NEW DELHI: Australia won the men's field hockey World Cup after a gap of 24 years with a 2-1 victory over defending champions Germany in the final on Saturday.
Luke Doerner scored the winning penalty corner 11 minutes from the end after Edward Ockenden put the Kookaburras ahead in the sixth minute and Moritz Furste drew level for Germany in the 48th.Doerner's eighth goal in the tournament made him the joint leading scorer with another penalty corner specialist Taeke Taekema of the Netherlands.Australia, whose previous World Cup title came way back in 1986, had lost the last two finals against Germany in 2002 and 2006.The Netherlands clinched the bronze with a 4-3 win over England in the play-off for the 3-4 positions earlier on Saturday.
2010 Hockey World Cup: Perspective, aspirations and challenges
The 12th men's Hockey World Cup starts in New Delhi from February 28th 2010 with South Africa facing Spain in the opener of the two-week extravaganza. Later in the evening, Pakistan face arch-rivals India which may set the mode of the two teams for rest of the tournament. After 1982, this is the second time that India has been trusted by the FIH to hold the coveted event. In spite of a gradual decent in the performance and the serious security concerns, the World Cup in India brings along a good omen for Pakistan who won their third world cup title in Mumbai in 1982.The Hockey World Cup was first conceived by Air Marshal Nur Khan and the trophy was designed by Bashir Moojid which was handed over to FIH president Rene Frank by the Pakistani Ambassador to Belgium in March 1971. The 11,560g trophy consists of a silver cup with an intricate floral design, surmounted by a globe of the world in silver and gold, placed on a high blade base inlaid with ivory. At its peak is a model hockey stick and ball.Pakistan's last appearance on the World Cup victory stand was in 1994 when Pakistan defeated the Netherlands in a penalty shootout to lift the crown. Since the last ten years, Pakistan hockey has witnessed a steady decline in its standards due to various reasons. Conciliation came to game lovers in the country when Pakistan defeated India in the finals of recently concluded SAF games, reviving hopes that we may witness the resurgence of field hockey in Pakistan in the next few years.Pakistan has produced some of the best field hockey players in the world. Dara, Hammidi, Khalid Mehmood, Attif, Shahnaz, Shahbaz, Samiullah, Rasheed Junior, Hanif Khan, Hassan Sardar, Akhtar Rasul, Tahir Zaman and Islah-ud-Din will always be remembered as the greats of hockey. However the introduction of Astroturf, brought structural changes in the rules, approach, strategy and philosophy of the game with more focus to skilled execution of fundamental techniques fuelled by intelligence and physical prowess that includes muscular strength, good balance, aerobic endurance, flexibility, exceptional hand-eye coordination and ballistic movement.In the 2010 World Cup, Pakistan is in group B along with India, South Africa, England, Spain and 2006 World Cup runners-up Australia. As per FIH ranking Pakistan is at number seven in the world with 1498 points where as England with 1535 points is at number six, Spain with 1790 points is at number three and Australia is seeded at number two with 1993 points in the world. India and South Africa the other two teams of the group, are not amongst the top ten FIH ranking teams of the world.Pakistan coach Shahid Ali Khan is fancying his chances against India, South Africa, Spain and England in the order of priority to make it to the semifinals. Shahid admits that his boys are slow starters and the match schedule doesn't allow any complacency. Unfortunately a lot of pre-tournament calculations are going on "ifs" and "buts" of beating the opponents which is not a sign of a well prepared and confident side.In spite of the change in playing surface Pakistan's hockey philosophy is still embedded in "grass" where wingers play a vital role in scheming the attacks. The introduction of artificial surface and change of rules has added new dimensions to the game of hockey which is no more an eleven-man game.The outcome of matches now largely depends on how ball possession is maintained during the seventy minutes, the cohesiveness of defence to defy counter-attacks, penetration of forwards from the shortest routes, blocking of dangerous players and spaces, ball-tackling, correct and timely distribution of the ball, explosiveness of the forwards, execution of the finish, availing opportunities on deflections, minimum mistakes by the deep defence and the correct use of bench strength by the coach.I personally think that our chances against Spain and England in pool matches will largely depend on how well and intelligently Shahid uses his reserve players according to the conceived and rehearsed strategies as per the law of diminishing minutes in modern-day hockey.Pakistan enjoys a huge advantage in the field of penalty corner. Sohail is the undisputed master of the craft. Pakistan's forward line has the services of some of the best players like Rehan Butt, Zeeshan Ashraf and Shakeel Abbasi who will be tightly marked by the opponents.With a weak deep defence, the singular strategy of creating chances for penalty-corners by the forwards is likely to backfire. Pakistan's forward line up must focus on exploiting all possible chances to score field goals and also avail penalty-corners in the process. The role of Faiz-ur-Rehman (Physiotherapist) and Nadeem Khan (Video Analyst) would be vital.The Prime Minister has given the necessary support by announcing five hundred million grants to develop hockey in the country. The ten million rupee award for SAF games hockey winners should also serve as a good incentive and base of motivation for the team. It is now up to the players and the support staff to put in their hundred percent, stay focussed and bring good news for the nation from the neighboring country.Hockey fans in Pakistan will be glued to their TV sets for next two weeks to find out who lifts the coveted crown of world champions. Pakistan hockey would have to put up an extraordinary performance to defend their goal post. Defence will hold the key in the final outcome of the tournament. Will Pakistan's defence be able to guard the hardwork of their penetrating forwards and hold on to the white hockey ball for the seventy grueling minutes? Will they be able to rise above the age-old grass hockey philosophy of stick work and wingers attack and be able to create short passes with explosive short inside moves to the opponents goal, ending in smooth finish, would be answered in the 12th Men's World Hockey Cup, that kicks off in style today in style at Dhayan Chand National Stadium in New Delhi.
