(field) Hockey around the globe

[Janik]

Oh, and England Hockey has delayed rule changes until 1st September before*, so they don't come mid-season here. That makes sense, and is presumably what they will do with these as well. The Hockey season in England runs September to April, so 1st January is a very bad time for alterations in the rules to happen.

* - I'm pretty convinced that a mate of mine was the first ever person in domestic play in England to score an own goal in Hockey. We had a friendly with a 10:00am start on 1st Sept of the year this experimental (and now abandoned) rule came in. At 10:02, he deflected it past his own goalie! I doubt, but can't prove, that anyone was swifter off the mark on that day.

[Kevin S]

Cheers Janik - blimey, so it was as complicated as it seemed when I read it. The amount that an amateur hockey official needs to keep an eye on almost makes football refereeing seem attractive.

[Janik]

Hockey has more rules than Football, but far fewer interpretations. There was a documentary repeated on BT Sport last night on Football referees, and one of them commented the 'Interpretations' section of the Football rule book is longer than the actual laws themselves.

In terms of pure page count, Hockey gets everything down and explained in 68 pages cover to cover (1st Jan 2017 edition). In the 2015/16 laws of Football, the laws run up to page 60 and Interpretations add another 79 pages on top of that.

[Janik]

Oh, and England Hockey has delayed rule changes until 1st September before*, so they don't come mid-season here. That makes sense, and is presumably what they will do with these as well. The Hockey season in England runs September to April, so 1st January is a very bad time for alterations in the rules to happen.

And indeed, from the East Region website yesterday:-

20/12/2018
FIH New Rules from 1st January not being introduced into England Hockey this season: All clubs may have read that the FIH are planning to introduce new rules from 1st January. Please be aware that England Hockey have written to say that these rules will NOT be introduced this season. Repeat will NOT be introduced this season.

[Janik]

This is pretty awful.

The pitch and clubhouse opened less than two months ago. What should have been a majorly celebratory year for that club has now been terribly overshadowed.

[Janik]

If Football has the Panenka, Hockey may have got it's own version - the Lee.

Wowzers.

[Janik]

Digging this thread out of cold storage as the European Championships started this weekend. These serve both to crown the European Champs (of course) and also as part of the qualification route for Tokyo 2020 as all the continental champions get invites to the Games.

In terms of local interest, half of the Men's tournament is sides from the North Atlantic archipelago (that is the suitable catch-all term to not offended our Southern Irish friends, isn't it?) as England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland are all involved. The Men have already played two matches each, and as things stand it's quite possible, even likely, that precisely none of these sides will make the Semi-Finals! That is because they have either drawn with each other or lost to speakers of weird tongues.
It started on Saturday with England needing a goal just over two minutes from time to snatch a 2-2 draw against Wales. Given that England's World Ranking is 6 and Wales' is the lowest in the competition at 25, that late leveller was an embarrassment salvaged from an utter humiliation for England. The Wales-England draw was followed today by Wales being well beaten 5-1 by Spain and England losing 2-0 to host Belgium. These results were more in line with expectations, Spain being ranked 9 and Belgium being the reigning Olympic Champions, World No.1 side and runners-up of the recent Pro League. And also the hosts of this event.
Wales are probably effectively out as their chances of getting something from the hyper-slick Belgians look vanishingly small, even though the home side are already assured of their Semi-Final berth (they beat Spain today to make it two wins from two). England will have to beat Spain to progress. These matches take place on Tuesday.
In the other Men's pool, Scotland and Ireland began be being roundly thrashed by Germany and the Netherlands respectively (1-5 for the Irish against the Dutch and 0-9 for the Scots vs the Germans!). That made today's Scotland-Ireland match a biggie. Ireland are ranked well above the Scots (11 to 21) and won the bronze medal in the last Euros so they would have been strong favourites, but Scotland, led by GB forward Alan Forsyth, got themselves 3-1 up by the end of the third quarter. Ireland, however, came back to 3-2 with five minutes to play and then level late on in rather controversial circumstances involving video Umpire confusion. I won't try and explain exactly what happened because it was an utter mess, the brief summary being a penalty stroke was given, Scotland tried to review, it got reversed anyway pre-review to a free-hit to Scotland, Ireland reviewed that reversal, it looked in the slo-mo like it should be a penalty corner on the replays but the stroke was re-awarded, much to the bemusement of the commentators. Ireland scored it to sneak a draw.
The final matches of this pool are also on Tuesday. I rate Ireland's chances of upsetting Germany rather higher than Scotland's hopes of toppling the Netherlands, even though the Dutch are already through to the Semis. But even with Ireland's hopes being relatively higher than Scotland's, they are still not objectively high.

