Germany - India

Friday, August 10th 2007 - 20:30 in Mönchengladbach

Germany misses the semi finals
Despite being clearly superior, they lose to India

On Friday evening in the Warsteiner Hockey Park in Monchengladbach, the German U21 men’s team lost 1:2 against India in the decisive third preliminary round, and thereby lost their chance to take part in the semi finals. The team under German national trainer Ulrich Forstner dominated most of the play and should already have been leading by three or four goals at half time. But the Indian team were much cleverer at taking advantage of their chances and converted a minimum of opportunities into two goals, thus even overtaking Spain at the top of their group. Germany will meet Malaysia at 15:30 on Saturday in the playoffs.

Thilo Stralkowski (GER) misses the goal © hockeyimage.net
 

At the start it was looking very good for the Germans, who applied a lot of pressure to the Indian team and sometimes even tied them down in their own half. However, they were often short on luck – after the goalkeeper had been beaten, an Indian defender was able to clear a ball from Blasberg off the line and twice the ball hit the post – and also clearheadedness when, for example, Stralkowski tempted the keeper off his line and then couldn’t get the ball into the empty net. Nevertheless, the Forstner team took a deserved lead. As a penalty corner was taken, Tobias Liety was perfectly placed in the left of the circle and hit into the short corner to score 1:0 in the 11th minute. There were certainly chances for the German team to increase their lead, even though the Indian team showed a lot more offensive spirit, but they were penalised by their poor use of the available opportunities. Then the Indian Olympic record holder equalised with his first chance of scoring. Thanks to some confusion between the defenders on the left side of the field, Jagwant Singh was able to reach the penalty spot unhindered and overpower Jacobi with a tomahawk shot into the left corner after 24 minutes. There were still some good chances for the German team to regain the lead, but they still had problems with finishing.

Robin Joseph (GER) in duel with Deewakar Ram (IND) © hockeyfocus.de
 

After the break the Indian team made space for themselves and forced the German defenders into making errors. Not until the final stages of the game were the host team able to establish themselves in the Indian circle and win penalty corners, which however were not aimed accurately enough.

Jagwant Singhs(IND) scored for one all © hockeyfocus.de
 

Then in the middle of this attacking phase, the normally strong Yannik Otto made a fleeting mistake on the left side of the defence. He wanted to execute a quick pass with keeper Jacobi, but didn’t catch sight of Parmod Kumar, who sprinted between the two and even outplayed the German keeper to score the winning goal in the 67th minute with a flat shot. Forstner came to Otto’s defence, saying he had played the ball into the centre where there should have been a free shot. He couldn’t blame Yannik It wasn’t Yannik’s fault that the umpire chose to let it run.

Martin Zwicker (GER) © hockeyimage.net
 

For Forstner that was an umpiring mistake. But the game had already been decided by the German failure to take advantage of their chances. The fact that Tim Blasberg got a yellow card just 120 seconds from the end for pushing an opponent who had won the ball from him did not affect the final result. Forstner said further that it had been clear in this international game today that his still inexperienced team didn’t yet have the stability and clarity to prevail in such a strong group in this tournament. They had had such high hopes and were particularly sorry for the many people who had worked so hard with the wonderful organisation of the tournament.

India's joy after the final whistle © VVI
 

Torschützen/Scorers:
11.'   1:0   Christopher Wesley
24.'   1:1   J. Singh
67.'   1:2   P. Kumar (PS)

Strafecken/Penalty Corners:
Deutschland/Germany 7 (kein/no Tor/goal)
Indien/India 1 (kein/no Tor/goal)

Schiedsrichter/Umpires:
MCCULLY, Waren (IRL)
DUTERME, Sébastein (BEL)

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