Bhubaneswar: Germany didn’t get as much preparations for the upcoming men’s hockey World Cup as they would have wanted, but striker Mats Grambusch seems confident his team will put up a great show when they begin their campaign against Pakistan December 1 here at the Kalinga Stadium.
“To be honest, we didn’t have long preparations. We had only the summer to prepare ourselves before we flew to Japan. We had some training camps back home, but recently we played against Spain,” Grambusch said on Germany’s arrival at the Biju Patnaik International Airport, Sunday.
“We have two practice matches against England and Australia here. Hopefully those two games will help us to tune up for the tournament,” the 26-year-old added.
Bhubaneswar has been a happy hunting ground for the two-time World Champions as they clinched the Champions Trophy four years back at the same ground. Grambusch was also a part of the Germany team that finished fourth in Hockey World League Finals played here last December.
“It’s really good to be back in Bhubaneswar as we have some really good memories here. We had a good tournament last year. Though many of us got ill towards the end, it was all good all over,” Grambusch said who has represented the country 123 times.
Asked about their title hopes, Grambusch was quick to reply, “Well, I can tell you that in three weeks, I hope we win the World Cup this time.”
The Rot-Weiss Koln player also pointed thinks that six teams have the potential to win the tournament. He named Australia, Argentina, the Netherlands, Belgium, themselves and hosts India before adding that since it’s a World Cup, it’s anybody’s game.
