Bhubaneswar, Jan 29: Germany ended Belgium’s dominance in global hockey in the last five years as they made yet another stunning comeback from two-goal deficit to beat the defending champions in penalty shootout to win the FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup for a third time here on Sunday.
The two sides were locked 3-3 at the end of regulation time of the thrilling final before Germany eventually won 5-4 in sudden death in front of a packed Kalinga Stadium.
Niklas Wellen (29th), Gonzalo Peillat (41st) and captain Mats Grambusch (48th) scored for Germany in the regulation time while Florent van Aubel Florent (10th), Tanguy Cosyns (11th) and Tom Boon (59th) found the target for Belgium.
This was the third time in the tournament that Germany had won after trailing 0-2 and their mental strength and never-say-die attitude came to the fore again as they denied the Belgians to defend their title.
The earlier two matches were against England in the quarterfinals and Australia in the semifinals.
Germany joined Australia and Netherlands to have clinched the World Cup title three times. Their earlier triumphs had come in 2002 and 2006. Only Pakistan have won the event four times.
Netherlands bag bronze
Captain Thierry Brinkman struck twice as Netherlands dished out a superb show of attacking hockey to beat world no.1 Australia 3-1 and clinch the bronze medal in the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup here on Sunday.
Brinkman struck in the 35th and 40th minutes while penalty corner expert Jip Janssen scored the other goal for Netherlands in the 33rd minute.
Australia’s lone goal came from their penalty corner expert Jeremy Hayward in the 13th minute.
The bronze meant that Netherlands finished on the podium for the fourth time in succession and they are also equal with Australia on the maximum number of medals won in the showpiece event.
Both Netherlands and Australia have now won 10 medals each in the 15 editions of the World Cup.
The Dutch finished third in 2010 and runners-up in 2014 and 2018. They have won the title in 1973, 1990 and 1998.
For three-time champions Australia, this was the first time they are returning home without a medal after they finished fourth in the 1998 edition.
They had won a bronze in the last edition here.
India finish joint ninth
A dominant India scored twice in the first and fourth quarters to beat South Africa 5-2 in a classification match and finish joint ninth in the FIH Men’s World Cup in Rourkela on Saturday.
World number six India earned six penalty corners in the match and scored one from them while South Africa, ranked 14th, got three PCs without converting any one of them. India had 31 circle penetrations in total while South Africa had 22.
Oltmans on India’s exit
Former India men’s hockey head coach Roelant Oltmans has blamed the lack of tactical awareness and a non-existent club culture for India’s early exit in the ongoing edition of the FIH Men’s World Cup.
India lost the crossover match to New Zealand and failed to make the quarter-finals after going down 4-5 in sudden death.
India’s current head coach Graham Reid had also voiced concern about the lack of club culture after the Hockey India League (HIL) became defunct in 2017.
“There is no club culture in India, that is for sure. And the players need to continue playing games, that this team is lacking,” Oltmans, who was at the helm of affairs of the Indian team from 2015 to 2017, told PTI in an interview.
“These Indians are fantastic hockey players, no doubt about that. But you need to know what to do at which moment of the game. If all of a sudden, you are 11 against 10, what are you going to do?” added the Dutchman, who also served as the High Performance Director of Indian hockey from 2013 to 2015. (PTI)
