BHUBANESWAR: Against Spain in the quarterfinal, Germany experienced something for the first time at the junior World Cup: trailing. With 87 seconds left on the clock, a fierce drive from Eduard de Ignacio-Simo found the top corner to send the Spaniards on a celebratory run. The celebrations were kind of warranted because they (senior men and juniors) were on the verge of advancing to the semifinals of a big FIH event for the first time since the 2008 Olympics.
Yet, it seemed out of place. Premature. You don't want to get too ahead of yourselves against Germany who have mounted improbable comebacks with less than a minute on the clock. They live for this stuff, extensively training for scenarios like the one the junior team were facing with 87 seconds on the clock. This is a team that has overturned 1-2 deficits to 3-2 wins in under a minute.
What came next was entirely predictable. After the restart, they ran down the other end before Hannes Muller bulldozed his way through Spain traffic to earn Germany a penalty corner. They had five of these previously but wasted the lot. You knew they were about to make Spain pay this time and that's exactly what happened; Masi Pfandt sounded the board with 20 seconds left in normal time. With the match headed to a shootout, they brought on substitute goalkeeper, Jean Danneberg. Five minutes later, he picked up the MVP while Spain custodian, Luis Calzado, was inconsolable.
At some level, this isn't surprising. Not when you listen to Germany's coach, Valentin Altenberg's elaborate training plans just for situations like this. "We do train for scenarios like this, you have to be very strong at the end," he said after the match.
When he means strong, he means having the belief that no situation is irretrievable. In training sessions before and during tournaments, they train specific scenarios where one team chases a goal with 60 seconds on the clock. Like other teams, they also have shootout-specific sessions.
A place in the last four is their immediate reward but this is also an important tournament for the country's future hockey fortunes. After the senior side bowed out to India in the bronze-medal match, the likes of Florian Fuchs and Tobias Hauke, their long-standing captain, retired. The senior management themselves made as many as eight changes to the senior side for their Pro League match against Belgium in October so they are entering a transition phase. They are also, by their standards, having a mini-drought in terms of medalling at a big-ticket event (Olympics and World Cup). They have now gone five years without a medal, their biggest drought since the 1990s.
It's something colts captain Benedikt Schwarzhaupt, one of the few who has already played in the senior setup. addressed before the tournament. "This is an important tournament for us," he had said. "A few have retired." If Honamas are to arrest this mini slide, they will be hoping for this team to supply a few players to the senior team in the months and years to come.
Luckily, the one trait that defines most German teams is present even in this side. The one time they went behind, they restored parity within a minute. In the shootout, there was only ever going to be one winner.
Results: Germany 2-2 Spain (Germany beat Spain 3-1 via shootout), Netherlands 1-2 Argentina.