New Delhi, 10 Jan 2014: Olympic champions Germany began their campaign with a bang thrashing New Zealand for a six in their opener in the World Hockey League Final here on Friday.

The Black Sticks were in the game for only ten minutes and after that it was complete domination by the Germans.

In a fast-paced game that showcased German power and speed, the strong contenders scored the fastest goal of the tournament thus far when Christopher Wesley found the target in just 18 seconds. But the equaliser in the 5th minute by Kane Russell following a short corner gave false hopes that the Blacksticks are up to it.

Germany then took only six minutes as they took the lead again through Thilo Stralkowski in the 11 minute and never looked back scoring four more goals for a tennis-like score.

The New Zealand team may have failed to use their chances while German made most of them. If not for the heroics of the Kiwi custodian Devon Manchester, the scoreline would have been worse for the Black Sticks. Already the team is in the process of forgetting the defeat as a bad dream and many are posting confident messages on social media as they look ahead to the match against hosts.

Florian Fuchs (31st min), Stralkowski (44), Tobias Hauke (45) Jan-Philipp Rabente (48’) completed the rout.