New Delhi, March 13 (IANS) German hockey coach Markus Weise doffed his hat to the Australians after the defeat in the World Cup final Saturday, saying the Kookaburras had 'everything to win' the tournament.

'We lost to a superior side. They had everything to win the World Cup,' Weise said after the defending champions lost 1-2 to Australia in the final at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.

With the loss, in front of a near-capacity stadium, Germany's dream of a hat-trick of titles was shattered.

However, the coach also regretted that his boys could not keep up their mastery over penalty corners in the finals. After converting a dozen short corners, Germany could slot home only one out of the four that came their way against Australia.

'We were not good at penalty corner conversions today. Once we missed the penalty corners when we should have taken the lead, and then when it was time to equalise. But otherwise it was a close match and we lost to a better side,' he said.

German captain Maximillian Muller said the Australians played well in the first 20 minutes

'May be, the players were a bit scared in the first 20 minutes because we have an inexperienced team. But later on we settled down and defended well,' Muller said.