The second day of the hockey World Cup in The Hague saw the German men top of pool B after defeating South Africa 4-0 on Sunday.
The Dutch men, beaten by Germany in the 2012 Olympic final, started their campaign on home soil with a 3-1 victory over Argentina to become second.
New Zealand are third in the pool after Phil Burrows struck late to secure his Black Sticks a 2-1 win over Korea.
Valentin Verga, Mink van der Weerden and Rogier Hofman scored much to the delight of the Dutch supporters in the almost fully packed Kyocera stadium which has a capacity of 15,000 spectators.
“We watched our women’s team last night so we knew what to expect from the game,” Hofman said. “We changed our plans accordingly because we knew we wouldn’t be able to hear each other.”
Earlier, the women’s pool B competition saw the US team upset England 2-1. Paige Selenski scored an early penalty corner goal before Kelsey Kolojejchick doubled the lead when deflecting a shot coming off a penalty corner. Kate Richardson-Walsh’s penalty corner goal came too late for England to make any difference.
“It was a great experience and amazing to go out and get a win,” Selenski said. s
China held Germany to a 1-1 draw. Peng Yang equalised just a minute later after Hannah Krueger had put Germany ahead with a penalty corner goal.
