(Photo FIH)
Spain, Argentina, Germany and India entered the semi-finals, with shootouts deciding the wins for defending champions Germany and two-time winners India at the FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup Tamil Nadu in Chennai.
Meanwhile, defeats for Netherlands and Belgium ended their hopes of winning their maiden Junior World Cup title.
India vs Belgium [Full-Time Score: 2 (4) – 2 (3)]
A vociferous crowd at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium was entertained to a dramatic finish in the most-awaited match of the day, which culminated with an edge-of-the-seat shootout after 60 minutes of pulsating hockey finished at 2-2.
The quarter-finals ended with the result that the home crowed wanted – India won the shootout 4-3, thanks to star performances by goalkeeper Prince Deep Singh and Sharda Nand Tiwari.
The high-voltage encounter began with Belgium scoring in the 13thminute through Gaspard Cornez-Massant and then putting up a defensive masterclass to deny India until the last minute of the third quarter. India’s relentless attack earned them a penalty corner in the 45thminute and skipper Rohit stepped up to flick the ball into the Belgian goal, which made it 1-1.
Tiwari scored off another penalty corner in the 48thminute to give India the lead, which they almost defended till the end. But a 59th-minute strike by Nathan Rogge pushed the game into a shootout.
The drama continued in the one-on-one situations, where the Belgian goalkeeper Alexis van Havere was fouled for bringing an Indian striker down on three occasions, resulting in penalty strokes for the home team. Tiwari converted from the spot on each of those occasions before Ankit Pal scored the winning goal, which was unsuccessfully challenged by the Belgians.
On the other hand, Prince Deep stood tall in the Indian post to deny Rogge and Nicolas Bogaerts, which proved to be the difference in the end. Hugo Labouchere, Guerlain Hawaux and Charles Langendries were the Belgian scorers in the shootout.
“I thank the crowd for their support as their noise raised our confidence,” said India’s goalkeeper and ‘Player of the Match’ Prince Deep. “There was pressure, but I have to make saves whether it is the last minute or not. I have learned everything from (chief coach and goalkeeping legend) PR Sreejesh. It has raised my confidence. This tournament has given me a chance to showcase my skills. We will try to repeat our winning performance (in the semis) and clinch the trophy.”
France vs Germany [Full-Time Score: 2 (1) – 2 (3 SO)]
The second knockout game of the day saw a rematch of the last edition’s final between defending champions Germany and France. The French team, who had lost 1-2 in the 2023 Junior Men’s World Cup final, tested the Germans even more this time as it took a tie-breaking shootout after 2-2 at full-time for the trophy-holders to keep their title defence alive.
Germany won the shootout 3-1 to become the second team to enter the semis, with Jonas von Gersum, Justus Warweg and Lukas Kossel converting for the reigning champions. For France, only Aristide Michaelis was able to beat German goalkeeper Jasper Ditzer, who foiled three French attempts to earn the Player-of-the-Match award
Earlier in the regulation period, the lead kept exchanging hands and the four quarters couldn’t decide the winner, ending at 2-2. For the first 29 of those 60 minutes, the two teams kept testing each other’s defence but couldn’t breach it. And all of a sudden the game saw two goals in the 30thminute. Alec von Schwerin put Germany ahead, but only to see France equalising moments later with Malo Martinache’s penalty-corner strike.
Paul Glander restored Germany’s lead after the break at 2-1 with his 36th-minute goal, after which their defensive structure held firm deep into the final quarter. But the 55thminute saw Hugo Dolou making it even-steven at 2-2 and France held onto that to force a shootout.
Speaking after the match,German captain Ben Hasbach said: “It’s an amazing feeling. It was a very good team effort. We had a difficult first half but fought our way back into the game in the second half to win it; we deserved it. Over the whole year, we have been good in the last (two) quarters. We are a very good team and brought that to the pitch today.”
Spain vs New Zealand (Full-Time Score: 4-3)
In a thrilling finish that is not for the faint-hearted, the first quarter-final turned out to be a heavyweight boxing bout that went to the last round,with both Spain and New Zealand refusing to be knocked out.
In a rare finish, the crowd in Chennai saw the equaliser as well as the winning goal in the final minute of play. But while the Spaniards broke into celebrations after Bruno Avila converted a penalty corner to signal his team’s 4-3 win, the Blacks Sticks had their heads in hands having equalized a few seconds before through Sam Lints’s second goal.
Spain began the first match of the last-eight stage like a bullet train, racing to a 3-0 lead in the first 12 minutes – thanks to Nicolas Mustaros, Josep Martin and Albert Serrahima’s field goals. New Zealand looked down for the count but were lifted by Lints’s first goal of the match in the 22ndminute, which kept Black Sticks in it at 3-1 at half-time.
Ryan Parr reduced the Spanish lead further when his 34th-minute penalty-corner conversion brought the Black Sticks within one goal of making things even. Spain fortified their back-line thereafter, as the next 25 minutes saw both the teams standing tall in defence.
The climax turned out to be a classic one with Lints’s equaliser in the 60thminute, but Avila made it a happy one for Spain, striking just before the final hooter to clinch the humdinger 4-3 for a place in the semi-finals.
“We have qualified and feel so happy. It was a very hard match. In the first half, we were so good and dominated the match. In the second half, it was a little harder with the cards and with goals by them (New Zealand). We just defended and defended before finally winning the match with a goal in the last minute,” said Pere Amat in his analysis of the match.
Netherlands vs Argentina (Full-Time Score: 0-1)
Two-times former winners Argentina and their captain Tomas Ruiz saved their best for the last against the Netherlands, after the two sides kept exchanging blows but failed to break the deadlock until the game saw its decisive goal in the final quarter. The moment gave the Argentines a 1-0 win for a spot in the last four and ended the Dutch hopes of a maiden title.
The fiercely-contested game saw the umpires showing cards as many as eight times. Five of those were yellow-card suspensions, and four times it was an Argentine player who was sent out for five minutes. At one point the Argentina team was playing with nine players, when Ruiz and Bruno Correa were both yellow-carded in the 21stminute.
The game kept the two on-field umpires busier but didn’t produce any goals until the 52nd-minute penalty corner earned by Argentina that saw Ruiz scoring. Interestingly,Netherlands’s Thies Bakker (53rdminute) and Ruiz (55thminute) were shown a yellow card,reducing both the teams to 10 men.
But the Argentines defended in numbers, led by some brilliant goalkeeping by Joaquin S Ruiz, to protect their 1-0 lead, and they succeeded in it to progress to the semi-finals.
“We train every day and play every ball as it is the last one. We are positive every day, in every moment and we deserve this. We are in the semifinals,” said a delighted Mateo Serrano of Argentina.
