On a night when pretty much everything that could go wrong went wrong — the oft-repeated pithy version of Murphy’s Law — India were outplayed physically and tactically by a superior German side in the semifinals of the men’s FIH Junior World Cup in Chennai. The seven-time champions will get to defend their title after a 5-1 win as PR Sreejesh’s wards were left to rue to a poor start to the match and multiple errors in both sides of the pitch at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium where fans turned up in good numbers once more, but didn’t have much to cheer other than a late consolation goal when the match was all but done.
The onslaught began in the first minute. Within the first 30 seconds, Germany registered their first circle entry after India carelessly lost the ball in the midfield, a recurring theme for the rest of the night. Not long after, captain Rohit hit an aerial ball from the left flank deep from India’s territory, straight to a German forward who was pressing high and the hosts were lucky not to concede. Inside the first 8-9 minutes, Germany had registered five circle entries, compared to India’s one.
But the pressure eventually told as Germany won a Penalty Corner with 80 seconds left in Q1. Paul Babic’s strong dribble through the middle was met with a careless late stick from Ankit Pal, another midfield error leading to a set piece. Ankit was once again caught in the crossfire as the drag flick hit his body as he was manning the post, resulting in a Penalty Stroke that Lukas Kossel converted.
If India had hoped to limit damage, they conceded again with barely any time left on the clock, failing to manage the game when a little common sense in retaining possession would have helped. Titus Wex hit a low cross from inside the circle and it took a deflection of India’s defender and went past Princedeep Singh, with the goal standing after a review that showed the initial shot was hit from within the circle.
Germany will take on Spain in the FIH Junior World Cup after beating India 5-1 in the semifinals. (PHOTO: Hockey India)
The second quarter saw India briefly enjoy a sustained spell of possession but every time Germany attacked, they looked like they would score — in complete contrast to India’s attacking play, as they kept losing possession inside the opponents’ attacking third. Passes were being mishit or overhit, dribbles went into defensive cul-de-sacs, and aerial balls didn’t breach Germany’s deep defence, as their goalkeeper Jasper Ditzer was barely called into action in the first half. Ajeet Yadav’s pass was miscontrolled by Manmeet Singh, Sunil Bennur controlled an aerial but hit a cross into the circle more in hope than with conviction, and Gurjot Singh’s through ball with 90 seconds to go was nowhere close to the forward ahead of him. Indian players started to put up their hands up in frustration at this point.
Slicing open India’s defence
Germany were able slice open India’s defence with half turns in midfield time and again, a simple touch forward and a quick spin was enough to beat the press. One such move led to another Penalty Corner late in the half, and this time Kossel beat Rohit’s first rush and went low to Bikramjit Singh’s left. 3-0 before half-time. Near silence in the stands.
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From there, a comeback seemed highly unlikely, even though India finally managed to test Ditzer in the third quarter with a couple of early attempts, as Ajeet and Arshdeep Singh had some threatening moments. But it was 4-0 for Germany with five mins to go in Q3. Shortly after Arshdeep did well to force a save from Ditzer, Germany countered at pace and again cut through India’s midfield with Jannik Enaux — one of the many towering German players who was able to outmuscle his Indian opponents – powering past a few defenders. There was a hint of luck about the goal as it seemed to come off a mishit that lobbed over Princedeep but Germany had earned it. Captain Ben Hasbach made it a five-star performance early in the fourth quarter, dribbling through 1-vs-1 as India left empty spaces in defence. The Chennai crowd got one moment to cheer at least as India finally won a PC late in Q4 that Amnol Ekka converted. As Sreejesh would rue later, they needed a few more of those earlier in the match.
“We didn’t play well, that’s it,” he told reporters. “We gave them easy opportunities, silly mistakes to concede goals, and it was quite hard for the guys to bounce back from that. You can’t give them space. The one thing I told our players is that don’t allow them to get into the centre, and they allowed that. They just played through the centre repeatedly and created opportunities. That’s the one area where I felt really bad.”
While India’s plans never really took shape, Germany – with their cliched but ubiquitous efficiency – executed theirs to perfection from the first whistle. “It is an overwhelming feeling right now,” Germany’s head coach Mirko Stenzel said, letting the moment, and the margin, sink in before going on to explain how the demolition came about. “To be honest, this is the first time this tournament we defended as we planned. We had a lot of energy in our defensive tackles. To beat the individual-skilled players from India the way we did is incredibly hard. (Midfield dominance) is one of the key elements of the game. Priority was defence, and we planned that in the first 10 minutes, we needed to play with a very high intensity. Our plans don’t always work, but today they did.”
