Indian men's hockey team failed to replicate the spirited performance displayed during the recently-concluded Champions Trophy as they lost 4-0 to Germany in the opening game of the ongoing 6-Nations Invitational tournament here on Monday.
In a first quarter blitz, Germany took the lead in the fifth minute via Mats Grambusch. Grambusch scored his second minutes later before Moritz Furste scored a third in the 14th minute to take a 3-0 lead into the first break.
India came back stronger in the second quarter and jolted by their slow start soon started making inroads into the German defence. They soon started playing tactically compact hockey, denying Germany the ball in scoring areas. The two teams went into the half time break with Germany leading 3-0.
The third quarter was a tough fought period, as India looking to get back into the game, started pushing forward in numbers. Germany, defending deep and working on the counter, soon lost players to fouls-first Martin Zwicker and then Christopher Wesley penalised for fouls. India couldn't capitalise on their advantage though and the scores were unchanged in the final break.
India came out in the final quarter going for broke, and Germany, capitalised on their numbers up front, scoring their fourth goal in the 57th minute via a PC conversion by Lukas Windfeder.
Speaking after the match, Chief Coach Roelant Oltmans said, "We're not looking too hard at the result because several members of the team have been rotated. The performance though is something we will look at and analyse and better on in our subsequent games."
India will next take on Ireland on Tuesday.
