Reply With QuoteAlways good to see Welsh teams doing well.
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The Welsh mens hockey team compete in their first world cup starting today, a stunning achievement for an entirely part time and mainly self-funded group.
They play England at 11.30 GMT. Live on BTSport2.
I dabbled in the game 40 odd years ago, bloody hard game to play even at the basic level I did.
Good luck lads.
Always good to see Welsh teams doing well.
Nice one. There's a thread about the rise of Wales hockey ('Wales win something') that you might be interested in, its on page 4 for now.Originally Posted by Claude Blue
My lad is out there but an injury has stopped him from playing today. England have actually turned up for once which is frustrating, we haven't played as well as we can though.
What a stadium by the way, a slight upgrade on Sophia Gardens for the Welsh boys.
Lost 5-0
Apologies, I missed that thread.
Will check it out
Nothing to apologise for, just thought you might be interested. It's a vague thread title, I had no inkling when I started it that I'd still be adding posts to it eight years on.Apologies, I missed that thread.
Will check it out
England and Wales put in a bid for the next World Cup by the way. Our games would've been at the Arms Park with the final at Spurs but we lost out to a Belgium/Holland bid. Shame.
Followed by a 5-1 loss to Spain. A much improved performance but some tears in the changing room after as the reality of the situation sank in. There was talk of closing the gap on the top 10 teams at the Commonwealth Games but even if Wales improve over time, the professional teams are improving at a faster rate so the gap is just becoming wider. Last group game on Thursday against India, who will probably need a big win to top the group so another testing one coming up.
More injury issues with the second keeper partially rupturing his ACL and meniscus. Dehli belly has struck too - a defender was 'shitting blood' on Saturday and got taken to hospital. Other lads have had bad bottoms too. The switch from Rourkela to Bhubaneswar yesterday was delayed by smog so it's been a tough few days all in all.
However, they got thrown today when they turned up to visit a local school and found 7,000 students there to greet them as though Kohli and Tendulkar had rocked up. A guard of honour, gifts, news reporters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9dqujTJREA) and scrums of autograph hunters. All the players' families out there were invited to a function at the team hotel tonight too. My lad said it's been a mad, incredible day. It's almost as though he's got no regrets for missing the City/Wigan game.
Sounds like an unforgettable experience one way or another.
A terrific performance from Wales in their last group game against India as they pulled back from 2-0 down to equalise with 15 minutes left, only for the Indians to finally run out 4-2 winners.
https://www.google.com/search?q=indi...id:2cjAMZGNims
Coach Danny Newcombe was delighted with the effort but frustrated they hadn't played like that previously. He said it was unacceptable to come to a World Cup and not turn up for the first two group games. Fair enough, better than not turning up for all three though.
An odd incident earlier in the week as Japan managed to get a twelfth man on the pitch for the closing stages of their game against South Korea without the officials or the opposition noticing. Maybe that's a tactic City should look at using tomorrow.
I don't profess to know anything about hockey. However, I always had it in my mind that India were a powerhouse hockey nation?
Similarly, even though a small country, aren't the Netherlands a strong hockey nation too?
Lastly, do the players wear any kind of protective head gear, similar to those worn by lacrosse players?
India are ranked 5th in the world presently but there's a passion for the game there like nowhere else. They keep being given the World Cup to stage but the interest there makes it logical. 16,000 sell out for the Wales game, the other stadium they're using was built specially for the tournament and holds 20,000.
The Dutch are traditionally strong and dominate the women's game at present. Talk of their men's team being in a transition phase but they beat Chile 14-0 in the week so seem to be in decent nick. The Belgians are the strongest in Europe for now followed by the Dutch and Germany, Australia always the team to beat in any tournament they're in though.
No protective headgear in normal play but for the short corners the defenders will put face masks on as well as boxes and I don't blame them. Hockey has never really lost it's public schoolgirl type image over here but it's a tough game, there's always an element of danger in there and fitness levels are ridiculous. It's not football but it's a decent, underrated, sport.
A first World Cup win today as Wales beat France in a shoot-out after a 2-2 draw in their first classification game to determine the minor places. It guarantees a place in the top 12 out there, a win against Argentina on Saturday would give them top 10.
https://supersport.com/hockey/genera...nce-highlights
Not much luck for the four City fans playing in the tournament, as though being a City fan isn't bad luck enough. The three in the Welsh squad are the only ones not to get on the pitch yet, mainly through injury, while the one in the England team missed a vital penalty in the shoot-out as England went out to Germany in the quarter finals, having been 2-0 up with less than three minutes to go.
Top twelve is good it seems to me, top ten would be great, but, whereas I can't say I've heard of the French hockey team, I think I'm right in saying that Argentina have been fairly regular participants in World Cup
tournaments and Olympics, so I'd guess we'd be pretty big underdogs in that game.
Memories of 1970 World Quarter Finals there for England.
Yes, Argentina won the 2016 Olympics and are still 7th in the world. A bit hot and cold in this tournament, nearly beat Australia then drew two games 5-5 and got knocked out in a shoot-out with South Korea which dropped them into Wales' part of the draw. Won 8-0 yesterday so Wales may need to park the bus at times tomorrow.
France are 12th in the world and have become increasingly professional recently, Wales have had the better of them the last four times though. They're in our group in the next Euros too so hopefully that'll become five (Germany and Holland are also in our group, we'll need to park at least two buses against them).
England's was a spectacular collapse. They hadn't let a goal in all tournament until then but conceded twice in a minute and were hanging on for the draw. They didn't even have Peter Bonetti in goal so it was hard to explain.
Wales beaten 6-0 by Argentina which means they finish eleventh in the tournament, not bad when you consider they were ranked fourteenth in the world going into it.
Disappointing finish and a dejected changing room after. As always with the pro teams you've just got to hope they don't turn up with their A game but it's very rare that they don't in any tournament. Every side only has a squad of 18, which plays in each game, and with rolling subs it means you're never facing a team that's under strength. With important world ranking points at stake in every game teams are always motivated, even in a 9th-12th place play-off like today.
Sides will always be looking to peak for these tournaments but if your players have got day jobs the opportunities to prepare properly are limited. Wales have done incredibly well to gatecrash the top level of the game but this is their lot for now. Making huge sacrifices of their time and money to go to tournaments where they know they're probably going to get their arses kicked by pro teams, even if they play their best.
They'll go again though, next up is the Euros in Germany in August. First game against the Germans, who could win the World Cup tomorrow and who stuck 8 past Wales in the last Euros. Friends and families already making travel and ticket arrangements, the players will start the fight for squad places as soon as they get back from India. What's the saying - It's not about how many times you get knocked down, it's about how many times you get back up? Something in that.
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