Bhubaneswar: Germany regained the Men’s Hockey Champions Trophy after a gap of seven years, defeating three-time title winners Pakistan 2-0 in the title clash at the Kalinga Stadium Hockey Complex here on Saturday.
A field goal each by Christopher Wesley and Florian Fuchs enabled Germany win the glittering trophy for the 10th time overall.
Overwhelming crowd support also came as blessing for Germany, who hardly gave their opponents a chance to score. Germany’s defensive line, marshalled by imperious captain Moritz Furste, did a wonderful job in the match.
Before scoring their first goal, Germany frittered away at least three scoring chances, including two penalty corners. Florian Fuchs missed the best opportunity in the 14th minute.
It was a solo move which saw the skillful forward ran down the middle from the centre line, dodged past three defenders and reached a vacant slot to score.But his tumbling backhan hit missed the target by inches.
Four minutes later, Christopher Wesley drew first blood with a superb field goal. With three minutes to go for the hooter, Fuchs struck second goal, once again exhibiting superb skill and athleticism.
The Germans would have won the match by a bigger margin had they not missed another two penalty corners in the dying minutes.
On the other hand, Pakistan won only one penalty corner in the entire match and squandered it. Their ability to fight back from behind did not work against a highly improved German team.
Despite the tarnishing the reputation of the sport and their own country by showing obscene gesture after their semifinal win against India, Pakistan players were allowed to play freely by a 7,000-strong sporting crowd.
But the flowers, which Pak team’s head coach Sheikh Shahnaz promised to bring to the final match for the crowd as an apology for their unacceptable behavious, did not arrive. When asked about the reason Sahnaz said that he had given Rs 1,000 to a person to bring the flower, the person could not deliver it in tme.The top scorer of the tournament award was bagged by Jeroen Herztberger of Netherlands. UNI