The Indian team showed a lot of promise with brilliance in counter-attacking to register a 5-4 win over Olympics champions Germany in the fifth to eighth classification match of the Hero Hockey World league (HWl) Final here on Friday.
With this inspirational come-from-behind win, India will now fight for the fifth place, on Saturday, against Belgium, who defeated Argentina in penalty shoot-out. The win was a remarkable one as the hosts came from 1-3 to beat the world number one Germany — a first in an FIH-ranking event since their 3-1 win in 2004 Champions Trophy.
India started on a bad note and conceded two early goals from visiting skipper Oliver Korn who tapped in one from the rebound from close range in the fourth minute and then a penalty corner conversion from Thilo Stralkowski, two minutes later.
India, who on Wednesday had generated a lot of heat inside first 20 minutes and later ran out of gas against Australia to lose 2-7, played a waiting game in order to last for full 70 minutes of play. This cause was given boost by the Germans, who also at times, took it easy.
India opened their account when Rupinderpal Singh, in a quick counter-attack took the ball all the way to the opposition D-area after dodging a penalty corner and played it to Mandeep Singh, who blasted the ball to the right corner of the post in the 18th minute. The scoreline at the half-time was 3-1.
In the second half, the Terry Walsh-coached side penetrated into the rival 'D' from the word go and they were ably supported by a brilliant Sardar Singh and his mid-field unit. Sardar kept pushing the Markus Weise's Germans away with accurate distribution of the ball. The backline also managed to hold its fort against the German intrusion.
Rupinder's bang-on-the target hit of a penalty corner helped hosts reduce the margin to one and later Birendra lakra and SV Sunil combined well to attack from the right and pushed the ball to the 18-year old Mandeep who scored to equalize for India.
Egged on by a noisy sizeable crowd who braved the chilly winter, home team matched the Germans on every front and took control of the game with another goal in the 53rd minute to take a 4-3 lead. This time Mandeep, who was declared talent-of the first edition of the Hockey India league last year, completed his hat-trick following a deflection of a VR Raghunath's cross from top right of the D area. However, the lead was negated two minutes later by a quick German raid, resulting in Martin Haner's successful execution of a short corner.
Both teams on even keel at 4-4, decided to attack and sufferers were the custodians doing all the stopping. In the 70th minute of the game, Dharamvir Singh's hit touched the legs of a defender which was converted by Rupinder, triggering wild celebrations. India were 5-4 and that was the final score line.
During the game, every department played as a unit. The match showed that given the proper execution of counter-attack, an art which had made India an ever-threatening powerhouse in the past, even the Berlin wall could be breached.
After the match, coach Walsh was a pleased man. "We tried to play our game, and for large sections of the match we did. We certainly matched the Germans; either team could have won. We came back from being 0-2 down to win and that shows the caliber of these guys. It was a commendable effort from our guys to beat the world number one team," Walsh told media persons.