The german team achievement her third men’s world champion title of field hockey in India, after beating Belgium, who defended the title, in the shoot outs (5-4) after finishing regulation time 3-3.
Despite the fact that the German team was solid from the beginning, after 9 minutes Van Aubel made it 0-1 in favor of the Belgians, controlling a high backhand ball and later defining powerfully inside the area.
Immediately afterwards, still in the first quarter, Cosyns finished off almost over the line to score a second goal that had to be reviewed by the video referral. The punishment could have been even greater, but the goalkeeper denied them 0-3 with a good intervention with his foot.
From there, Germany returned to recover the good feelings. Tom Grambusch missed a stroke, but in the 28th minute Niklas Wellen finished off a penalty corner that helped his team close the gap. It was not the only one in which the team was successful since in minute 40, Gonzalo Peillat used one to balance the contest.
With the hardest part accomplished, the Germans focused on staying ahead. They would end up getting it at minute 47 with a Mats Grambusch target that he scored with hardly any angle between the goalkeeper’s guards. It wasn’t enough as, with less than two minutes to play, Tom Boon leveled the game through another penalty corner.
Already in the shoot outs, Germany was not able to take advantage of the initial advantage they had but already in sudden death finished their victory thanks to a hit by Thies Prinz and the good intervention of goalkeeper Jean-Paul Danneberg against Cosyns.
Regarding the fight for third and fourth place, the Netherlands took it against Australia (3-1). The Oceanics took the lead thanks to a successful Jeremy Hayward penalty corner kick after 12 minutes. However, three goals from his rival between 30 and 40, one from Jip Janssen and two from Thierry Brinkman, brought about the comeback.
