England have named their squad for the upcoming EuroHockey Championships, a tournament that captain David Ames says is ‘wide open.’
Ames is part of an 18-strong party who will head to Mönchengladbach to try and capture the European title for the first time since 2009.
However, the England No5 knows that winning the gold medal will be an extremely tall order.
“It’s probably as wide open as it’s been in a long, long time. We’ve seen for example at the World Cup with Germany, maybe they weren’t the favourites to win it, but they got through, did some incredible things and came back winning on shootouts.”
“Obviously the Dutch are playing really well at the minute winning the Pro League, they have a good chance.”
“The Belgians could have won the Pro League and Spain have done remarkably well to keep progressing the way they do. And obviously, you know, we’re challenging and doing as well as we can to manage as well. So that’s going to be an exciting tournament.”
As Ames rightly points out, four of the top five in the recent Pro League were European teams, whilst World Cup winners Germany will pose a threat. It is undoubtedly an extremely high level competition but one England come into playing exciting, attacking hockey.
“I’ve been pretty proud of our efforts and the journey that we’re on at the minute” Ames tells the BBC’s Jo Currie.
“The way we want to play and build our own brand of hockey is quite exciting for the next few weeks and months.
“We’ve spoken enough about being on the front foot. We want to play a dynamic, relentless type of hockey. Hockey that excites people.
“There are a lot of smiles on people’s faces. They’re enjoying how we’re playing. You know, ultimately we’re just trying to set up a platform and a brand that is exciting to watch and one that we can be part of in the years to come.”
Victory in the Euros would also book Great Britain’s ticket to the Paris Olympics without the need to play in the qualifying tournaments. Whilst Ames admits that is ‘in the back of their minds’ he says the focus is much more on winning medals at this stage.
“You know, the Europeans is a massive, massive achievement to win. We’ve seen the girls win it and we know what it means. We haven’t won as many medals as we’d like to.
“A lot of us who have been around the program for a long time have seen the girls win quite a number of medals. We’ve always been close and just missed out on things so that would be special to bring one home this time.”
“Given the world rankings at the minute with the top four being in Europe, coming home with a medal would be a little bit more special as well.”
England will begin their campaign on 20 August as they face Belgium followed by Austria the day after and then Spain on 23 August.
England squad for the European Championships:
- James Albery
- David Ames
- Nick Bandurak
- Will Calnan
- Brendan Creed
- James Gall
- David Goodfield
- James Mazarelo
- Tim Nurse
- James Oates
- Nick Park
- Ollie Payne
- Phil Roper
- Tom Sorsby
- Zach Wallace
- Jack Waller
- Sam Ward
- Conor Williamson
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