Bhubaneswar: The ongoing FIH Men’s World Cup is turning out to be a high-scoring tournament with 130 goals being scored so far from 24 pool matches at an average of 5.41 goals per match.
The 2010 World Cup in New Delhi, in which 12 teams had participated, had 199 goals from 38 matches, averaging 5.24 per game.
As many as 20 matches are left to be played in this edition, and if the current rate is maintained, it can turn out to be the highest scoring in the history of hockey world cup.
Of the 130 goals scored so far in this edition, 80 are field efforts while 43 are from penalty corners. Seven goals were from penalty strokes.
The Netherlands, who topped Pool C to qualify directly for the quarterfinals, have scored most goals so far 22 from three matches. Australia have scored most penalty corner goals 7 while France lead in the most goals from penalty stroke at two.
Forty Four green cards and 15 yellow cards have been shown to the players by the umpires.
This is the third time 16 teams have taken part in the World Cup out of the 15 editions, the others being in 2002 and 2018.
The 2002 edition in Germany had produced 300 goals from 72 matches at an average of 4.17 per game. It was played in a different format, with the 16 teams being divided into only two pools with the two top teams from each pool making it to the semifinals.
In the last tournament in 2018 also held in Odisha as well as this edition, the 16 teams were divided into four pools with the top teams from each of them directly qualifying for the quarterfinals while the other four slots were filled up by the second and third place teams of the four pools by playing a crossovers round.
The 2018 edition had produced 157 goals from 36 matches at an average of 4.36 per game.
The 1982 edition, which was held in then Bombay and played by 12 teams, was also a high-scoring one, with 216 goals scored from 42 matches at a rate of 5.14 per game.
The last day of the pool matches of the ongoing tournament saw 38 goals scored across four matches a whopping average of 9.5 goals per game with five hat-tricks as Australia and Belgium sealed quarterfinal spots by topping Pool A and Pool B respectively.
Incredibly, all the four games saw at least one player score a hat-trick, with the second game between France and Argentina producing two.
Blake Govers (Australia), Victor Charlet (France), Nicolas della Torre (Argentina), Tom Boon (Belgium) and Niklas Wellen (Germany) all scored at least thrice for their teams.
Charlet (France) is the highest scorer till now with six goals while five players, Govers (Australia), Jeremy Hayward (Australia), Tom Bon (Belgium), Thierry Brinkman (Netherlands) and Jip Janssen (Netherlands) are joint second with five strikes each.
PTI