BHUBANESWAR: The cruel irony is the International Hockey Federation (FIH) still struggles to make money from the World Cup. After a series of dazzling matches identified Belgium and Germany as the two finalists, they served up one of the great finals of all time. The result wasn’t known till the last action of the match, the 14th penalty in the shootout which Tanguy Cosyns put wide. It meant Germany had prevailed 5-4 in the shoot-out after a see-saw game finished 3-3 after 60 minutes.
Even when Belgium raced into a 2-0 lead inside the first 10 minutes, you knew what Germany would do. They have been notoriously slow starters. It’s obviously not a tactic of theirs to be 0-2 down in every match but the difference between them and others is they don’t panic. That’s what has allowed them to flourish in the knock-out stages. Here also they took their time before scoring two with half-time sandwiching both goals.
It was also a period of time which saw the game turn towards Germany. The Honamas, who have now won three World Cups, were doing their thing again. But, unlike in the previous games against Australia or England, the Honamas were making the play from earlier in the match. They did have the chance to halve the deficit from the spot in the 18th minute but goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch produced a splendid save to tip it onto the post. Ten minutes later, they did find the net as Niklas Wellen, who has been the forward of the tournament, finished from close range after Germany had a penalty corner.
Now, Belgium are happiest when they have control of the ball, control of the pitch and have the opponents ahead of them. They like nothing more than when they play the game at their pace. Germany, though, changed the rhythm. They were playing fast, mixing it up with aerial balls, frequent switches of play, pressing high up the field... It resulted in Belgium losing control of the match. With Belgium rattled,
Germany found the key to restore parity thanks to Gonzalo Peillat’s fierce finish from the top of the D. Two minutes into the fourth quarter, they were in dreamland as the inspirational Mats Grambusch found the board from a very narrow angle. Belgium, though, did not allow their hearts to sink. They kept believing in their processes they train for situations like this so they do not panic if they are behind in a World Cup final with 120 seconds remaining — and they got their reward. Tom Boon equalised from a penalty corner to make it 3-3. In the end, though, Germany prevailed just like they had done against England via shoot-outs.
Results
Final: German 3-3 Belgium (Germany won 5-4 in penalty shootout).
3rd-4th: Australia 1-3 Netherlands
Asiad qualifying event for Paris Oly
The Asian Games will be the qualifying event for the Olympics in Paris next year. FIH president Ikram Tayyab on Sunday said, the hockey venue for the Hangzhou Asian Games later this year is almost ready and there is no ambiguity about the continental multi-sport event being a qualifier for the 2024 Paris Olympics. “The Games is 100 per cent on,” he said.