The World's Hockey Champions 1936

By Olympic Gold Medallist M. N. Masood

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Olympic Hockey Final				Every Indian residing or touring in Germany, and some from England, were present to cheer their countrymen to success. Congratulatory messages were received from His Excellency the Viceroy, H. Hs. the Maharajas of Mysore and Baroda and Nawab Saheb of Bhopal, Indian Students Associations of Berlin, Paris and Edinborough, and the Hockey Associations of Punjab, Sind, Central India and United Provinces.
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India 8 - Germany 1

India played her last international match in the XIth Olympiad and won convincingly 8-1, her third successive title in the Olympic Games, thus showing her superiority in this branch of sport. The final was played on 15th August in the Hockey Stadium at 11:00 am before a record crowd.

It had rained the previous day, from morning till evening, making the ground unplayable in the evening. The Olympic Committee therefore decided to postpone the match to the following day, which was warm and sunny.

With a bright morning, the spirits of India rose and the team entered the ground with a smile of confidence in themselves. The Germans entered the field with the Indians with determination written large on their faces to snatch the championship from the holders.

The whistle to start the game silenced the prolonged cheers of the huge crowd and a minute or two of suspense followed. Both the teams made a shaky start. The first defeat of India at the hands of the same team about three weeks ago was still fresh in the minds of the Indian players, while the Germans seemed to have the feeling of playing against an acknowledged superior side.

India shook off her nervousness first and got going with short passes between the inside-forwards and the centre-forward. Germany, in her confidence or foolishness, adopted India's game and also took to short passes which proved the undoing of a very strong German combination.

In all her previous matches, Germany had relied on long, hard hits and 'cross' and 'through' passes. These tactics brought the Germans to the final with almost the same record as India's, and gave them also a win against India in the latter's first practice game. Why leave their hithertofore successful tactics and try to play India's game against its very exponents is a puzzling question to us.

In her anxiety to score earlier than the Germans, and sometimes in emulating the other side for a show of dribbling, seven goals were missed by India before a goal could be scored in the 33rd minute. Roop scored the first goal off a pass from Jaffar, dribbling two opponents and placing the hall on the left side of the goalkeeper.

At the interval, India was leading 1-0.

Germany did not change her tactics after the resumption, and continued in the style in which her opponents are past masters.

With one goal to her credit, India attacked with more vigour, dodging and dribbling and relying on short passes. The German defence could no longer withstand these attacks, and its weak clearances were intercepted by India's forwards and half-backs; it tottered and broke down finally.

Seven more goals were scored against Germany, and had India's forwards not tired themselves towards the end, a few more goals could have been added. There was only one team playing at this stage and that was India, and she did as she liked.

After Germany was four goals down and India had slackened her pace a bit, she scored a goal, the first ever goal against India in the three Olympics in which she had competed.

It was a weak shot from the edge of the striking area, but it rebounded from the pads of Allen and gave another chance to the rushing German forward to score. This slight reverse put India again on the offensive, and she was rewarded immediately by another goal.

Jaffar got the ball from the centre-line and ran down with it. He pretended to pass it to his inside-forward or centre-forward several times, but each time carried it off till he reached the striking area. Here, by a superb dodge of the body, he tricked once more the German defence and placed the ball neatly in a corner of the goal, thus giving India the fifth goal.

As this goal was scored within a few seconds after the Germans had scored their only goal, every Indian present, some 50 in number, could not but stand to his feet and gave a loud hurrah, which sounded so small in comparison with the great hurrah of 30,000 Germans which was given at their own score.

India finished the match with 8-1 goals in her favour, but it is a matter of opinion whether this wide margin of victory shows India's superiority over Germany or an unaccountable collapse of the German side.

The Indian team was as follows: Allen; Tapsell and Mohammad Hussain; Nimal, Cullen and Gallibardy; Shahabuddin, Dara, Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh and Jaffar.

How the Goals Came

It may be noted that every Indian residing or touring in Germany, and some from England, were present to cheer their countrymen to success. Needless to say, the victory was celebrated by all of us, each individual enjoying himself in his own way.

Congratulatory messages were received from His Excellency the Viceroy, H. Hs. the Maharajas of Mysore and Baroda and Nawab Saheb of Bhopal, Indian Students Associations of Berlin, Paris and Edinborough, and the Hockey Associations of Punjab, Sind, Central India and United Provinces.

Dhyan Chand scoring the 4th Indian goal in the 1936 Olympic hockey final