The Women's event is taking place effectively a day after the Men's (which means it's the Women's Final that serves as the closing showpiece, so this isn't a cause for an arms-in-the-air shout of sexism), meaning they only played their first bunch of matches over Saturday evening and this morning. The only two nations from these islands playing are England and Ireland. England carry the Great Britain Olympic defending champions flag seeing as the holders do not get an automatic berth, whilst Ireland, of course, were the runners-up at the last World Cup. The two sides share an opening round pool and met today, with England coming out 2-1 winners. That does put pressure on the Irish, as it's effectively three from two for the Semis from this group as the fourth team involved, Belarus, look like whipping girls after a 13-0 duffing up by Germany this morning. Ireland will take heart from the World Cup though - they lost to England in the pool of that as well, and that event could hardly have gone better.

The final point leads me on to TV coverage. Frustratingly, this only appears to be on the BBC red button, and only for England-Ireland-Scotland-Wales games, plus the Semis, Finals and bronze medal matches. BT Sport had covered Hockey well recently including the recent Pro League, I wonder why they have passed on this one? I'll raise a few gaelic hackles by including the bit on the tournament website about UK TV coverage:-
United Kingdom:
BBC – The BBC will transmit live coverage of all matches featuring England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland on their website. The BBC will also carry live coverage of the semi-finals, bronze medal and final matches on their digital platforms. Should either England’s men’s or women’s team reach the final, the BBC will show either live coverage or highlights. (Note games are not available in the Republic of Ireland)
Oh, right. So it it's only Scotland or Wales in the final, it won't be shown then? One can't even argue 'just being realistic' given that Ireland seemingly also won't get live coverage if they get through, and Ireland's women made the World Cup Final 12 months ago! That Ireland team was a third Northern Irish.

That does raise the question of whether there is any live coverage of this in the Republic of Ireland, though. The same page that I got the above from doesn't list any. One would have hoped that the Irish women, being the first Irish team to make a proper World Cup Final of anything ever, would be worthy of some screen time in their next big event a year on. Is anyone showing it, do Irish posters know?


One final non-Euros related thing. Regarding the discussion up thread about playing quarters at amateur level, this is not now happening. Or is and isn't. It's a really mish-mash around the world. Most grassroots organisations have recognised that stopping the clock repeatedly only works with central timing, which simply isn't in place at most venues. We are not in America where a stadium clock system is an automatic installation at any school pitch of gym. All that exists are two people with stopwatches who are also armed with whistles and charged with keeping control of the game and therefore everybody safe. So many lower level leagues have ignored the FiH's edict and made their own rules, either stick with 35 minutes each way with no stopping of the clock or accepting quarters but making them 17.5 minutes long each, again with time running through penalty corners set-ups. In England we have both - the national league is playing 17.5 minute quarters as an experiment, the regional leagues are sticking with 35 minutes each way. I suspect we will end up with 17.5 minutes x4 for everybody this time next year, but we will see.

[Ray de Galles]

I spotted that Wales v England result over the weekend and, frustrating though the equaliser was, thought it must have been quite a shock.

I'd hoped Wales' presence in the tournament for the first time in twenty years was a sign of an upward trajectory, hopefully it is the case despite the subsequent results.

