'They have written history': Coach Sjoerd Marijne hails India's best World Cup finish since 1974

India defeated Germany to bag fifth place

The Indian women’s hockey team capped off a brilliant campaign at the FIH Women’s Hockey World Cup 2026 with a 3-1 win over World No. 5 Germany, which ensured a fifth-place finish in the tournament—India’s highest finish at a World Cup since 1974.

Sjoerd Marijne’s side eventually ended the competition with just one defeat, coming against reigning champions and World No. 1 Netherlands, from six matches, which included matchups against higher-ranked China, England and Australia, apart from the team in Orange.

Coming into the match against Germany, India were without a win since the historic 6-1 drubbing of South Africa. Following that victory, India held England and Australia, with the 0-2 defeat to the Dutch sandwiched between those two draws.

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Against Die Danas, the first half didn’t produce a single goal, and honestly, both teams looked a bit careful with their play. Germany held the ball a little more in the early minutes. India still managed to create some good moments, with Baljeet Kaur and Sakshi Rana combining nicely down the right side.

Germany got a few penalty corners too, but goalkeeper Bichu Devi and the rest of India’s defence stood firm, and the score stayed level going into the break.

The match turned after half-time

Things changed once the second half began. Ishika broke the deadlock in the 43rd minute, taking on Germany’s defenders herself and finishing with a cool head.

Barely a minute later, Navneet Kaur made it 2-0 with a sharp strike off a penalty corner. She wasn’t done yet, either. In the 47th minute, she danced past two defenders and slotted home her second goal of the match.

Germany’s Lynn Krings did manage to pull one back in the 59th minute, but by then it was too late to change anything, and India closed out a win they’ll remember for a long time.

India ended the tournament with two wins, three draws, and one loss. That lone defeat came against defending champions Netherlands.

They had also held higher-ranked China, England and Australia to draws, and beaten South Africa 6-1 for their most one-sided win of the campaign.

Also Read: Women’s Hockey World Cup 2026: No podium finish, but India can be proud of historic campaign

What India coach Sjoerd Marijne said

Coach Sjoerd Marijne couldn’t hide how happy he was after the game. “Of course I am satisfied, but I am a coach who always wants more. This moment now is to enjoy what the girls have achieved. They have written history with a young team, and I think that is amazing, but we need to recover now and take all the positives to the Asian Games,” he was quoted as saying.

Marijne also credited the squad as a whole rather than singling anyone out. “No, that’s not one player. We are one team, I’m not going to name one player. But yeah, if you have 11 debutants, then you can guess yourself.

“If I have to name one, today Lalthantluangi played her first match at the World Cup. That’s not easy, that’s very difficult and I think she did today really well. So compliments for her,” he said.

Marijne was asked if this was the best performance of the tournament, and he was quick to correct that idea. “No, because you cannot always rank the best performance on the goals you’re scoring and if you’re winning. I think against China we played well, against England we played well.

“The only match actually we didn’t play really well was against Australia. We know that and we are searching for consistency and that is where we need to work on,” he said.

Strength and conditioning coach Dr Wayne Lombard spoke about just how far this team has come, “When we came in January….we had a list of about 20 injuries, and now we’re at a point where we’re playing for 5th place in the World Cup and coming fifth, playing against a team like Germany,” he said.

Lombard also spoke about the bigger picture behind this transformation. “I think if we got the physical part right, I think the mental part also helps take care of itself a little bit. They come in with confidence, knowing that they can compete at the highest level from a physical perspective and that’s what we want.”

He added, “We want them to trust their bodies, we want them to know that they can go in and compete with the best in the world physically, and I think they showed that today.”

Lombard also credited the process the team has followed rather than just the results “I think the process is 100% right and the outcome takes care of itself and at the moment I think we’re sometimes a little bit too worried about the outcome instead of just putting the process in place and today we showed that we didn’t care about the outcome but we played really good hockey and the outcome took care of itself,” he said.

He also spoke about how playing alongside foreign players in the Hockey India League has changed the team’s mindset.

“Definitely think it’s important; I think what we’ve seen is that the players come out of their shells. The difference I see between pre and post-Hockey India League is that the players know some of these players now; they played with them. So they don’t fear the foreign players anymore.

“They come in and play freely, they’re more open, they speak to them, they understand their languages, they share different cultures. I think it’s massive not only from a hockey perspective but from a life experience perspective, not only for the Indian players but for the foreign players as well.”