FIH Men’s Hockey WC: Germany retain title with 1-0 win over Spain

Wavre, Aug 30 (IANS) Germany once again delivered when it mattered most, defeating Spain 1-0 to successfully defend their FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup title at the Belfius Hockey Arena in Wavre, Belgium, on Sunday.

Michel Struthoff scored the deciding goal at the end of the third quarter, calmly going past Spain’s goalkeeper Luis Calzado to turn Germany’s sole real chance of the match into a victory and thus equal the record for four men’s World Cup titles.

Spain, making their first appearance in a World Cup final, had the majority of the ball and created more scoring opportunities, but Germany’s determined defence kept the Red Sticks from finding a way on goal.

Germany began well on the counter-attack by breaking from deeper positions and making use of the wings to put pressure on Spain. Thies Prinz, Christopher Ruhr and Paul-Philipp Kaufmann combined their speed and ball-handling abilities to win Germany a penalty corner within the first 90 seconds.

Although Calzado knocked away Benedikt Schwarzhaupt’s drag-flick, Spain gradually settled down and defended their circle brilliantly, with Jordi Bonastre leading the defence.

In the first quarter Spain had difficulty in finding a rhythm when they had the ball, but in the second quarter they started to link their midfield players with the forwards down the middle.

Borja Lacalle was the one who came nearest when he threw the tomahawk from the edge of the circle, but the Germany goalkeeper, Jean-Paul Danneberg, was alert enough to punch the shot away.

Spain had its best performance in the third quarter and managed to win three short corner kicks, but Pepe Cunill and captain Marc Miralles were not able to score. Germany’s defender Teo Hinrichs also made a vital first rush to stop the Spanish attack, during which he took a hard blow to his shin.

Even though Spain had control of the exchanges, Germany still posed a constant threat on the counter and it was a rare mistake in defence that proved to be the deciding factor.

Hannes Muller collected the ball that was loose at the top of the circle and played a reverse pass to Struthoff, who had moved quietly towards the byline. Struthoff then rounded Calzado and passed the ball into the net, thus giving Germany the lead just over a quarter of the way through the match.

In the last quarter Spain rushed to reach a draw. When there were less than four minutes left, Calzado was substituted in order that Spain might have one more player on the field, but Germany’s defence remained strong and thus the championship was secured.

The loss prolonged Spain’s wait for its first men’s World Cup title and thus added another entry to the sequence of heartbreaks that followed their previous final defeats in 1971 and 1998.

For Andre Henning, the German team’s success was especially important since there had been a major change in the squad; although only nine of the players who had won the title in 2023 were returning for the 2026 campaign, the Honamas once again performed at their best when it came to the most important moments.

On Sunday earlier in the day, Argentina won against the Netherlands 2-1 and thus secured the men’s bronze medal.

The result was reached less than 24 hours after Argentina’s women’s team had also beaten the Dutch hosts in Amstelveen, Las Leonas winning against the Netherlands 3-1 in a dramatic shootout since the match had ended all at 1-1 and thus becoming women’s World Cup champions.

–IANS

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