Belgium became the sixth nation to win the Men's Hockey World Cup title

BHUBANESWAR: Pain, tragedy, emotion, drama, tears, will, determination, ambition, happiness, revenge, ecstasy, celebrations.

Belgium lived almost each of those moments spread across the last two days; and when their time to rejoice came, God chose to tease them before gifting a success that they deservingly earned from hard work of over a decade. The Red Lions are the new men's hockey world champions. Their opponents, the Netherlands, settle for a painful second consecutive silver in a sudden-death (3-2) defeat.

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The goal-less regulation period was the first in the history of World Cup finals. But in a game where both the sides put up a defensive masterpiece of epic proportions, none deserved to concede, and it happened that way. It was 0-0 at full-time.

The shootout unfolded in a fashion that can give Bollywood its new script. When it seemed the Belgians had won 3-2, technology came to the Dutch rescue. While the red shirts were celebrating in the left corner of the pitch, the video umpire upstairs was checking if the ball hit Arthur de Sloover's foot. It had. Belgium were asked to cut short their celebrations. Pirmin Blaak, the Dutch goalie, was punching the air. 3-2 became 2-2. It was not over yet.
That sent the game to sudden death. Florent van Aubel beat Blaak to get Belgium ahead.

Jeroen Hertzberger couldn't go past Vincent Vanasch. Now there was no stopping the Belgians. Red became the colour of the day.
Simon Gougnard, who had lost his father on the morning of the semifinal against England, was in tears -- and understandably so. Tim Boon's eyes too welled up. This was the unbelievable moment they couldn't live in the 2016 Rio Olympics final against Argentina. On Sunday at the Kalinga Stadium, they ensured it wasn't a miss again. Belgium became the sixth team to win the World Cup.

The victory was also a revenge of sorts -- for the 2017 European Championships defeat against the Dutch. The Belgians couldn't have done it on a bigger stage.

Three-time champions Netherlands had lost the 2014 final to Australia. They will be dejected, but will accept that the better team won.
And Dutch coach Max Caldas couldn't have expressed that in better words.

"First thing is to be good losers," he said after the match. "Shake the hands, say well done and move on."