Hockey World Cup: Germany fails in the shootout at England

The dream of the next big title has burst. Germany’s hockey team surprisingly missed the final seven months after winning the world championship at the European Championships in Mönchengladbach. In a tough semi-final, national coach Andre Henning’s team lost 5-4 in a seven-meter shoot-out against England after goalless regular time and caused disillusionment in the well-filled hockey park. Captain Mats Grambusch failed in his decisive attempt by England reserve keeper James Mazarelo after the Brits had converted all their attempts spectacularly.

England now meets the defending champion from the Netherlands in the final on Sunday (3 p.m.), Germany also missed out on direct qualification for the 2023 Olympics due to the defeat and is fighting Olympic champion Belgium for bronze (12.30 p.m.).

The British mainly focus on defense

In front of a spectacular floodlight backdrop, the German team got into the game properly. After just under eight minutes, Justus Weigand scored for the first time – but to the annoyance of the almost 10,000 spectators, his goal was correctly denied recognition after video evidence. Undeterred, the world champion, with World Cup hero Jean-Paul Danneberg once again standing between the posts, continued to control what was happening on the blue artificial turf afterwards – but without posing too much of a goal threat.

England, fifth in the world rankings, who initially had little to contribute to the attractiveness of the game, appeared dangerously in the German shot circle for the first time after around 18 minutes, but Danneberg parried Zachary Wallace’s shot well. Then the British limited themselves to defending again. Because the DHB team also lacked a bit of creativity against the toxic English man coverage and penalty corner specialist Gonzalo Peillat failed several times, the break went goalless after 30 rather unspectacular minutes.

At the beginning of the second half, it remained the waiting game coach Henning expected in advance. Despite the loud support from the ranks, the German team didn’t have any clear chances to finish in the third quarter either. The English were different, for whom Sam Ward suddenly had the opener on his bat. Peillat saved with the greatest chance of the game outnumbered and in dire need on the line. Two minutes before the end, Germany, outnumbered, pushed for the winning goal, but Weigand and Hannes Müller were denied their double chance by the strong English keeper Oliver Payne, who saved his team in the shootout.