German resilience triumphs in WC, India’s wait for medal continues

Bhubaneswar: In a World Cup of high-quality hockey, the German “culture of resilience” triumphed, ending Belgium’s five-year reign as the most successful team, while hosts India’s nearly five-decade long wait for a medal continued.

The Germans made another stunning comeback from a two-goal deficit to beat defending champions Belgium 5-4 in a penalty shootout of a classic summit clash. The two sides were locked 3-3 in the regulation time of 60 minutes on Sunday.

This was the third time in the showpiece that Germany had won after trailing 0-2 and their fabled mental strength and never-say-die attitude came to the fore again. They had done so against England in the quarterfinals and against Australia in the semifinals.

Germany joined Australia and Netherlands to have clinched the World Cup title three times. Only Pakistan have won the World Cup four times. Germany’s earlier triumphs had come in 2002 and 2006. They were runners-up in 1982 and 2010 and finished sixth and fifth in the 2014 and 2018 editions respectively.

The triumph also took Germany to the top of FIH world rankings from the pre-tournament fourth place.

“This triumph is incredible, I don’t have any words to describe this feat,” German coach Andre Henning said after his side’s first title win since 2006.

“We came back from 0-2 down in the quarterfinals, semifinals and now in the final. You cannot now say it is luck, it is due to the quality in this team. We had the belief throughout that we can win this World Cup.”

Netherlands, who had finished runners-up in the last two editions, clinched their fourth straight medal after beating Australia 3-1 in the bronze play-off. They had also won a bronze in the 2010 edition.

For Australia, this was the first time they returned home without a medal after they finished fourth in the 1998 edition. They had won a bronze in the last edition.

German striker Niklas Wellen, who scored a last-minute goal against Australia in the semifinals and another one in the final, was fittingly named player of the tournament. He was also the joint third highest scorer with seven strikes, sharing the position with Netherlands captain Thierry Brinkman.

Australia’s Jeremy Hayward emerged as the tournament’s top scorer with nine goals in six matches while Tom Boon of Belgium, Victor Charlet of France and Jip Janssen of Netherlands were joint second with eight goals each. Belgium had started their ‘incredible journey’ as the world’s best side by winning the 2018 World Cup at the same Kalinga Stadium where they were beaten by the Germans on Sunday.

The Belgians had won the Tokyo Olympics title after that. Their coach Michel van den Heuvel had actually used this term ‘German culture of resilience’ in the pre-final press conference and had warned his players of the enormous mental strength of their opponents but, in the end, they could not find a way to deal with it.

“It is disappointing not to have won this World Cup. But we are proud of this group which has done incredibly well in the last few years,” van den Heuvel said. “Every opponent had been looking for an opportunity and ways to win against us in these years. Now, it is our turn to try and find

an answer in the next one

and half years,” he added, indicating that they will bounce back in the 2024 Paris Olympics. The next World Cup

in 2026 will be co-hosted

by Belgium and Netherlands and under tournament rules both the countries have already qualified for the showpiece.

Overall, it was a high-quality World Cup with no clear favourites.

The four semifinalists and England, who lost to eventual champions Germany in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals, could have beaten any side on their day.

For India, though, it was yet another disappointment in their second consecutive home World Cup as they made a shock exit before the quarterfinals stage.

If the Germans made it a habit of coming back from 0-2 down to win the World Cup, it was the opposite for India as the hosts, ranked sixth in the world, squandered a two-goal advantage to lose to New Zealand, six places below them in world rankings, in penalty shootout in their crossover match. With crores of rupees being spent on training, exposure tours and support staff salaries, this team would have done better and at least reached the quarterfinals, if not the semifinals.

In the end, this was India’s fifth worst placing in all the 15th editions of the World Cup the country has participated in. India had finished below ninth on four occasions -- in 1986 (12th), 1990 (10th), 2002 (10th) and 2006 (11th).

They had finished ninth in 1998 and 2014 also. India had crashed out in the quarterfinal in the home World Cup in 2018.