (+2)
4. England 0 pts (-2)
5. Spain 0pts (-3)
6. New Zealand (-8)
