At the time of writing the first weekend of the tournament has come to a close and we’ve had a look at every team at least once. Here are a few observations and a few things that have piqued my interest.
Wales punch above their weight against World Champions.
Wales defended really well for the first 25 minutes of this one, but then fell behind to goals from Malte Hellwig and Lukas Windfeder. At that point you sort of thought ‘it’s a valiant effort but Germany are too good.’
Well, you didn’t think that if you play for Wales. Jack Pritchard pulled one back only for Tom Grambusch to make it 3-1. The Welsh Dragons weren’t going to go quietly into the night, however. Gareth Furlong slotted home a penalty corner and with two minutes to go, Pritchard nabbed his second to rescue a magnificent point for Danny Newcombe’s side.
Wales’ two-goal hero smiled all the way through the post-match interview. And who can blame him? A massive result!
Tess Howard is making things happen on and off the field.
Tess Howard marked England’s first game of the tournament with a nicely taken poacher’s goal as her side saw off Ireland, but her tidy close range finish is by no means the only good thing she’s done in this tournament.
This match was also the first time an England team has had the choice of whether to wear shorts or skorts to play in. Howard has been instrumental in this being allowed to happen. Her dissertation paper on the subject of showing that ‘gendered school sport uniform plays a “major role” in high drop-out rates of teenage girls in sport’ had already helped usher in a change of rules in England’s domestic game and now, the international team are given the choice of what to wear. Why it’s taken this long is baffling, but at least we’ve made that progress at last, thanks in no small part to the England forward.
Nick Bandurak sure knows where the goal is.
I interviewed Nick Bandurak for the Hockey Paper not that long ago. Something that impressed me about him was his attitude towards international hockey. There are many who’d say he should have been called up a long time before he was. However he’s made it clear he just wants to make as much of a mark as he can in the time he’s been afforded. He’s now bagged 39 international goals in 45 appearances and is scoring ridiculous goals like the one below, for fun. He’s certainly making his mark.
Some excellent goalkeeping.
Unsurprisingly as a goalkeeper myself, I’m always on the lookout for some nice goalkeeping. Here are a couple of saves that I really enjoyed.
This one from Scotland’s Amy Gibson:
And this from Italy’s Lucia Caruso was rather pleasing to watch too:
Yibbi Jansen is rather good.
Not an especially hot take, probably not even a lukewarm take. The Dutch women are a class apart and as if it wasn’t hard enough to keep them out already, they’ve got a very potent weapon on penalty corners in Yibbi Jansen. Uh oh.
Maddie Hinch’s analysis on co-commentary is a treat.
Unsurprisingly for a nerd like me, the analysis of the matches plays a big part in my enjoyment. Having the greatest women’s goalkeeper of all time in your commentary team is pretty good to start with. But Maddie Hinch’s little nuggets of information, such as why a penalty corner defence hasn’t worked properly or why a team runs certain defensive patterns or why a goalkeeper hasn’t quite been able to make a certain save have been extremely insightful and very interesting. More of this please!
Barry doing Barry things.
At half time during the England vs Belgium match, Barry Middleton was welcomed up to be unveiled as the latest inductee in the European Hockey Federation’s hall of fame.
He’s one of the best players I’ve ever had the privilege to see play and definitely one of my favourite ever players, even if he always tried to get out of doing his media duties when I worked for England Hockey. You can’t quite put into words what a legend this guy is, although I tried in this piece when he retired and I also had a stab at it in this ‘Legends of Hockey’ piece I wrote. Anyway, in my completely unbiased opinion, it’s great to see someone like Middleton getting the recognition he deserves.
John-John Dohmen is an all-time great.
John-John Dohmen received a special presentation before Belgium faced England. The Belgian star was winning his 454th international cap – taking him past the great Teun de Nooijer’s world record. He made his debut for Belgium as a 16-year-old and was part of his side’s Tokyo Olympic gold medal-winning campaign in 2021, as well as lifting the World Cup in 2018. He’s quite simply been there and done it. An absolute great of the game.
There you have it. A few bits and pieces from what has been a very enjoyable tournament so far. Hopefully, provided my job doesn’t get in the way too much, I’ll be able to watch plenty more of the action and put another of these pieces out soon.
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