Defence will be the key for Germany in their quest to get past ultra-attacking hosts India in the semi-finals of the 2021 FIH Men’s Junior World Cup on Friday at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
Valentin Altenburg, Germany head coach, revealed the mindset of his team in a virtual media conference on the eve of the encounter.
“We have huge respect for India’s attacking qualities. “Their dribbling and ability to score means we have to be at our best. So, for us, it will be defence first on Friday.” We know that India are also good at penalty corners. It will be difficult to defend all penalty corners successfully so we will try to defend well outside the circle to prevent conceding them,” Altenburg said.
What would make Germany’s task a little more difficult is the likely absence of Benedikt Schwarzhaupt, their inspirational defender and captain.
Schwarzhaupt suffered a nasty injury against Spain and hobbled off the field and is a doubtful starter for the semi-final. “Bendedikt doesn’t look too good. The medical team is working very hard to get him fit enough to play but he’s finding it hard to walk. “It’s a big loss for us. But on the other hand, if he can’t play, everyone else will play for him,” Altenburg said.
He also respects India’s defence which kept a clean sheet for 60 minutes against Belgium in the quarterfinals.
Altenburg also knows what’s in store at the Kalinga stadium. “The level of noice gave us a little understanding on what to expect. The noise increases when India attack and my boys are very excited to play in such an atmosphere.
“But what gave me goosebumps was to see players from the Indian senior team – Harmanpreet and Manpreet for example – cheering the juniors. “It was an emotional moment for me.”
Altenburg revealed that the senior members of the German team are also in touch with his boys, texting and calling them with words of encouragement.
“We also have a few of the juniors who are part of the senior team so there’s a lot of interaction between the two groups,” he said.
Germany fought out a close quarterfinal against Spain, equalizing from a penalty corner from the last play of the match.
They then won a shootout to take one more step towards winning their seventh title out of 12 editions of the tournament.
Did it revive memories of the epic win over New Zealand in the 2016 Rio Olympic quarterfinal?
On that occasion, Altenburg’s team rallied from 0-2 to win 3-2, the match-winner coming with 1.5 seconds left on the clock.
“Yes, it did. I’ve been receiving a lot of emails from Germany asking me to compare feelings about the two wins. “It’s difficult to say which gives me a bigger high…at Rio we were two goals behind and fought back to win. It was a different match situation.”
Germany’s development of youth players to fit into the senior program is legendary. Asked about whether development was the bigger objective than the result at this tournament, Altenburg responded, saying: “My boys want to become World champions. We want to put in our best performance here even though development of talent is at the centre of the program.”