[Janik]

The result of today's most meaningful game in Women's Pool B was a 1-1 draw between England and Germany. In theory this means that England are yet to secure a Semi-Final place. In practice, they are effectively there as to go out they would have to lose to Belarus and based on the Slavs results to date (0-13 vs Germany, 0-11 vs Ireland today) that doesn't sound likely. Now if the match was on ice rather than astro... Topping the group is a different kettle of fish. If they want to do that, England will need to beat Belarus by ~15+ goals on Wednesday as otherwise Germany could pip them with a plausible winning scorelines against Ireland.
However, there is a question of whether England would even want to top the pool. And that is because the clear World No.1 side, the Netherlands, have notably unperformed so far in the other group (Pool A). They have played two, drawn two after 1-1 scores against both Spain and Belgium. That leaves them third in the standings ahead of the final round of games, two points behind both of the sides they have already faced. However, one suspects the Dutch will be fine as their last game is against already eliminated Russia. Now, the Russians are improving rapidly and only went down 1-0 to Spain (bronze medal winners at last years world cup) with the winning goal coming less than three minutes from time. They were beaten 4-1 by Belgium though, and the narrow margin in the Spain-Russia game means that if Holland win by a two goal margin against Russia, they are guaranteed to progress. In truth they are likely to win by more, probably more than the +3 Belgium managed; after two frustrating games with just one goal they will be desperate to get their attacking play into gear.
If the Dutch do win by 4+ (my guess is 8-0) that will turn the Belgium-Spain game into a virtual Quarter-Final, much like the Ireland-Germany one on Pool B. It will be winner takes all, but in both cases a draw sends one team through, hosts Belgium in pool A and Germany in pool B.
The final element for England is the order of the games - pool B wraps up before pool A and their match precedes all (the local start times are 10:00 for England-Belarus, 12:15 for Ireland-Germany, 18:00 for Netherlands-Russia and 20:30 for Belgium-Spain). There are too many variables, so all England can do is play, score as many as they score and que sera sera.

That is all two days time. Tomorrow is the last matches of the Men's pool, and the biggies are Spain-England at 13:30 and Ireland-Germany at 15:45. England and Ireland are both in the same boat - win or bust. They each currently sit third in the table and trail their direct final group opponent by two points. In theory even if England do beat Spain and Ireland beat Germany, both could technically be pipped by Wales and Scotland respectively, who will at least know what they need to do against Belgium and Holland. In practice I completely cannot see either the Welsh or the Scots achieving what they need (assuming it's even possible, which it wouldn't be with Spain and Germany wins in the earlier matches).

[Janik]

Spain 2-2 England
Ireland 0-5 Germany

England, Ireland and Scotland sure to be in the relegation pool. Wales can still make the Semis... if they beat Belgium by 4-0, 5-1 or 5-2 or any higher three goal margin than that. Which would be about the biggest shock result in the history of hockey ever, if it happened. The relegation pool is likely to be a Home Nations Championship tribute act.

[Janik]

England's Women nearly made a pigs ear of the game against Belarus, going 2-0 up in the first quarter but then getting pegged back to 2-2, going 3-2 up in the fourth but again getting caught on the counter (by a superbly finished goal) before finally winning it 4-3 less than five minutes from the end. As it turned out this was enough to win the group as Ireland and Germany played out a 1-1 draw that sent the Germans through and the Irish to the relegation pool. It finished that way despite Ireland's superstar 'keeper, Ayeisha McFerran, saving a Germany penalty stroke with under five minutes to play.
In the other pool the Netherlands absolutely annihilated Russia 14-0 which ensured they would be in the last four. That made Belgium-Spain a virtual knock-out game, and the side eliminated were the hosts as Spain won 1-0. Belgium's women are not as stellar as their Men (who beat Wales 6-0 yesterday as expected), but even so this result raises an eyebrow.


Tomorrow's Men's Semis and relegation play-off pool games are:-

Semis
Netherlands-Spain
Belgium-Germany

Relegation
Wales-Scotland
England-Ireland

England are in genuine danger of going down. The results against the other team involved from the same opening pool carry over, so England are again wearing their 2-2 with Wales. Ireland and Scotland carry over the 3-3 against each other. So all level pegging. However in recent Euros England have found Ireland tough opponents. They did win the opening pool meeting two years ago when they had to to reach the Semis and deny Ireland that, but the score was tight at 2-1. And in the bronze medal match in 2015 it was 4-2 to the Irish.

[Janik]

The Men's Semi results were a 4-2 win for Belgium over Germany and a 4-3 win for Spain against the Netherlands.
Belgium beating Germany is an unusual result in historical terms (Germany have been European Champions a record 8 times previously, to Begium's zero) but with current abilities doesn't raise an eyebrow given how good the Red Lions are (World Champions). Even the course of the match was indicative of how things have changed - Germany's Hockey teams used to have the same thing going on as the stereotype of their Football side, they always find a way even at the death, but on this occasion it was Belgium who recovered from trailing 2-0 and still being 2-1 behind with under 10 minutes to play to win 4-2. A highlights video is available here. Check it out, the crowd were raucous.

