An unshakable mentality based on methodology and powered by discipline is the recipe behind Germany's unwavering success in the FIH Men's Junior World Cup.
Credit: PTI Photo
Chennai: Gold: 1982, 1985, 1989, 1993, 2009, 2013, 2023, 2025. That's a total of eight glittering titles.
Silver:1979, 2021. Add two second-best honours (surely their least favourites) to the above collection.
Bronze: 1997, 2001, 2016. Now, these three medals are to remind us all that even the best, sometimes, fall short.
These 13 podium finishes out of the 14 editions of the FIH Junior Men's Hockey World Cup which began in 1979 belong to Germany. Correction, 'The mighty Germany'. The prefix to their country's name makes perfect sense given these statistics, doesn't it?
Wondering when was the one time the German under-21 boys 'failed' to grab hold of a medal? Well, that happened in the 2005 edition, hosted in Rotterdam, Netherlands, where they were eliminated in the second round pool stage. Turns out, the team synonymous with robotic precision are humans too.
Aware of their legacy and the expectations of carrying it forward, the German squad at this year's edition -- hosted in Madurai and Chennai over the past fortnight -- shouldered the responsibility with pride to lift their eighth trophy by defeating Spain in the final on Wednesday evening at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium here.
"It has a lot of different dimensions. It starts at the club level, goes on in the under-16s," co-head coach Mirko Stenzel told DH after their title-winning run.
"It's where we lay the base for all the shared responsibilities within the group of players and staff and to be honest we could probably name 10-20 different other aspects that add up as the reason (for their success)," added the 35-year-old.
Game-wise, the Germans swear by mastering the fundamentals. Structured systems of play, co-ordination and clear communication, agility and speed in the legs, sharp thinking of the mind and all of it put together builds a blind faith in their own abilities and trust in each other.
"The mentality to always be there in the deciding moments, in the crunch time and a lot of willpower and self-confidence sometimes makes the difference in our wins.
"Other teams are strong in all these things as well but I think this tradition, this self-belief is something that we have been carrying through the entire last couple of generations," explained Stenzel, who shared coaching duties with 37-year-old Johannes Schmitz.
In all of the medal matches Germany have been a part of in the 46-year-old history of the tournament, their final opponent at this edition Spain were the one who pushed them to the brink with the rest of the 12 occasions ending in straight-forward scorelines.
In the 60 minutes, the Germans' defensive wall received a pounding, attackers thrown off their comfort zone and the lines of play cut off by a zestful Spanish side. All the counters from the Red Sticks were enough to hold the Die Honamas to a 1-1 draw until full-time. But with their ace performer and goalkeeper Jasper Ditzer -- who is studying law -- taking guard in the shootouts, it was only a matter of completing the formalities.
"It was a passionate game and very hard for us until the last second of the shootout. Spain made our lives hard and that's what you would expect in a World Cup final.
"I think they probably even had a bit more of the game than we did but in the end we defended well in the important situations and we always knew that when it comes to a shootout we have the mentality, the will and the quality to win it," said Stenzel.
An unshakable mentality based on methodology and powered by discipline. That's Germany's secret recipe for being champions not once, but over and over again.