Harpal Singh Bedi
India’s hope of making it to the final went up in smoke as they muffed chances galore and lost 1-4 to favourite Germany in the semi-finals of the Junior Hockey World Cup in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
Two-time champion India who will now play for the bronze medal, was expected to repeat their quarter-final showing in which they stunned the Netherlands 4-3 after trailing 0-2 at half time but as it is often said miracles don’t happen every day and the men in blue realized that against much faster and fit rivals Germany .
The scoreline is not the real testimony of the match as India wasted 11 penalty corners and some easy openings and if a team misses so many chances in crucial match like this even miracle cannot help it
The first quarter wasn’t short on action as India was awarded two penalty corners within the first four minutes, but it was Germany that drew first blood with a goal from Ben Hasbach (8’). India was quick to equalize, courtesy of a brilliant field goal from Sudeep Chirmako (11’), as the first quarter ended 1-1.
The second quarter was rather quiet. While India did have multiple opportunities in the form of penalty corners, they were unable to convert any into goals.
Germany earned their first penalty corner of the match early in the last minute of the quarter, and they made full use of it as Ben Hasbach (30’) netted his second goal (2-1) .
India commenced the third quarter on the front foot and was rewarded for their aggressive approach as they won their eleventh penalty corner with six minutes left in the third quarter, but Germany managed to keep them from scoring. Paul Glander (41’) converted Germany’s second penalty corner to double the lead, at the end of 45th minute
The Indians put pressure on the Germans in the last quarter but were unable to penetrate through their defense. They found hope in the form of two back-to-back penalty corners with less than ten minutes remaining in the game, but neither was converted as the German defenders were relentless. Florian Spirling (58’) scored Germany’s fourth goal with just a few minutes left on the clock to confirm their place in the Final as India ended up losing the game 1-4.
India has played Germany five times this year and has lost on all occasions,. Notably, India faltered to Germany by 2-4 in the Semi-Finals of the Junior World Cup Bhubaneswar 2021 as well.