KUALA LUMPUR: It was a clinical final between Germany and France with the former winning 2-1 to be crowned champions for the seventh time in the Junior World Cup (JWC) at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Saturday.
And the amazing part is that four of Germany's titles were achieved on Malaysian soil.
The 1,500-odd fans braved torrential rain and flash flood in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur to reach the stadium and were rewarded with world-class action.
It was France who shocked the gallery when Jules Verrier scored a field goal in the 17th minute, but the Germans refused to cave in and replied with two field goals off Jan Cordes (32nd) and Liam Holdermann (40th) to seal the match.
With three minutes left, France opted power play by removing their goalkeeper to have an extra outfield player but the clock ran out on them.
For the record, France defeated Germany 2-0 in Group D, but they could not repeat their performance in the final.
Germany's other three JWC titles in Malaysia were achieved in 1982 (KL), 1989 (Ipoh), and 2009 (Johor-Singapore) .
Other titles were won in 1985 (Vancouver, Canada), 1993 (Terrassa, Spain), and 2013 (New Delhi, India).
FINAL STANDINGS: 1 Germany, 2 France, 3 Spain, 4 India, 5 Netherlands, 6 Australia, 7 Argentina, 8 Pakistan, 9 Belgium, 10 South Africa, 11 New Zealand, 12 Malaysia, 13 South Korea, 14 Egypt, 15 Chile, 16 Canada.