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Germany cream India

India went down 1-4 against Germany in the pool ''A'' league match of the 9th men's World Cup Hockey at Galgenwaa stadium at Utrecht today.

The winners led 4-0 at half time.

Oliver Domke (2), Christopher Bechmann and Bjorn Michel (one each) scored for Germany while Sabu Varkey reduced the margin for India.

A four goal blitzkrieg by Germany in the first half totally demoralised India which never came back in the game.

The Indian lacked penetration and defence was under heavy pressure. The midfielders played like defenders instead of aiding the forwards.

Baljit Saini Mukesh and Sabu Varkey tried to keep the right flank active but in the absence of support from other players, they could do little.

In the 19th minute Riaz set up Dhanraj Pillay in the circle but the Indian captain's sweep was cleared by a defender and a German counter followed. Bjorn Michel made full use of the chance as he neatly side-stepped the Indian to shoot his team up to 3-0.

The Indians replaced goalkeeper Jude Menezes and brought in Jagdish Ponnappa in his place soon after.

The Indians made a few tentative forays into the rival area and in the 27th minute, Mohammed Riaz sent a free hit to Mukesh who dribbled it into the circle, leading to a goalmouth melee. Samir Dad charged in from the left but fumbled and the Germans managed to clear the danger.

Three minutes later the Germans struck again, effectively ending Indian resistance.

Samir Dad passed the ball to defender Dilip Tirkey who failed to clear it properly. Unmarked Oliver Domke jumped over Tirkey and ran down towards goal unchallenged. Goalkeeper Ponnappa tried to stop Domke but failed.

In the second half, the Germans slowed down while the Indians tried to salvage some respect. Though Indians kept the ball with them for the larger part of the session, they never posed a real danger to the Germans.

Dhanraj Pillay was not in his usual self. He did not exert himself due to the injury. Mukesh and Samir Dad made some run down the flanks. Riaz, Saini and Ramandeep worked hard, but that is all India had to offer before going down quietly.

The Indians lacked ideas and appeared to have no game plan in mind; if they had, it was not visible on the turf. The goal India scored in the 54th minute owed more to luck than guile.

Lazrus Barla's long shot beat the defenders and Sabu Varkey deflected the ball home (1-4) to the surprise of everybody.

The Indians forced three penalty corners in quick succession at the fag end of the match, but failed to convert any.

Germans also earned three penalty corners, all in the first session.

Coach Bhaskran later said that his boys played a better game in the second session.

''We could have further reduced the margin in this session. The four goals in quick succession did rattle the team,'' he admitted.

In pool 'B', sprearheaded by mercurial Shahbaz (Sr), defending champion Pakistan whipped Malaysia 7-2 after leading 4-0 at half time.

Though Shahbaz authored only one goal, he was the brain behind at least four other goals.

The Pakistanis should have won by much bigger margin but muffed several chances. They became complascent at the later stages of the game allowing the Malaysians to score two goals.

Earlier displaying awesome firepower, title aspirant Australia flattened Poland 8-0.