Hockey
New Delhi: Christopher Ruhr scored a hat-trick as Germany thrashed Pakistan 6-1 in their Pool A match of the Hero FIH Junior Men's World Cup at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here today.
Besides Ruhr, Lukas Windfeder, Alexander Schollkopf and Niklas Bruns netted once each. In another Pool A match earlier in the day, Belgium, who yesterday stunned defending champions Germany 3-1, continued to dominate as they blanked Egypt 5-0.
The Germans took the lead in the second minute itself through a field goal by Ruhr. They doubled the margin in the 10th minute when Lukas Windfeder converted a penalty corner. Pumped up by the early goals, Ruhr netted the ball twice in a gap of eight minutes in the 18th and 26th minute to take the upper hand. While the first one was a field goal, the next was a penalty corner conversion.
On the other hand, Pakistan, who survived a late scare before prevailing over lowly Egypt 3-2 in their tournament opener yesterday, continued to look off-colour against their formidable opponents.
They were hardly in contention in the match and even a couple of chances that they got, the Pakistanis simply failed to make use and went into the half-time with Germany having a huge lead of 4-0.
The second half saw some resistance from Pakistan, but Germany calmly waited for their time to strike. They kept pushing up the pace and successfully overwhelmed their opponents to further extend the lead in the 59th minute when Alexander Schollkopf converted a penalty corner. Ten minutes later Niklas Bruns netted the ball through a field goal to make it 6-0.
The Pakistanis scored a consolation goal in the final second of the match, in fact just at the final hooter, when Sakeel Ammad Butt converted a penalty corner to reduce the margin. Pakistan's Arslan Muhammad Qadir got a red card when he elbowed a German player.
Pakistan coach Saeed Anjum said while his players' performance wasn't up to the mark, a few decisions also went against them. "Boys did not perform well but umpiring was also partial. They gave decisions against us," Anjum said.
As far as the day's other match was concerned, with back-to-back victories, Belgium brightened their chances of booking a berth in the quarterfinals. Belgium scored all their five goals in the second half of the match through Alexander Hendricks (38th, 51st and 66th), who slammed a hat-trick, and Mathew Cobbaert in 48th and 54th minute, both of which were field goals.
Although Egypt got off to a confident start against Belgium, the European Champions managed to have the maximum ball procession and played attacking hockey. But the Egyptian defenders stood like a rock to deter their opponents from scoring in the first half.
They never gave much space to the Belgians forwards to create clear scoring chances and at the end of the first half, the scoreboard read 0-0. Belgium had also earned a couple of penalty corners but they wasted the opportunities.
In the second half, however, Belgium totally changed the complexion of the game and turned out to be a far more dominant side on display, scoring as many as five goals. Speaking on the possibility of making it to the next round, Belgium coach Goldberg Philippe said, "While we have won both the matches we still target to in the next one because if Germany manages to win their match again Pakistan and if we lose against Pakistan then our chances to go to the next round becomes difficult."
( Source : PTI )
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