Before this edition of Hockey Junior World Cup, France U-21 team’s best result was a seventh-place finish at the inaugural edition in 1979. It took them 34 years to better that result as the les Bleus continued their dream run and reached the final by overwhelming Malaysia 4-2 via penalty shoot-out after regulation period could not decide the winner — the scoreline read 1-1.
With this win, the French team has set up a final date with defending champions Germany, who moved past 2009 runners-up the Netherlands 5-3.
At the start, the Malaysians profited from a defensive blunder in the fourth minute when an unmarked Azri Hassan guided a quick free-hit that was drilled into the circle.
France failed to find the rhythm and their penetration never looked dangerous. But, they upped the ante in the second half and were much better in attack. As a result they managed to create a couple of close chances.
Although Malaysians were better skill-wise, the French took their inspiration from hard work. Action was exciting and entertaining though their efforts didn’t affect the scorecard.
However, France were rewarded for their persistence seven minutes before the final hooter when Jean-laurent Kieffer deflected a Cristoforo Deutz-Peters’ hit home to take the Gael Foulard-coached side to the shoot-out.
During the shoot-out, for France, Simon Martin Brisac Simon, Gaspard Baumgarten and Hugo Genestet found the targets but Pieter van Straaten and Viktor lockwood were unable to breach Hazrul Sobri. For Malaysia, Helmi Jali was the only successful scorer.
After a 15-minute long celebration, winning team coach Foulard said, “The team picked up in the second half of the game. Post the first half I was always confident that the team will come back and score in the second session. People back home have been following this team and it’s a prestigious moment for the boys today to have reached the finals. Finals will be a pressure game and a big one too and hoping we get the opportunity to face Netherlands. We have faced Germany in the past and the experience is that they play their best game in the finals,” he told reporters.
In other semifinal, five-time world champions Germany rode on two penalty corner conversions from lukas Windfeder (4th minute, 14th) and field goals from Christopher Ruhr (47th), Timur Oruz (66th) and Niklas Wellen to beat Netherlands 5-3 in the thrilling second semifinal.
But accolades must also go to the Dutch as they came from three goals down to level the scores in the final 10 minutes. For Netherlands, Tom Hiebendaal (49th, 60th) scored from two penalty strokes, while the other came via field effort from Tierry Brinkman’s stick. Netherlands will lock horns against Malaysia in the bronze medal match on Sunday.
In the classification matches for 5/8 position, Australia beat New Zealand 2-1 and European champions Belgium, inflicted a huge 6-1 loss on Korea.