Germany have completed the line-up for Beijing by winning the Olympic Qualifier in Japan. The side produced another scintillating performance to defeat host nation Japan 4-0, in front of a capacity crowd at the event in Kakamigahara. A brilliant open play goal from Florian KELLER and penalty corner efforts from Christopher ZELLER (2) and Sebastian DRAGUHN were enough to guarantee their participation at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The team went through the tournament without conceding a single goal - an incredible achievement.  

Germany also celebrated two winners in the end of tournament awards.
Christopher ZELLER was named top goal scorer with nine goals, while Germany captain Timo WESS was given the award for Player of the Tournament. Goalkeeper of the Tournament was given to Kumar SUBRAMANIAM of Malaysia, with Italy winning the Fair Play award. 

Details about all of today's matches can be found below.

Match 16: Switzerland v Italy – 2-3
Italy claimed their first victory of the tournament, defeating Switzerland 3-2 to claim 5^th place in the Olympic Qualifying competition.  
Yesterday’s encounter between the two sides saw Switzerland come away with a convincing 4-0 win, but this was a very different fixture. Italy caused Switzerland a lot more problems than they had done in match 15, which suggested that they may have been saving themselves for this game. Italy took the lead through Massimo LANZANO, who angled his stick perfectly to deflect a cross from the right into the Switzerland goal. LANZANO also had two penalty corner opportunities in the last ten minutes of the half, as well as another deflected effort which was just wide of the target. Switzerland’s chances in the first half were limited, but the side won a penalty corner three minutes after half time. Thomas GÄHWILER smashed the ball into the goal, but the effort was correctly disallowed for being too high. Amazingly, Italy went 2-0 up in the 48^th minute when Agustin NUNEZ slapped the ball into the goal as Switzerland failed to clear, but Switzerland pulled a goal back two minutes later with a well taken penalty corner from Philip KELLER. The scores were tied when Reto SPÖRRI converted another penalty corner for Switzerland, and at that point it seemed that they would go on to claim the victory. However, Massimo LANZANO had other ideas, and scored a wonderful individual goal in the 60th minute, beating two players and the goalkeeper with a driving run from the left. Switzerland were stunned, but worked hard to find an equaliser. However Italy held on for the victory, sparking on-field celebrations from the players and staff.  

Match 17: Malaysia v Poland – 3-0
Malaysia recovered from the disappointment that they suffered at the hands of Japan yesterday to secure third place in the competition with a 3-0 victory over Poland. Malaysia were the better team throughout the match, and fully deserved their victory. Tenku Tajuddin TG ABDUL JALIL was the star of the show for Malaysian, scoring a brace of field goals, with Mohd Amin RAHIM also getting on the score-sheet.
The early stages of the first half were tight, but Malaysia looked the side more threatening going forward. Malaysia got the breakthrough in the 26^th minute, when Boon Huat CHUA passed the ball square to Tengku Tajuddin ABDUL JALIL who had the easiest job of passing the ball into the open goal. The second goal came in the second half, courtesy of a powerful penalty corner from Mohd Amin RAHIM, which flew inside the post. After this, Malaysia could have scored at least two more were it not for Poland’s big defender Thomas DUITKIEWICZ, who made some impressive blocks when goals seemed a certainty. However, his efforts were only delaying an inevitable third goal for Malaysia, which duly came from the stick of Tengku Tajuddin ABDUL JALIL in the 69^th minute. The goal was a tap-in made easy by an outstanding interchange of passes between Boon Huat CHUA and Kevinder Singh MAKBUL SINGH. Malaysia will be pleased to finish the tournament with a win, but disappointed that they did not do better in this tournament.

Match 18: Germany v Japan – 4-0
The match started at an incredible pace, far quicker than anything seen in the previous matches at this tournament. Japan firmly believed that they had a chance of defeating the world champions, but needed to do something that no other team had done during this tournament against Germany- score a goal. In the 12^th minute, Japan had possibly the best chance that any team has had against Germany this week, when Hiroki SAKAMOTO deflected a shot high over the bar from close range. That miss was to prove costly for Japan. Midway through the half, Florian KELLER spectacularly deflected into the goal from a cross by Matthias WITTHAUS to make the score 1-0, causing the cheering Japanese supporters to fall silent. Japan continued to press high, and this nearly resulted in a second goal for Germany. Christopher ZELLER launched a stunning 50 metre aerial pass to Tobias HAUKE, who in turn passed to Oliver KORN to miss the chance.  
Germany dominated the latter stages of the first half, and continued to do the same in the second period. Japan worked hard to defend, but eventually Germany got the vital goals that they needed. Christopher ZELLER secured his place at the top of the goal scoring charts with a well-worked corner routine, before effectively sealing their qualification with another penalty corner midway through the half. With three minutes left to play, Germany equalled the number of goals that they had scored against Japan in Match 12, with Sebastian DRAGUHN’s drag-flick sailing into the top corner of the net to make it 4-0. In the final minute of the game, Japan won a penalty corner of their own, but Takahiko YAMABORI’s flick hit the inside of the right post before bouncing away to safety. The Germany players celebrated their qualification at the end of the game, in a tournament that saw them concede not a single goal.  

GOALS

Switzerland v Italy
ITA – Massimo LANZANO FG 25m
ITA – Agustin NUNEZ FG 48m
SUI – Philip KELLER PC 50m
SUI – Reto SPÖRRI PC 58m
ITA – Massimo LANZANO FG 60m

Malaysia v Poland
MAS – Tenku Tajuddin TG ABDUL JALIL FG 26m
MAS – Mohd Amin RAHIM PC 53m
MAS – Tenku Tajuddin TG ABDUL JALIL FG 69m

Germany v Japan
GER – Florian KELLER FG 15m
GER - Christopher ZELLER PC 39m
GER - Christopher ZELLER PC 47m
GER – Sebastian DRAGUHN PC 68m