Germany thump Pakistan 5-2 to take opening day’s honour in Junior World Cup

ISLAMABAD: Germany defeated Pakistan 5-2 to take opening day’s honour of the FIH Junior Hockey World Cup in the Indian city of Bhubaneswar Wednesday.

Pakistan never recovered from the first quarter’s assault that saw Germany scoring in the very first minute and adding another in the fourteenth minutes to start the World Cup campaign in a disastrous fashion.

The lack of international experience and exposure hit Pakistan hard, resulting in total disarray in the sixty minutes of play in which the Greenshirts were seen leaving several loopholes for their opponents to exploit.

Germany started the goal-scoring spree in the very first minute as Michel Struthoff netted the opener, dodging a couple of defenders amid fragile-looking defense. Thirteen minutes later Robert Duckscheer doubled the lead from yet another field effort. Pakistan defenders were seen struggling with an interception and even their anticipation was highly deportable against a well-versed team that played the match with a plan.

Abdul Shahid reduced the margin for the Greenshirts just around the start of the second quarter but Germany again raced to two goals advantage as Maximilian Siegburg sounded the board with the full-blooded strike.

Pakistan’s Moin Shakil missed a penalty stroke minutes later as the German team continued to take full advantage of Pakistan’s slow-paced play. Benedict Schwarzhaupt then struck the fourth on a penalty corner in the second quarter to take the game away from Pakistan.

Though Hammadudin reduced the margin in the fourth quarter, Duckscheer scored his second six minutes into the final hooter to settle the matter.

Germany’s exhibition of good controlled hockey was more praiseworthy as they were playing under scorching heat, an advantage which was never exploited by Pakistan.

Opening days’ other matches saw Belgium outplaying South Africa 5-1, Poland edged out Canada 1-0, Malaysian beat Chile 2-1.

Now Pakistan will play Egypt on November 27 with Argentina being their last opponents of the pool on November 28. Pakistan will have to win both their pool matches to stay in the competition following the loss against Germany.