Germany depend on old hands to steer them to victory

KUALA LUMPUR: Two-time world champions Germany will be banking on old-timers to win the World Cup.

They have named three season campaigners Florian Fuchs, Tobias Hauke and Martin Haner, who will be featuring in their third consecutive World Cup.

The other members in the team comprise the squad that won the 2013 Junior World Cup in New Delhi.

World No. 6 Germany, who won the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur in 2002 and Moenchengladbach, Germany in 2006, are drawn in Group D with world No. 4 Holland and lowly-ranked Malaysia and Pakistan.

Malaysian coach Roelant Oltmans (pic) said Germans had a good track record in the World Cup.

“They have a good team this time too. They have experienced players in every department, who play a well-disciplined game. They also have skilful forwards and can beat any top team in the world,” said Oltmans.

And the Germans showed they were shaping up well when they defeated ninth-ranked Spain three times – 7-0, 2-1 and 5-2 – in their recent Test matches.

Oltmans added that the Germans also have good drag flickers and the challenge would be on their opponents to stop their penalty corners.

Germany will kickstart their campaign against Pakistan on Dec 1, followed by Holland (Dec 5) and Malaysia (Dec 9).

Malaysia last played Germany in the World League semi-finals in Johor Baru in 2013 and Malaysia were thrashed 6-0 in the quarter-finals. In the last World Cup in The Hague, Holland, they finished sixth.

THE GERMAN SQUAD

The German squad: Mark Appel, Tobias Walter, Florian Fuchs, Benedikt Furk, Mats Grambusch, Tom Grambusch, Johannes Grobe, Martin Haner, Tobias Hauke, Timm Herzbruch, Dieter Linnekogel, Marco Miltkau, Mathias Muller, Dan Nguyen Luong, Christopher Ruhr, Ferdinand Weinke, Niklas Wellen, Lukas Windfeder.