A good game: Weise

SPORTS REPORTER

German coach Markus Weise was modest even after his young team recorded a convincing 4-1 win over England to book a berth in the hockey World Cup final here on Thursday and keep its hopes alive for a hat-trick of titles.

“It was really tough. The score does not tell what happened on the pitch,” Weise said.

Weise is not one who gets satisfied easily. However, he was proud of the team’s showing in the semifinal. “Overall, it was a very good game. Everyone was involved,” he said.

“There are no secrets. It is not only about tactics, but also about the mental game. If we had not scored the early goals and had England make a comeback, it would have been a different game,” he said.

Weise said his team had the scope to improve.

England coach Jason Lee said Germany was the better side in the game. “After going down by two goals in the first 10 minutes, it was difficult for us,” he said.

However, he praised his team’s performance and hoped that it would try to return a better finish. “It has been brilliant. We came as the sixth-ranked team and reached the semifinals, for the second time (in history),” Lee said.

Captain Barry Middleton also admitted that Germany deserved to win. “Germany has some good defenders. I feel the one area where they were better than us was that they were more clinical than us,” he said.