Now that the quarter finals are set and the real business end of the tournament is about to start, I thought I’d take a quick look back at some things that caught my eye and piqued my interest during the pool stages. You can find out what I made of the men’s pool stages here, but now, I’ll take a look at the women’s pool stages.
Great Britain’s tournament so far.
They’ve reached the quarter finals, which is the first objective they would have had on their to-do list. Going into the tournament, Great Britain’s form in the FIH Pro League was patchy. However despite this, they would have been expecting to make it to the knockout stages of the tournament. Ultimately, wins over USA and South Africa have proved to be enough, although it’s a bit of a good news/bad news situation as the Netherlands will be waiting in the quarter finals.
The performance of Hamilton.
Off the field Sophie Hamilton seems like a quiet, shy type of person, but on the field she comes alive. Her individual skills, direct style and ability to create something from nothing have been a real bright spot for Great Britain in this tournament. They needed to beat the USA and she got them going in that game with a goal. We may see sweeping changes to the GB squad after the Olympics – she is surely one of the stars to get the new regime up and running.
Design brilliance.
As a massive goalie geek, one of my joys of the Olympics is seeing the different custom designs the goalkeepers get for their helmets for the competition. There are some absolute beauties but the one sported by Miriam Pritchard for GB is definitely my favourite.
What makes this even cooler is the paint job was done by Big Lick Customs, aka Tom Crackles, who is Fiona Crackles’ brother. Lovely stuff.
This goal from Hannah French.
Aerial. Trap. Bang. Beautiful.
Penalty corner problems.
It’s not a new problem. It’s probably one many, many people have identified but it needs to be mentioned. Great Britain have scored three penalty corners from 34 attempts. That’s a conversion rate of 8.82% putting them ninth out of 12 in the table for penalty corner conversions. It’s true that penalty corner defence has improved vastly over the years and it’s true that a world class penalty corner flicker is hard to come by, but I think everyone, including the players, expect a bit better than this.
Making performances last.
Great Britain did what they needed to in the games against USA and South Africa and showed us glimpses of what they are capable of. They had some good spells against Spain, and a good first half against Argentina, (the Australia game was a performance to forget). The point is even in defeat there have been some positive signs. The difficulty is turning those short spells into longer spells and into more complete performances for the whole match. The problem is, I’m not sure the Dutch are the opponents you want when you’re trying to do that.
A few thoughts from the rest of the teams:
Lhopital makes history.
It doesn’t matter that France were well beaten by the Dutch. It doesn’t matter that in the context of the match it was a consolation. It doesn’t matter that France ultimately finished rock-bottom of the pool – Yohanna Lhopital will always be the person who scored France women’s first Olympic hockey goal. It was a wonderful moment. The only person celebrating almost as much was me, after I named her as my one to watch in the pre-tournament preview. Vindication.
Happy Lucie.
On the topic of the French team, I’m a massive fan of their goalkeeper, Lucie Ehrmann. She was absolutely hyped up for France’s opener against the Dutch and showed it with a string of splendid saves, banging her stick on her gloves, celebrating and whipping the crowd up all the way through. No one expected France to get anything from that game and with that in mind, Happy Lucie (her Instagram account name) clearly decided she was going to make the most of the occasion. She’s done well in the other games, too but that Olympic debut was special, despite the result.
The Netherlands doing what they do.
Played five. Won five. Scored 19. Conceded 5. Uh oh.
Yibbi Jansen is quite good.
I know, right? Barely even a lukewarm take, but worth mentioning. I’ve already spoken about penalty corner conversion rates, and unsurprisingly the highest in the competition is 33.33% by the Netherlands. They’ve scored 10 from 30 – and seven of those were scored by Yibbi Jansen. She’s a bit of cheat code really. Let’s hope Great Britain don’t give any corners away.
Australia back in the contention?
I’ve been impressed by Australia so far in this competition. They came into the tournament with a bit of distraction hanging over them due to the Rosie Malone selection appeal and everything around that. However since they started playing they’ve just quietly set about their business. As tough as it was to watch for a GB fan, Australia looked very decent in the 4-0 win over David Ralph’s side. They won four of their five matches and secured a late, late draw against Argentina – who are widely considered to be a medal hope. Interestingly, at the last Olympics they won five out of five in the pool and then lost to India in the quarter final. They take on China, coached by the great Alyson Annan (hello narrative) who will be tough, but on this form, they look a decent bet for the medal matches.
The quarter finals are set and should bring us some excellent games.
I’m looking forward to it!
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