German coach not very impressed

Sports Reporter

GETTING IT RIGHT: Florian Fuchs scored twice in Germany’s big win over Canada.
NEW DELHI: In spite of its convincing 6-0 win against Canada in the hockey World Cup on Wednesday, defending champion Germany was not a very excited unit.

Coach Markus Weise lamented that he did not have the best of players at his disposal in an event like the World Cup.

“I have never seen such a nomination in my life. It was because of injury, studies and retirements. We had no choice, no one was left and it was a special situation,” Weise said.

A keen tussle is on in Pool B while the journey appears a little easier in Pool A, in which Germany figures.

Nevertheless, German captain Max Muller did not agree with any such suggestion.

“I do not think our pool is not difficult. The other pool appears difficult because of England upsetting Australia or may be Pakistan’s win against Spain,” he said.

Man-of-the-match 18-year-old German striker Florian Fuchs, who scored twice in the match and increased his individual tally to 10 goals from nine matches, said the team could have won by a bigger margin.

“We had problems in scoring. We got many chances but scored only six goals,” he said.

Weise, however, was not pleased with the youngster’s showing.

“Even if he scored goals, I am not happy with the way he (Florian) played. He is not playing his best hockey,” the German coach said.

Canada’s Keegan Pereira said his team’s aim was to play against big countries in the tournament and improve its ranking.

Lucky game

Korean player Hyo Sik You admitted that his side was lucky to beat Argentina through a last-minute goal.

“It was a difficult game. We had spent a lot of energy against Germany. So our coach said take it easy in this match. We were lucky,” he said. Coach Pablo Lombi said his team was not up to the mark and deserved to lose.

Dutch coach delighted

Dutch coach Michel van den Heuvel was delighted that his team quickly recovered from the one-goal deficit to beat New Zealand.

“We created a lot of field chances. Our players reacted well after being 0-1 down. I am happy that different players are growing,” he said. van den Heuvel said his team could have scored more goals had it capitalised on the chances.

New Zealand skipper Phillip Burrows said his side lost because it gave away easy goals.