one in World High-quality hockey won the cup, a German “culture of resilience”, ending Belgium’s five-year reign as the most successful team, while hosts India continued a nearly five-decade-long wait for a medal.
The Germans produced another spectacular comeback from a two-goal deficit to beat defending champions Belgium 5–4 in the penalty shootout of the classic summit clash. The two sides were tied 3-3 in 60 minutes of regulation time on Sunday.
It was the third time in the showpiece that Germany had come from 0–2 down to win and their mental strength and never-say-die attitude came to the fore again. He did so against England in the quarter-finals and against Australia in the semi-finals.
Germany joined Australia and the Netherlands in winning the World Cup title three times. Only Pakistan has won the World Cup four times. Germany’s previous victories came in 2002 and 2006. They were the runners-up in 1982 and 2010 and finished sixth and fifth in the 2014 and 2018 editions respectively.
The victory moved Germany to the top of the FIH World Rankings from fourth place before the tournament.
German coach Andre Henning said after his team’s first title win since 2006, “This win is incredible, I have no words to describe this achievement.”
“We came from 0-2 down in the quarterfinals, semifinals and now the final. Now you can’t say it’s luck, it’s because of the quality in this team. We were very confident that we can win this World Cup.”
The Netherlands, runners-up in the previous two editions, won their fourth medal after defeating Australia 3–1 in the bronze play-off. He had also won bronze in the 2010 edition.
For Australia, it was the first time they returned home without a medal after finishing fourth in the 1998 edition. He had won bronze in the previous edition.
German striker Niklas Wellen, who scored a last-minute goal against Australia in the semi-finals and another in the final, was named player of the tournament. He was also the joint third highest scorer with seven strikes, sharing the position with Netherlands captain Thierry Brinkmann.
Australia’s Jeremy Hayward emerged as the tournament’s top-scorer with nine goals in six matches, while Belgium’s Tom Boon, France’s Victor Charlotte and Netherlands’ Jip Janssen shared the joint second spot with eight goals each.
Belgium began their ‘incredible journey’ as the best team in the world by winning the 2018 World Cup at the same Kalinga Stadium where they were defeated by the Germans on Sunday.
After that Belgium won the title of Tokyo Olympics. Their coach Michel van den Heuvel actually used the term ‘German culture of resilience’ in the pre-final press conference and warned his players about the enormous mental strength of their opponents, but in the end, they found no way to Not found. deal with it.
He said, ‘It is disappointing not to win the World Cup. But we are proud of this group which has done incredibly well over the past few years,” van den Heuvel said.
“Every opponent was looking for opportunities and ways to win against us all these years. Now it is our turn to try to find the answer in the next year and a half.” He indicated that he would return for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The next World Cup in 2026 will be co-hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands and under tournament rules both countries have already qualified for the showpiece.
Overall, it was a high quality World Cup with no clear favourites. The four semi-finalists and England, who lost to eventual champions Germany in a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals, could beat any side on their day.
For India, however, it was another disappointment in their second consecutive home World Cup as they made a shock exit before the quarter-final stage.
If the Germans made a habit of coming from 0-2 down to win the World Cup, it was the opposite India The hosts, ranked sixth in the world, took a two-goal advantage in their crossover match to lose to New Zealand in a penalty shootout, six places below them in the world rankings.
With the crores of rupees spent on training, exposure tours and salaries of the support staff, this team would have done better and reached at least the quarterfinals, if not the semi-finals.
In the end, it was India’s fifth worst performance in all the 15 editions of the World Cup in which the country participated. India had finished below ninth position on four occasions – in 1986 (12th), 1990 (10th), 2002 (10th) and 2002 (10th). 2006 (11th).
He had finished ninth in 1998 and 2014 as well. India had made a quarter-final exit in the 2018 World Cup at home.
The two main reasons for India’s defeat were the dismal rate of penalty corner conversion and the lack of finishing by the forwards. To this must be added the inconsistency in defense.
India, whose last World Cup medal came in 1975 when they won gold in Kuala Lumpur, beat Spain (2–0) and played out a goalless draw with England, but only managed a 4–2 margin against Wales. They were able to win the match, which cost the home team. secured the top spot in their pool, which would have taken them straight into the quarter-finals.
Head coach Graham Reid later admitted that a home World Cup put extra pressure on the players, which was sometimes difficult to process, and stressed the need for a mental conditioning coach for the team.
This World Cup, in which 16 teams participated, became the top scorer in all 15 editions with an average of 5.66 goals per match. 249 goals were scored in 44 matches in the tournament. 143 were field goals, while 94 and 12 came from penalty corners and penalty strokes, respectively.
In the 2010 World Cup in New Delhi, in which 12 teams participated, he scored 199 goals in 38 matches at an average of 5.24 per game.
The penalty corner conversion rate, however, went down significantly, with most teams defending PCs better than before.
On the organizational front, Odisha provided the best facilities the World Cup has ever seen, with the 21,000-capacity Birsa Munda Stadium in Rourkela being paired as a co-host venue with the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
The Birsa Munda Stadium was declared by the governing body FIH to be the largest all-seater hockey-specific venue in the world.
The concept of World Cup Village was introduced for the first time as all the participating teams were housed in five-star level accommodation run by the Taj Group inside the Birsa Munda Stadium complex.
“This is one of the best World Cups ever, one of the best events in global hockey. It was a great experience for the local population and for the participating teams and athletes,” said FIH chief Ikram Tayyeb.
Players and officials of the participating teams, however, were more effusive than Taib in their praise of the tournament’s organisers, saying that this World Cup had set a benchmark with facilities that would be difficult to match in future editions. .
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)