Champions Trophy 2011: Australia vs England in final

Glenn Kirkham, England’s captain

Australia vs England in Champions Trophy final, no this is not cricket, but hockey. For the first time in history England has reached the finals of ABN AMRO FIH Champions Trophy, where they will face current world champions and the best team in the world Australia.

Jamie Dwyer, Australian Captain

This year’s Champions Trophy has been nothing less than exciting. Australia won all their 5 games to reach the final, scoring 24 goals while conceding 8 goals in the process. This time all the teams had a chance of qualifying for the final until the last game. And well, England qualified for the finals after beating Black Sticks(NZ) 4-3 in the last game. Out of 5 games played England has won 2 of them, has drawn 1 and lost two games. But the major problem is their goal difference which is -1. They have scored 15 goals and conceded 16 goals in this process.
But England will try and get motivation from their last World Cup win against Australia when they beat Australia 3-2 in their first game of the tournament. That game told other countries about the potential, hard work and practice England team had done in the last few years. That game was result of all the hard work.
England had lost their group stage match to Australia, but their spirited performance was enough to tell about their standard.
As said earlier this is by far the best finish for England in the CT. Their previous best was 5th position. England’s biggest strength and weakness is the same. Goals. They have scored 13 field goals in the tournament while only 2 have come from penalty corners. If they have to beat the invincible Australia, they will have to add some goals through penalty corners also. Their defense is also a major problem, and goal difference of -1 will easily tell about their defensive woes.
While Australia has beaten all the teams in the competition and with their forward line doing good damage, it will be tough to stop them. They beat NZ 9-1, Holland 6-3, England 3-2. Spain 3-1 and Germany 3-1. Jamie Dwyer undoubtedly the best forward in the world today has scored 4 goals in the tournament so far.  Australia has also scored majority of field goals and their defense has also been good.
Looking at the current form of both the teams, Australia can take this home easily. And it is England’s job to stop them from taking CT home.