Spain beating the Netherlands was much less on the cards by recent results and counts as a genuine shock. The Spaniards have been European Champions twice previously, but hadn't made the Semis in a decade. The Dutch, meanwhile, were the two-time defending champions. The key to the game was penalty corner conversion, specifically by Spain's specialist Pau Quemada. He got the first two goals of the game, the second an absolute rocket into the top corner. He was even partly responsible for Spain's third, also from a PC as they decoyed and went to the back-up flicker and the Dutch defence were so focus on stopping Quemada their alignment was wrong: 3-0. Spain actually got 4-0 up, before Holland finally got on the board seven minutes from time. They got another in the penultimate minute. Both were penalty corner's, as was the Dutch's third in the final minute. However this corner had been awarded with five seconds on the clock, which restarted as the set-piece got underway, the ball hitting the net with three seconds left on the clock, but it doesn't stop after the goal so this was the end of the match!

So to the final. Belgium have better overall players, but have to watch the set-pieces and need better organised defending and 'keeping than in the first half of the Semi. They also have to deal with the pressure of a home crowd and a recent historical record that, the World Cup aside (and that is a big 'aside') has lots of blown finals on it. Such as two years ago in the Euros. And six years ago in the same when the match was on Belgian soil (different venue to this year, though).

That was the main event. The secondary 'home nations' tournament for avoiding relegation to the second tier saw Scotland beat Wales 4-2 (the Welsh not helped by their 'keeper gifting a goal away in the second minute) and England topping Ireland 2-1. That means both England and Scotland are on the brink of top tier survival. In fact both would be guaranteed to do so if they drew their final game against each other. Ireland will have to hope there is a decisive result in that match, and if there is concentrate in their later match against Wales. All of which is equally true of the Welsh, of course. Though they would also need a few extras goals swing.


That was Thursday, today was the Women's Semis and relegation pool matches.

Semis
England vs Netherlands
Spain vs Germany

Relegation
Ireland vs Belgium
Russia vs Belarus

In the Semis, this was the fourth time in five Euros that England and Netherlands had meant in the Semis. In the other, 2015, they ran into each other in the Final. Over the years these games have been extremely close, the 2011 Semi being 2-0 to the Dutch, the 2013 one ending 1-1 with England winning on penalty shuffles (they then lost the final to Germany on the same breaker), the final clash in 2015 was a 2-2 draw with England's goals both coming in the last quarter which gave them the momentum to win the shuffles thanks to heroics from Maddie Hinch (much the same pattern happened in the Olympic final 12 months later, though that was an all-English team branded as GB of course) and in 2017 the Dutch got revenge with a 1-0 win. Nothing to chose between the sides, really. Not the case today. Today the Netherlands carried their goalscoring form from their final pool game (where they beat Russia 14-0) over and absolutely spanked England 8-0!

Like England, Spain came into their match with Germany as the pool winners. Like England, they ended up on the wrong end of the scoreline. Unlike England it wasn't embarrassing. In fact it could barely have been closer, the winning goal in Germany's 3-2 victory being scored from a penalty corner in the final minute of the match. Some German teams do keep the stereotype up... Spain and England now both need to raise themselves for a bronze medal match whilst Germany and the Netherlands contest the final for the sixth time, but the first such match-up since 2011. the Dutch lead the series 4-1 and will be clear favourites to make that 5-1 on Sunday.

Both Ireland and Belgium came into the relegation pool in a strong position, having tonked the other two teams involved 11-0 (Ireland vs Belarus) and 4-1 (Belgium vs Russie) in carried over games. That meant whoever won the clash between the two was likely to secure their Div.1 status for the next Euros, particularly if it was Ireland as goal difference is the first breaker. Hockey Ireland can start the prep for (checks) Amstelveen as a beautifully worked Anna O'Flanagan goal in the penultimate minute secured a 2-1 win. Ireland would now only be at serious risk of missing out if they lost their final match against Russia on Sunday morning by six goals. That doesn't sound likely at all. The Belgians are level on points and goal difference with Russia; they will need to better the Russians result against Ireland when they take on Belarus. Belgium's women's team are not quite at the same level as their men yet, but for them to be under threat of relegation is a surprise seeing as they were the runners-up two years ago.

