Less-Than-Full Strength Germany Prove More Than Handful for India
It was billed as the ‘sweet revenge-taking match’ after the Indian men hockey team’s 2-3 Olympic semifinal loss to Germany – the Honamas threw all such aspirations into thin air, wresting the initiative scoring an early goal and subsequently doubling it at the stroke of half-time – it was more than enough to inflict a 2-0 win over India.
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Germany appeared to be a formidable opponent minus the likes of regular captain Mat Grambusch, Gonzallo Peillat, Niklas Wellen, Christopher Ruhr, Marco Milkao, Justing Weigand and goalkeeper Jean Danneberg. Clearly, there were not at full strength but showed little impact over the absence of these players and proved more than handful for India. Germany featured five members of the 2024 Paris Olympics squad – their most capped player and midfieler Martin Zwicker alongside skipper Lukas Windfeder, Teo Hinrichs and the forward duo of Thies Prinz and Malte Hellwig.
To be fair, the Indian team lacked precision inside the opposition ‘D’ and barring some semblance of sparkle in the second quarter, it was Germany, who held sway and were hardly perturbed by the strong home crowd support. The Indian profligacy was at its best – they bungled as many as ten penalty corners besides a stroke – skipper Harmanpreet Singh had a rare bad day in office – not just missing the stroke but struggling to get his drag-flicks on target.
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Joshua Nnaji – one of the finds of Germany’s 2023 Junior World Cup win, may not have won the Player of the Match award but made a big impression. He was principally responsible for driving frustration in drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh – the German goalie had answers to all questions asked by the Indian skipper in the set-piece. The impressive ball rotation of Germany stood out as they ensured they cannot lose the two Test series – India at best, can only square the rubber. This was Germany’s 57th win over India in 110 head-to-head encounters. As many as 5 German players made their senior international debut.
