If Albert Camus was alive today, Mark Appel would have inspired him to produce another of his ‘absurd’ works, may be as best-selling as The Stranger or The Plague.
The Algerian author and philosopher was also once a goalkeeper, standing under the crossbars during his schooldays in Algiers and then for the junior team at Racing Universitaire Algerios. Probably after figuring out the ‘absurd’ positions he needed to get into while ‘keeping, he felt putting that in words was better.
But the goalkeeper in Camus never died, which gave birth to his famous expression: “All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football.” Appel, the goalkeeper of the German hockey team, put ‘morality’ and ‘obligation’ into action on Sunday, and Camus must have smiled from the heavens – albeit it was hockey, not football.
Upon boarding the flight from Frankfurt two weeks ago, never would have Appel thought that he’ll be required to play as central striker at any stage during the Hockey World League Final, which concluded in the Odisha capital on Sunday.
Not only Appel was summoned to do that for two matches in a row but he also scored. Isn’t that ‘absurd’!
Even in his nightmares team’s coach Stefan Kermas would not have thought of losing seven players to illness and/or injury and being left with the bare minimum required to make it an even game. On top of that, Germany were playing their second match in less than 24 hours, after the semi-final the previous day. Then too, they had only 13 fit players on the ground.
‘Absurd’ for sure.
But the 11 of the 18 German players available to play wore heart on sleeve for the nation in the bronze-medal match against India.
“One has flown back home. Six of them are at the hotel. They are a little better but not in a state to play,” Kermas said.
Indians had seven extra players, the Germans none. It proved to be the difference in the end, but only on the pitch, not in minds. In a game governed by (player) numbers loaded in India’s favour, the Germans lost 2-1, but the spirit stayed intact and recognized by the crowd that stood up to applaud the visitors’ lion-hearted effort.
And they didn’t try finding excuses in defeat.
“The score sheet for me is the right one. Look at the smile,” Kermas pointed at Mats Gramsbusch on his left at the press conference.
In modern-day hockey, a player on average spends at most three minutes on the pitch before being substituted. After catching his breath, a few sips of water and taking down instructions, he gets back on.
But Germany didn’t have that privilege, which put India up ‘18-11’ even before the push-back.
Not only did all 11 Germans played the entire 60 minutes but also put India under the cosh, earning seven penalty corners, the last one as late as the 56th minute.
Four minutes later, when the umpire blew his whistle, every player in the black jersey collapsed on the ground and rose back up a minute later amid loud cheers in Bhubaneswar.
“We had a meeting in the morning,” said Grambusch. “We said, ‘Guys, are we going to go for it, go for bronze?’ And everybody said ‘let’s do it.’ So we started working on our strategy. In the end we are nothing but proud of our performance.”
Kermas backed the stand-in captain. “The idea to win for each other can be most important basic.
“Today the whole power and spirit came from the team. It was not my idea how to plan, it was theirs (players),” the coach added.
Such tough circumstances sometimes get the best out of players. Probably the very possibility scared the Indian team, who were playing like “what if they score first” on their mind.
And India coach Sjoerd Marijne was pretty upfront to admit that. “We wanted to score early. The players were a little bit scared to lose the ball. I am happy with the win. Matches like these are not easy, because it all (11 vs 18) plays in the head,” the Dutchman said.
That is ‘absurd’, too. But Camus would have agreed. Even huge advantage can make you fearful and burdened by thoughts, because then, in case of sports, you are not expected to lose.
For Germany, that respect was a victory in itself. The effort made it sweeter.