[Janik]

Belgium delivered in style this evening, thrashing Spain 5-0 in the final. They were 4-0 up by half-time. Do we have any posters based in Belgium? I'm wondering how generally famous this team is becoming, whether there is some kind of breakthrough into mainstream popular consciousness?
The Netherlands beat Germany to bronze. The final score here was 4-0, but with two goals in the last two minutes I'm strongly guessing these were empty-netters and the real story of the game was a much tighter affair.

In the Home Nations Relegation pool, England beat Scotland 3-0 in the early match. That secured their survival and left Scotland's hopes of staying up hanging by a thread. For them to survive, the Ireland-Wales match had to finish as a draw, or a one goal win for Wales which was cumulatively 3-2 or less. Any win for Ireland and Scotland were down. Given the respective World Rankings of 11 and 25, and Ireland's bronze medal in 2015 they would have been strong favourites to win the game. That isn't how it worked out. Not at all. Wales won 4-0! Their second remarkable result of the event after the 2-2 with England a week ago, those two results being enough to give the Welsh another shot in two years time. A key performer for them was Gareth Furlong, who makes the local news around here as his family is heavily associated with the Cambridge Nomads club. He scored the opener against England, the only goal Wales got against Spain and the first two today. All were from penalty corners. In fact the only goal from a corner scored by a different Welsh player all tournament was a final minute consolation strike against Scotland.

[Ray de Galles]

Ha ha, that's brilliant news. I'd written us off.,

[Ray de Galles]

Wales' third goal here by Dale Hutchinson is fantastic (the full run is only shown on the replay, for some reason.

[Janik]

The Irish tackling was pretty woeful there. Both times the defender commits fully to the tackle with his body position but then attempts to make the turnover with one-handed wafts rather than a strong low flat stick block-tackle. Diving in was probably the wrong option anyway, but diving in and putting in weedy attempts? That won't get it done at several levels lower let alone international. Not the Wales player's fault of course, and he spotted and took advantage of the poor defending perfectly. By contrast no blame on the 'keeper as it was quick hands on the drag-and-finish.

[Janik]

What of the Women's Finals? Well, remember when the Dutch had two draws from two and had to win their final pool game to make the Semis. Long time ago, that. They are champions again after beating Germany 2-0 in the gold medal match. Just the 10th time the Dutch have emerged as European Champions from 14 editions of the event (Germany and England have each done it twice to complete the set). The Dutch women join the Belgian men in securing a place at Tokyo. Well, good. We need those sides involved, the event would have been significantly diminished without either.
The bronze went to Spain after they beat England on penalty shuffles after a 1-1 draw. England were 2-1 up after two turns each, but didn't score any of their next three, whereas Spain converted numbers three and four. That is the first Euros that England have missed out on a medal since 2003 in Spain, and these events are held ever two years as well. And the reverse for Spain; their first medal since that home event, where they took silver (to Holland, natch). Between 2005-11 England beat Spain in four consecutive bronze medal games so karma probably demanded the Spanish win this one.

As for the relegation pool, Ireland made somewhat heavy weather of their game with Russia, 1-0 down at half-time and then having got 2-1 up early in the fourth quarter almost instantly conceding an equaliser. They eventually got the winner two minutes from time. That left Belgium needing to avoid defeat against Belarus to stay up, which they managed but not by a massive margin, only 3-1 with a goal on 52 minutes finally sealing it.


And that is that. Next stop, the two-legged Olympic qualifiers. Which have the weird format of both being in the higher ranked nation rather than home-and-away. This is almost certainly a financial consideration, as travel costs are a major concern. Britain's Men have secured their place in those via the FiH Pro League, and both Ireland's Men and Women have done likewise via the second tier FiH Series. Britain's Women, the defending Olympic champions, missed out on a guarenteed play-off spot via the Pro league and missed direct qualification via this event just gone. However with the seven highest ranked nations on the FiH world rankings getting a berth in the play-offs and England being right up near the top of those (over-ranked if recent performances are anything to go by), Britain can be completely confident of their involvement. Both British teams can expect to play at home against a rather lower ranked opponent, as the play-offs are not a free draw but run highest ranked vs lowest ranked etc. Home ties are also highly likely for both Ireland sides (playing, officially, as Rep.Ireland for those).

