Bhubaneswar: Hosts India defeated a valiant Germany 2-1 in the bronze medal play-off match to end their campaign on a successful note in the Men’s Hockey World League Finals (HWLF) at the Kalinga Stadium here, Sunday.
SV Sunil (21st) and Harmanpreet Singh (54th) scored for the hosts while reserve goalie, Mark Appel (36th), who played as a forward on the day, scored the only goal for Germans. India thus did a repeat act as they had also won bronze in the last edition of the event at Raipur.
But more than India’s win, what will be discussed is Germany’s valour. The visitors who had played a gruelling semifinal against Australia, Saturday, found themselves on the back-foot even before the game began. They were without five of their top players including Christopher Ruhr and penalty corner specialist Martin Haner. While Ruhr and three others were ruled out with high fever, Haner had suffered an injury in the game against Australia. Yet, for a moment, they did not let their shoulders droop and gave the Indians a run for their money. They just had 13 players available and yet soldiered on.
In such scenario, one would have expected the visitors to cave in easily… they did not. They had 13 shots on the Indian goals compared to the hosts 12. They also earned more penalty corners – seven against India’s four and at times looked the far better side.
It was the Indians though who created the first chance of the game when Akashdeep Singh fed Sunil, but the latter was checked in the nick of time by Martin Zwicker. On the other side, Indian goalkeeper Akash Chikte was alert enough to parry away a shot by Mats Grambusch.
India started the second quarter in aggressive mode with intent to dominate. They were unlucky to see Sunil’s shot hitting the side post. The Germans retaliated and got three quick penalty corners. However, on all the three occasions, goalkeeper Suraj Karkera made smart saves.
Soon after that the hosts took the lead. A lovely ball from the right, found Akashdeep unmarked inside the German ‘D’. His back-handed shot was parried away by Walter Tobias, but Sunil running in, was quick to pounce on the rebound and score much to the jubilation of the thousands who had thronged the stadium.
Germany equalised in the 36th minute with Florian Fuchs finding Appel left alone inside the Indian ‘D’. The man who usually saves goals, kept his head and coolly side-stepped Chikte to bring back Germany into the game. After the goal, Grambush had a couple of look-ins but was not given the chance to strike by the Indian defence where Amit Rohidas stood out with his timely interceptions.
In the last quarter, the Germans looked exhausted. India earned their fourth penalty corner and instead of taking a first timer from the push in, Harmanpreet advanced a few steps inside the German ‘D’ to score with low drive. That sealed the bronze in their favour.
Agencies
