The Black Sticks Men have suffered a tough 6-1 defeat at the hands of world number three Germany at the Six Nations in Valencia.
The Kiwis struggled against the super-efficient Germans who scored four of their goals from penalty corners, one from a penalty stroke and another field goal.
Mortiz
Furste grabbed a hat-trick while Jonas Gomoll, Tom Grambusch and Christopher Ruhr were also on the board for Germany.
The Black Sticks manged a consolation goal one minute from fulltime with a penalty corner drag flick from Kane Russell.
Head coach Colin Batch said it was a disappointing result and shows some areas of the game that still need working on.
"Its a pretty disappointing performance from us today. Our first quarter was ok but then Germany hit their strides and we couldnt stem the flow," he said.
"We needed to put more pressure on Germany but once they raced out to a four goal lead at halftime it was very hard work from there."
Germany opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Furste sent a penalty corner flick low and hard past Devon Manchester in goal.
Five minutes later it was a replay of the first goal with Furste doubling his sides advantage.
In the 14th minute the Germans were awarded a penalty stroke for a judged push in the circle, Jonas Gomoll converting to open a three goal lead.
Furste scored his hat-trick midway through the second quarter from his third successful penalty corner of the match.
Germany then raced out to a 6-0 lead after further goals from Grambusch (48th minute) and Ruhr (50th minute).
The Black Sticks managed to pull one back in the 59th minute when Russell flicked to the right side of Jacobi and into the back of the net.
The Black Sticks have a rest day tomorrow ahead of their next clash against India at 4am Friday morning (NZ time), with live streaming at www.hockeynz.co.nz/Video
BLACK STICKS 1: (Kane Russell)
GERMANY 6: (Mortiz Furste 3, Jonas Gromoll, Tom Grambusch, Christopher Ruhr)
Halftime: Germany 4-0
- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Hockey NZ
