Who invited the f*cking Engand band???

[ursus arctos]

Who invited the f*cking Engand band???

I'm pretty sure that this is also the system used for Volleyball, and perhaps other sports where there are enough good teams to require some kind of qualifying for Olympics/Worlds, but the regional dispersion of top sides makes reliance on continental championships problematic.

In Volleyball, that dispersion is Asia, Europe, North America, and Brazil; it is obviously different in {Field} Hockey.

[Janik]

Who invited the f*cking Engand band???

Not all that different, then. Hockey's strength areas are Europe, Asia and Argentina. North America features, but a little less prominently, balanced by Australia, New Zealand and South Africa being strong.

Olympic fields as follows

Women's
Australia - Oceania Champs
Britain - European Champs
South Korea - Asian Champs
USA - Pan American Champs
China
Germany
Argentina
Netherlands
New Zealand
India
Japan
Spain*

Men's
Brazil - hosts
Australia - Oceania Champs
Netherlands - European Champs
India - Asian Champs
Argentina - Pan American Champs
Germany
Canada
Spain
Belgium
Britain
Ireland
New Zealand*

* - South Africa were African Champs for both Women and Men. This should have seen both their teams in Rio, but it appears the South African Olympic Committee have disdained that as a qualifying route, saying if we can't qualify through the World League, then we won't go. Spain's Women and New Zealand's Men are the beneficiaries.

[Janik]

Who invited the f*cking Engand band???

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote: GB exit the World League final to India at the quarter-final stage, despite topping their opening pool and India propping up theirs.

The Women's event is now running, and this happened twice again yesterday; Germany (1 point from 3 pool games) somehow fought back from 2-0 down at HT to Australia (6 pts) to level up at 2-2 with under a minute left despite playing most of the second half with at least one player, and often two, in the sin-bin. Germany then won the shoot-out, naturally enough, though I guess Australia would not have had the same trepidation of taking on the Germans in a shoot-out as others. This shock result was immediately followed by hosts Argentina (3 pts) beating the Dutch (9 pts and 14 goals scored) more comfortably than 1-0 final score suggests. The surprise here was more that Argentina, ranked #3 in the world, had somehow contrived to end bottom of their pool, especially on home soil.

Another parallel with the Men's event was GB's Women losing their QF. Like Australia it involved a last minute goal conceded. New Zealand now take on Germany in the Semis, with the other being Argentina vs China. Britain will play South Korea for 7th place.