Hockey's hopes shattered
For Pakistan hockey it was a heaven-sent opportunity. For once, the entire nation had put aside its craze for cricket and was glued to the TV sets across the country to watch the national team lock horns with arch-rivals India.It was the opening match of the World Cup for both the former Asian giants and was played in front of a packed Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in New Delhi at prime time on Sunday night in front of a global audience.With their relatively higher world ranking and a terrific recent track record against the Indians, Pakistan were seen as the favourites to win the eagerly-awaited encounter and give their World Cup campaign a perfect start.More importantly, a good showing in that match would have come as a much-needed shot in the arm for Pakistan hockey that has been complaining for years that its fan base has shrunk as almost all of the country's sports fans have switched allegiance to cricket.With the Pakistani cricketers flopping regularly in recent times, what hockey needs is to start producing good results at the world stage to win back the fans. A win against India in New Delhi would have been a perfect start for a new chapter for Pakistan hockey.But the Greenshirts just blew it!The team's coaches have blamed their charges' inability to cope with pressure while their critics underlined the fact that the Pakistanis were visibly under-prepared for a major event like the World Cup. Whatever the reasons but one thing is for sure: Pakistani players squandered what for many of them was a once in a lifetime opportunity to hog the limelight.Even the harshest of Pakistan team critics wouldn't have predicted an overwhelming 4-1 triumph for the Indians, whom Pakistan had convincingly beaten in their last three meetings in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and the Asia Cup in Malaysia and the Champions Challenge in Argentina last year.On paper, Pakistan seemed to be the better team with accomplished players like short corner specialist Sohail Abbas, Rehan Butt, Zeeshan Ashraf and Salman Akber in their side. But it were the Indians who sparkled like real stars in the match.While luck deserted Sohail Abbas, who hit the crossbar on a couple of occasions and scored just one goal off five attempts, it smiled on Sandeep Singh -- the comeback drag flicker -- who struck twice to lead India's charge.Pakistan never really recovered after making a dreadfully slow start. In contrast, the Indians dominated the first half and later managed to keep the Pakistanis at bay in the final session. In the end, they earned what was a deserving victory.Pakistan did bounce back by edging out Spain 2-1 in a close battle in their next Group B match only to get thrashed by England 5-2 in their third outing of the 12-nation competition.Pakistan came across as a more organised unit against the Spaniards but went on to cement their reputation of being an inconsistent team by getting hammered at the hands of England, the reigning European champions.With two losses in three games, Pakistan's chances of making the World Cup semifinals for the first time since 1994 seemed pretty bleak. They had two more pool games -- against (South Africa played on Saturday) and finally Australia -- but after surrendering tamely to the English, were left praying for a miracle to keep their World Cup hopes alive.Pakistan's below-par showing isn't entirely unexpected. They are languishing at number seven in the world rankings and have not done well in a major event since making the semifinals of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Their last major title came in 1994 when they won the World Cup but since then the Greenshirts haven't done better than a fifth position in the quadrennial spectacle in three attempts in 1998, 2002 and 2006.Even before crossing the Wagah Border last month, Pakistani officials had made it clear that the World Cup wasn't their target as they were setting their sights on the Asian Games to be held in China later this year.Such statements reflected the sort of confidence that they had in their players and could have contributed to the poor showing in the matches against India and England. You cannot go to a World Cup saying that your team is not good enough for it and was in fact waiting for a lesser event to show that it's capable of winning a title.Pakistan may have taken a tumble in the world rankings over the years but it's a fact that they are the most successful nation in World Cup history. It's like Brazil going into the Football World Cup with an announcement that the world title wasn't their target as they were instead preparing to win the Copa America!It will be great if Pakistan go on and win back the Asian Games crown later this year but what about the task at hand? The World Cup is the biggest event on the international hockey stage and it was the duty of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) to make it its major goal of 2010.Pakistan's unimpressive performance in New Delhi means that in spite of tall claims made by the PHF, our national team continues to be an unreliable outfit. It certainly has the capability to shine like it did against the Spaniards -- the Olympic silver medalists -- but its more prone to coming up with the sort of flops that it produced against India.Pakistan seem doomed to suffer yet another World Cup heartbreak after raising their own hopes by winning a World Cup qualifying event in France and reaching the final in the Asia Cup and Champions Challenge in 2009.They went to the Indian capital amidst high hopes and after receiving hefty rewards from Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who gave the team 20 million rupees just days before its departure for New Delhi, hoping that the cash injection will pump the national players ahead of the World Cup. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked.
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