Ireland 2 Germany 2
Coach Graham Shaw felt a final second umpiring blunder played a big role in denying Ireland a huge win over Olympic bronze medalists Germany, meaning his side had to settle for a second successive draw at the Hockey World League in Johannesburg.
Deidre Duke’s goal 44 seconds from full-time made it 2-1 and should have handed his side victory after a “monumental defensive effort”. But Germany summoned a penalty corner with just a couple of seconds to go which, at the second attempt, Nike Lorenz planted into the bottom corner.
Shaw, however, said that 40-second countdown protocol for penalty corners was not followed, with the umpires allowing to take their final set-piece before Ireland were ready. The rule exists primarily as a safety precaution. It sees time stopped to allow defenders put on protective equipment in one of the sport’s most dangerous moments, facing down direct shots of up to 90mph.
“On the big screen, the short corner counter was still counting down with 12 seconds to go when they took the corner,” Shaw said. You have to wait until it hits zero and so the goal should not have been given.
“It would have given us 10 seconds to get set and also means our ’keeper would be more ready. That’s where the frustration is and it’s not a difficult decision to get right.”
Nonetheless, it was a second strong showing in the tournament from the Irish side against higher-ranked opposition.
They carved open the Germans on numerous occasions in the first quarter before Katie Mullan won a corner which Zoe Wilson, via a heavy deflection, opened the scoring.
Germany soon shut down the free-running counters in the second quarter and began to turn the screw, pinning Ireland deep in defence for the guts of the tie.
Ayeisha McFerran kept out eight penalty corners with a superlative showing between the posts before she was eventually beaten by Amelie Wortmann’s touch at the right post with four minutes to go.
Ireland replied, though, buoyed by the sin-binning of Janne Muller-Wieland and got back in front in the final minute when Nicci Daly glided in between tackles and pumped into the circle where Anna O'Flanagan and Duke were buzzing around. The latter poked home.
But the Germans created an almost instant overlap in the closing seconds to put Ireland on the rack one last time and they took their chance.
“I thought we executed the gameplan brilliantly,” Shaw added. “The girls worked incredibly hard. Germany had a lot of the play and hard us on the back foot a lot which you expect against the Olympic bronze medalists. We put in a great effort and are very frustrated not to come away with the win.”
Ireland are back in action on Wednesday against Poland where a win will assure their passage through to the quarter-finals.
The Irish men continue their campaign on Tuesday at 5pm (Irish time) against Belgium.
IRELAND: A McFerran, N Evans, K Mullan, S McCay, L Tice, G Pinder, R Upton, N Daly, H Matthews, A O'Flanagan, Z Wilson. Subs: Y O'Byrne, E Beatty, S Loughran, L Colvin, D Duke
GERMANY: J Ciupka, N Lorenz, C Stapenhorst, J Muller-Wieland, N Heyn, J Teschke, L Altenburg, F Hauke, C Pieper, M Mavers, H Granitzki. Subs: E Grave, T Martin Pelegrina, C Nobis, N Notman, A Wortmann, V Huse, L Schneider.
