Olympic champions Belgium will look to overcome a resilient Germany and become only the fourth nation to defend the FIH Men's Hockey World Cup title when the two sides clash in the final in Bhubaneswar on Sunday. (More Hockey News)
Pakistan, Australia and Germany have won back-to-back titles in the past and Belgium, who made it to the world's elite just around a decade ago, would seek to achieve that feat and defend their title, which they won in 2018, at the same Kalinga St😼adium.
With 11 players aged above 30 and three above 35, Belgium's 'golden generation' of hockey players, who have won𓄧 the 2018 World Cup and Tokyo Olympics golds, have shown that they are supremely fit and experience matters more than age.
Belgium have come with the bulk of t🃏eam, which had w🐲on the last edition of the event and Tokyo Games.
It is difficult to find out any major weakness in this Belgium team, which 🧸has some of the world's finest attacking and defensive playe🍨rs as well as penalty corner specialists.
They also have one of the best goa🍨lkeepers in the 🍃world in the form of Vincent Vanasch.
Belgium have scored 18 goals with star striker Tom Boon contributing se💙ven, and conceded just five in as many matches.
But the world no.2 side would be wary of the "German culture of resilience" which has been in full display in this World Cup as the Die Honamas twice came back꧋ from 0-2 down to reach the final.
Two-time champions Germany (2002 a✨nd 2006) were trailing by two goals against England in the quarterfinals, but struck twice in the last two and half 🅘minutes to take the game into penalty shootout, where they emerged winner.
In the semifinals on Friday, world number four Germans were agai🍸n trailing Australia, one of the title contenders, by 0-2 at half time but their never-say-die attitude came to the fore as they made fought back to level the scores before f✱inding the winner in dramatic fashion with just six seconds left on the clock.
"We have a lot of respect for the German side who came out of jail twice in this tournament and won. That is something which is there in their culture," Belgium head coa꧟ch Michel van del Heuvel said.
"Germany are a very tough side. We hope to save our besඣt for the last. We will analyse their game and chalk out our plan," added Belgium captain Felix Denayer.
The depth in the Belgium🎃 team can also be gauged from the fact that the absence of penalty corner expert and star defender Alexander Hendrickx due to injury early in the tournament was not feꦏlt.
The only chink in their armour could be that Belgium have depended mostly on Boon to score the goals. Florent Van Aubel, Cedric Charlier a🐼nd Sebastien Dockier have scored just two goals each.
Arthur Van Doren and Arthur de 👍Sloover will be the main men at the Belgium defence while captain Denayer and Victor Wegnez will try to contro🎃l the midfield.
Germany, on the other handꦉ, will be looking to clinch their first title after 2006 and join the cl🔯ub of other three countries to have won the World Cup thrice or more.
Apart from the advantage o💙f having recorded two come-from-behind wins, the Germans have been able to succeed in different play💫ing situations.
G🌄ermany adopted man-to-man marking game against England, while they played a zonal system against Australia in the semifinals.
They did not allow the normally fluid Australians to pla☂y their attacking stꦏyle of play, with more ball possession.
The form of penalty corner expert Gonzalo Peillat, who won the 2016 Olympics gold with Argentin♓a but now represents Germany, will be key for the Die Honamas as his hat-trick was ins🌠trumental in the 4-3 win over Australia.
"We need to continue to trust ourselves in our ability and in our mental toughness. Our ball possession gam♕e against Australia was unbelievable and we would want to continue that. We want to win the World Cup," ꧙German captain Mats Grambusch said.
The two sides we🎉re together in the same grou𝓰p and there was nothing to separate between them in their 2-2 draw Pool B match.
Tom G♓rambusch, the younger brother of captain Mats, and Niklas Wellen scored in that match, and the duo will be Germany's key players onc🥀e again on Sunday.
Tom will be the defensive bulwark while Wellen, the man of the match against Australia, has been the standout player for Germany in this event with his mesme✨rising forays in opposition circle yielding six goals in as many games.
Hist💟orically also, there is not much to differentiate between the two teams with Belgium having won 15 out of the 35 matches they have played against each other
Germany have won 13 timཧes while seven matches were draw꧒n.
Germany have beaten Belgium just once 🌜-- in FIH Pro League match in November last year -- since July 2017.
Losing semifinalists Australia and Netherlands ജwill face each other in the bronze medal match earlier in🙈 the day.
