After snapping their two summit clash loss against the Germans in 2002 and 2006, Australian captain Jamie Dwyer said his side deserved to win the hockey World Cup as they were the best side in the tournament.
"We are the best side in the tournament and we were the better side against Germany in the final today. We deserved to win the World Cup," said Dwyer who won his first World Cup gold.
"We were twice close to win the World Cup but here we are third time lucky," added Dwyer, who played in 2002 final but missed 2006 summit clash -- due to injury though he was in the squad.
Dwyer said coach Ric Charlesworth, who has also won the World Cup as a player in 1986, has played a big role in the title triumph.
"He brings in a lot of confidence as individuals and as a team. He has a lot of experience as a player and as coach. He does not push us much but he raises the bar so high. He has played a big role and of course the other coaching staff helped us to win the World Cup," said Dwyer, who said his 2004 Olympic gold was more precious than the World Cup gold.
Germany captain Maximillian Muller conceded that Australia are the best side in the world and they deserved to win the World Cup. Muller said his side was disappointed to have missed a hat-trick of World Cup titles but said his inexperienced side would be happy with their silver-winning performance.
"Obviously, it is disppointing not to have won today. But as a young side we have done very well and reaching the final was an achievement. Moreover, Australia deserved to win the World Cup, they are the best side in the world as of now," Muller said.
"The Australians scored early and put pressure on us in the first 20 minutes. Our players are young and lacked experience. So there was some unsettling among the young guys but it was all right after that.
"We had our chances and we could not score from two penalty corners. The first was when the scorline was 1-1 and then we could have equalised had we scored from the penalty corner towards the close of the match. We lost a close match," Muller said.
German coach Markus Weise said they lost to a 'super team' and Australians were 'slightly' better side.
"We lost to a super side. They (Australia) are super fit, they attacked fast and counter-attacked fast and they are very good in penalty corner conversion. They have everything to win the World Cup," he said.
"It is not that individually Australian players are better than our players. That is not the case but collectively they (Australians) were slightly better today," he added.
