Porec (Croatia), Feb 10 (Represesntative) The FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup came to an exhilarating conclusion on Sunday with Poland’s women getting their hands on the trophy for the first time and Germany’s men defeating Austria in a shootout to reclaim the title they last won 14 years ago.The men’s final produced a high-paced goal-fest with the scores locked on 6-6 in regulation time. It was a top-quality encounter with the sides never separated by more than one goal throughout.Austria lived dangerously around their own circle at times and Germany punished them for it. At the other end of the court, Fabian Unterkircher was at his very best, adding four goals in Austria’s losing cause.There were goals for Young Player of the Tournament Ben Hasbach, and several excellent saves from Goalkeeper of the Tournament, Germany’s Joshua Onyekwue Nnaji.The action was unrelenting and the end couldn’t have been more dramatic with both teams having opportunities to seal the deal in regulation time. First Unterkircher levelled the scores for Austria in the 36th minute. Then Austria’s goalkeeper, Mateusz Szymczyk, made a sharp save to deny Germany a winner. Unterkircher then struck the post with two minutes remaining, taking the match into a shootout where Germany held their nerve to lift the trophy for the first time since 2011. “This is not for me, it’s for the whole team,” Player of the Match Paul Dösch afterwards. “It’s incredible what we did the last 10 days. We didn’t play one day, we met 10 days ago, it’s incredible.”In sharp contrast to the men’s final, the women’s gold-medal match featured just one goal. Polish captain Marlena Rybacha got her team off to a perfect start, threading a magnificent ball through the eye of a needle for Amelia Katerla who scored in the third minute.
Poland had good opportunities to double their lead in the 16th and 18th minutes, but Austrian goalkeeper Michaela Streb was alert to the danger and shut them down.Down at the other end of the court Poland’s keeper, Marta Kucharska, finished the half with top-quality saves from a penalty stroke and a penalty corner and her team carried a slender 1-0 leadto half time.The Austrians cranked up the pressure as the second half progressed, but the Poles managed the game well. With three minutes to play Austria pulled their goalkeeper out to have a last roll of thedice and it nearly paid off. Kucharska made one great save from open play and then led her defence against two penalty corners in the final 20 seconds as Poland held on for their first-ever FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup crown. Rybacha and Kurcharska were named joint Player of the Match for Poland and a delirious Rybacha, who was later also named Player of the Tournament, said afterwards: “It feels incredible. It’s just something that we cannot believe that we made it to be the world champions. You cannot describe it, it’s something that never, ever happened to Poland hockey and we’ve made history.”Earlier, South Africa’s men topped off their historic week with a 6-5 win over Belgium to take the bronze, a first medal for the country and the continent in a FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup. Mustapha Cassiem, who was later named Player of the Tournament, grabbed another hat-trick to finish on 17 goals. In the women’s third-place playoff, Czechia equalised in the last play of regulation time against Germany and went on to win the shootout for back-to-back bronze medals in the tournament.