FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup- Germany becomes Double World Champion Part 2
Germany’s both men and women indoor hockey team won the World Cup title on their final day in Poznan at the FIH World Cup on February 13.
The 2011 indoor hockey World cup win for men, made it their third successive title defeating Poland with a 3-2 score, which also managed to be the World Cup finalist for the third time in a row. It was a head-to-head match when
whistle got blown for time over; however, the extra time was the decider for who was the gold medal winning team. The bronze was won by Austrian team after defeating the Russians in the third medal match with a 5-0 score.
Among men, the Poland’s Mariusz Chyla was named as The Best Goalkeeper of the tournament followed by a Player of the Tournament awarded given to his team-mate, also Poland’s captain, Dariusz Rachwalski. Netherland’s forward Robert
Tigges won theTop goal scorer award (16). The Best Under-21 Player title was awarded to the Austrian Patrick Schmidt.
If the Indoor men final is recalled, it was a match of two finalist favourite teams, one being the home team, going head-to-head with an extra time to be their decider. Germany had their early chances but Poland was the one to
open the score when Dariusz Rachwalski hit a goal with a narrow angle into the net. Soon, they again attacked with Tomasz Gorny slotting a goal with a 2-0 lead.
The Germans responded shortly when Matthias Witthaus received the ball in the circle with defenders right at him but still managed to score the first goal for the German team. With the first half dying out, German had a penalty
corner but was missed to be well-performed closing the first half.
Germany was at its highest hitting time after time towards the polish goal but were all denied and deflected by the extra-ordinary Mariusz Chyla standing firm in the goal. The crowd was screaming hard while watching the striker
Dariusz Rachwalski who was leading the attacks, hit after hit for a score.
The 32-minute penalty corner was a loss for the german team to end the polish lead but Oskar Deecke shot a goal in the next chance for Germany getting a score at 2-2 equal.
In the last two minutes the crowd was on their feet, when a wild play was being stormed in the field by both the teams but the time out whistle was made. The extra time play later began, which was all the more dramatic for the
spectators. Germany’s Christopher Zeller scored but was disallowed for a foul while the team was celebrating their win.
However, Poland took up a green card that made room for Germany’s Benjamin Wess to score and earn their third World Cup title with a 3-2 win.
Germany’s coach Markus Weise said “It was really, really close and we were lucky to win it even though we played well. It could have gone both ways. We have great respect for the Poland team; they played a superb tournament.”