HOCKEY WORLD CUP, 2010 WINNER-AUSTRALIA
Australia proved that they are the number one team in hockey by winning the ‘World Cup, 2010′. They defeated two-time defending champion Germany with the score 2-1 in the final of the ‘World Cup’ hockey on Saturday. Thus the Australians overshadowed the dream of Germany to become the first team in history to bag a hat-trick of World Cup title. This victory was Australia’s first victory after their 24- year world cup victory. Australia’s first world cup victory was in the year 1986 against England. In addition, Australia was beaten by Germany in the previous two World Cup finals in 2002 and 2006.
ABOUT AUSTRALIAN HOCKEY TEAM
Australian hockey team is the most successful team in the world. This team won any medal in the last five Summer Olympics and won a gold medal in 2004 Olympics. They are the winner of ‘Champions Trophy’ for ten times and in last December, they won their 10th Champions Trophy by beating Olympic champions Germany in the final. They won their first World Cup title in 1986 by defeating England in the final. Now they gained their second World Cup title by beating two-time defending champion and Olympic champion Germany in the final. Australia started this World Cup campaign with a loss against England. After that, they never looked back, and they won the victory against India with the score 5-3, against South Africa with record score 12-0, against Spain with 2-0, against Pakistan with 2-1 in the qualifying round matches. In the semi final, Australia defeated Netherlands with the score 2-1. At last, they won their second World Cup title by defeating Germany in the final with the score 2-1. Former Australian player Ric Charlesworth is the current coach of the Australian team and now he holds a unique record of winning the World Cup as a player and a coach, because he was the captain of the 1986 Cup squad.
Australian squad : Des Abbott, George Bazeley, Graeme Begbie, Kiel Brown, Nathan Burgers, Matthew Butturini, Liam De Young, Luke Doerner, Jamie Dwyer, Kieran Govers, Rob Hammond, Fergus Kavanagh, Mark Knowles, Eddie Ockenden, Simon Orchard, Grant Schubert, Matthew Swann, Glenn Turner.