Belgium took turns to show that in a test that refused to end, until Belgium died a 'sudden death', which gave the Germans a third Men's Hockey World Cup title -- first since 2006.
It was Germany first who put the game on a knife's edge by erasing a two-goal deficit to level it at 2-2 and then got into the lead at 3-2.
Then, it was the turn of the defending champions.The Red Lions' refusal to give up earned them a penalty corner in the 59th minute and Tom Boon came to the party to make it 3-3 and push the game into a shootout.
But that wasn't enough to give the 15th edition of the World Cup its winner. It remained 3-3 in the shootout as well, until Tanguy Cosyns missed for Belgium in sudden death to see the Germans, clad in black shirts, running towards goalkeeper Jean-Paul Danneberg.Had Belgium won, they would have been the fourth team to successfully defend the title after Pakistan (1978 and 1982), Germany (2002 and 2006) and Australia (2010 and 2014).