At the start of the Olympic Games, in 7:1 against Canada, German hockey men are challenged in stages only. But veteran Tobias Hawke has been deeply affected by another cause.
Tobias Hawk took a deep breath. “I can’t even feel we’re really here,” the captain of the German national hockey team said after a 7–1 (4–1) sovereign victory at the Olympic tournament in Tokyo against Canada. On and on whether it will happen. And now we really are in this beautiful stadium and we can leave everything we put in place – at the biggest sporting event in the world. “
When the 33-year-old Hawke, who has scored a third Olympic victory in his fourth Summer Games as his clear goal, appears touched after a disdainful opening victory against a second-class rival at the international level, it is the tournament’s final victory. Shows a lot of features. And that probably explains why “Honamas” still had a slightly harder time at the start of its gold mission on Saturday.
After a 1–0 win against the North Americans, the team “missed a bit of concentration at the start,” criticizing striker Florian Fuchs: “We want to stop it. We want to make it 2–0, we succeed. Didn’t happen.”
At the OE Hockey Stadium, Lucas Windfeeder took the lead at a temperature of around 30 °C. Keegan Pereira (16.) managed to equalize in the second quarter for the Canadians, who are being coached by German Andre Henning.
With double (22nd, 25th) goal scorers Christopher Ruhr quickly clear conditions were ensured for better selection by the German Hockey Association (DHB). The windfeder advanced to the sub-European champion with a second converted penalty corner shortly before the brake siren (28th). Experienced Martin Hainer also succeeded with a penalty corner in his 263rd international match (44th), Niklas Böserhof (59th) and the recently injured Mats Grambusch (60th) scored a late goal for the final score.
“It was an important first step and a lot of fun,” said Hawke, a hotly contested flag-bearer candidate in Tokyo. However, an increase in performance is inevitable for the upcoming tasks. The next rival world champions await the German men in Belgium on Monday (2:30 a.m. / CEST), a much stronger opponent who had previously celebrated a 3-1 early victory in the top match against European champions the Netherlands. The German women start against Olympic champions Great Britain on Sunday (2:30 CEST).
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