Women Pool B - United States v. Germany: 4-1 (1-0)

Team USA made it four wins out of four at the Rabobank Hockey World Cup to maintain their fairytale charge for the semi-finals with a crushing 4-1 victory over European Champions Germany. Kathleen Sharkey netted a brace with Caroline Nichols and Katie Reinprecht also on target as the lowest ranked team in Pool B produced another remarkable performance against supposedly superior opposition to move within touching distance of their first semi-final berth since the 1994 event in Dublin, Ireland. Tenth-ranked USA now sit proudly on 10 points, and know that even if they are defeated in their final Pool B game against South Africa there is still a strong chance that they will compete for the medals.  

World number six Germany started the game in positive fashion, powered on by the knowledge that they desperately needed a victory if they were going to maintain any hopes of claiming a top two finish. The European Champions, cheered on by a large German contingent among the capacity crowd at the GreenFields Stadium, dominated the early stages and nearly opened the match scoring when Hannah Gladbac moved into the circle from the right before striking a backhand effort fractionally wide of the left post. 

A long spell of Die Danas' pressure culminated in a 12th minute penalty corner following impressive stick work from Marie Maevers, but Tina Bachmann's mid-height drag-flick was batted away with ease by USA shot-stopper Jackie Kintzer. 

Despite Germany's dominance, the American girls were excellent in defence and grew in confidence as the half progressed, with Caroline Nichols slapping two ultimately unsuccessful penalty corner efforts towards goal mid-way through the period. Katie O'Donnell also went close, weaving her way into the circle from the right but failing to get her backhand effort on target before the opener arrived two minutes before half time. The goal went the way of USA, with Kathleen Sharkey latching onto a through pass before brilliantly wrong-footing Germany 'keeper Barbara Vogel and slotting the ball in-off the right post. 

Germany appeared to still reeling from the shockwaves of Sharkey's strike at the start of the second half, and soon found themselves two goals behind thanks to an inch-perfect penalty corner slap-shot from Nichols in the 39th minute. 

The knock-out punch was landed in the 42nd minute, with Katie Reinprecht cracking a forehand drive just inside the left post after a superb run and pass from the outstanding O'Donnell.   

Things went from bad to worse for Germany 10 minutes later thanks to a terrible pass from defensive linchpin Tina Bachmann, passing the ball directly to USA striker Sharkey who produced an emphatic tomahawk shot to give the Americans a 4-0 lead. Germany netted a consolation goal through Kristina Hillmann 10 minutes from time, but it proved to be too little too late. 

After being told that that there is only a small mathematical chance that USA won't make the semi-finals, team captain Lauren Crandall said: "That's good to know! I'm really proud of my team mates. We just focus on bringing the intensity to every single game, and are taking it one game at a time."

Official Match Report (PDF)

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