New Delhi: After snapping their two summit clash loss against the Germans in 2002 and 2006, Australian captain Jamie Dwyer today said his side deserved to win the hockey World Cup here as they were the best side in the tournament.
"We are the best side in the tournament and we were the better side against Germany in the final today. We deserved to win the World Cup," said Dwyer who today won his first World Cup gold.
"We were twice close to win the World Cup but here we are third time lucky," added Dwyer, who played in 2002 final but missed 2006 summit clash -- due to injury though he was in the squad.
Dwyer said coach Ric Charlesworth, who has also won the
World Cup as a player in 1986, has played a big role in the
title triumph.
"He brings in a lot of confidence as individuals and as a
team. He has a lot of experience as a player and as coach. He
does not push us much but he raises the bar so high. He has
played a big role and of course the other coaching staff
helped us to win the World Cup," said Dwyer, who said his 2004
Olympic gold was more precious than the World Cup gold.
Germany captain Maximillian Muller conceded that
Australia are the best side in the world and they deserved to
win the World Cup. Muller said his side was disappointed to have missed a
hat-trict of World Cup titles but said his inexperienced side
would be happy with their silver-winning performance.
"Obviously, it is disppointing not to have won today. But
as a young side we have done very well and reaching the final
was an achievement. Moreover, Australia deserved to win the
World Cup, they are the best side in the world as of now,"
Muller said.
"The Australians scored early and put pressure on us in
the first 20 minutes. Our players are young and lacked
experience. So there was some unsettling among the young guys
but it was all right after that.
"We had our chances and we could not score from two
penalty corners. The first was when the scorline was 1-1 and
then we could have equalised had we scored from the penalty
corner towards the close of the match. We lost a close match,"
Muller said.
German coach Markus Weise said they lost to a 'super
team' and Australians were 'slightly' better side today.
"We lost to a super side. They (Australia) are super fit,
they attacked fast and counter-attacked fast and they are very
good in penalty corner conversion. They have everything to
win the World Cup," he said.
"It is not that individually Australian players are
better than our players. That is not the case but collectively
they (Australians) were slightly better today," he added.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, March 13, 2010, 23:31