[Ray de Galles]

Thoughts on this, Janik?

Ireland have missed out on a spot at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after the video umpire made an "unacceptable" late penalty call in favour of Canada.

[Janik]

Yeah, I saw that (and indeed watched live most of the first match that Ireland dservedly won 5-3). It's a very tough call on Ireland... but not a "just not acceptable" one to my eyes. I can see why the Video Ump came to that conclusion, even if isn't the one I would have reached. The Irish tackler gets nowhere near the ball and gets the Canada player's feet with his stick. However, a serious problem for the defender is he has gone to ground and still attempted to swat towards the ball from that position, and when a player still tries to tackle from a grounded position at International level and fouls these are very often deemed deliberate offences. If that is the Video Ump's thinking, he then has a very stark call to make - if the contact is enough for it to be a foul, then it's a penalty stroke. If it's not, then there is no foul at all to give. There is no middle ground, really. Of course, many would have hedged and given a penalty corner, but that is the least justifiable outcome.

[Janik]

And of course, despite my confidence, Ireland's Men were away. Canada were ranked 10th to their 13th.

[Ray de Galles]

Thanks Janik, there was a serious lack of analysis in that BBC piece so it was hard to work out quite how justified the extreme Irish reaction was. Especially as it looked like a foul to my untrained eyes.

[Janik]

The final matches in the Olympic qualifying happen this weekend, and involved GB Men and Women and Ireland's Women.

Today's schedule runs
2:00pm: GB Women vs Chile - Lee Valley
4:30pm: GB Men vs Malaysia - Lee Valley
7:00pm: Ireland vs Canada - Donnybrook

And then the second legs tomorrow are
12:00pm: GB vs Chile - still Lee Valley
3:00pm: GB vs Malaysia - ditto
7:10pm: Ireland vs Canada - likewise still Donnybrook

So far these games have been characterised by comebacks and lead changes. The Canada-Ireland Men's one was the most dramatic but Spain's Men were 3-0 down in the first half of their first leg against France last week, but clawed it back to 3-3 in the end and then won the second leg 3-2 despite going 1-0 down, and the Dutch Men trailed to Pakistan three times in their first match before a last minute goal meant it finished 4-4; the Netherlands then won the second game 5-1. And on the Women's side, China were 2-0 down on aggregate to Belgium with five minutes of the second match to play, but then scored two in two minutes to force a shoot-out. Which, like Canada Men, they had the momentum for and won.

All the teams should take note, and never assume.

[Janik]

Qualified sides, btw

Women's
Japan - hosts and Asian champions
Argentina - Pan American champions
South Africa - African champions
Netherlands - European champions
New Zealand - Oceania champions
Australia
China
Spain

Men's
Japan - hosts and Asian champions
Argentina - Pan American champions
South Africa - African champions
Belgium - European champions
Australia - Oceania champions
Spain
Netherlands
Canada

[Janik]

Three goal margins for both GB sides, 3-0 to the Women and 4-1 for the Men. That ought to be enough to make tomorrow comfortable... but see above
The Ireland-Canada women's match that is currently ongoing has nearly been washed away by the heavy, persistent rain. To be fair to Ireland Hockey, the freshly laid playing surface has stood up the conditions well. It's soggy and splashy, but playable. The problem is stick grips and hands are just as wet, and that limits skills. Which explains it being goalless with barely any time left.

[Janik]

Interesting face in the crowd at the GB-Chile Women's game - Marcelo Bielsa. He has a personal connection with Chile of course being an ex-coach of their Men's Football team, but it looks like he is after something more than that as well as he is making notes on the action. Well it is an 11-a-side ball and goal game so there may be some tactical ideas about shape, teamwork and use of space that are adaptable.
Nothing so much he can draw from Tessa Howard and Laura Unsworth's (both superbly taken) early strikes for Britain as Football doesn't have any equivalent to reverse stick strikes. Those goals also end the tie as a contest - it's just a question now of how many and can Chile get a consolation strike.