It could be third time lucky for us: Charlesworth

“Germany are very consistent in their game and have high quality players around the field. They don’t have any weaknesses but we have to find some in the final,” said Charlesworth, who was part of Australia’s only World Cup winning team in 1986.
“Who knows, it could be third time lucky for us.”

Mark Knowles, one of the three Australian captains at the World Cup hockey, said the final would be an exciting encounter. “It’s going to be a brilliant final. The number one and number two teams meeting in the final – that is what the World Cup is all about,” said Knowles. “When we met earlier, we weren’t ranked one and two but now we are one and two. This is the final we are looking forward to and we would love to have that mantle of the world champion.”

Knowles said the fact that his team lost the last two World Cup finals to Germany would have no impact on Saturday’s game.

“Germany is a great team. We lost the last two finals but this is a new group. We have six players who were there in 2006 and two from the 2002 team. We are looking forward to getting one back at them,” he said.

The midfielder said Australia would stick to its attacking game-plan.

“The final will be a matter of taking your chances. We will play an attacking game. It will be a good physical game. Germans are a good team and they will fight for every ball; we will have to do the same thing tomorrow,” he said.