Women's Field Hockey (Rio Olympics)

[Abishai100]

I've been a fan of women's field hockey for such a long time. My high school team (Eastern High School, New Jersey USA) is consistently ranked tops in the nation in girls' field hockey - go EHS Vikings!

I'm a male, but I'm Asian-Indian (originally from India), and as you may know, India was quite the legendary team in men's field hockey on the world stage, led by the amazing Dhyan Chand.

Well, this year's men's field hockey draw at the Summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil looks exciting indeed, and India is a competitive nation, but my attention is drawn towards the women's competition, and I'll be watching the games (including today's exciting opener between USA and Argentina, both top contenders) on the TV station USA-HD.

In the women's draw, Holland, Argentina, Australia, America, and a few others (India is somewhere on the list too actually) are great contenders, and any one of them can rise to the challenge of the Rio spotlight this August.

#1 Holland has boasted talents such as Joyce Sombroek, while rival #2 Argentina has boasted talents such as Noel Barrionuevo.

My money is on Argentina, and I think they can pull off the upset victory over Holland who, even though arguably the most gifted team in women's field hockey history, won the gold medal in London 2012, so hey, give someone else a chance...

Women's field hockey is under-rated and very exciting, since it employs a terrific balance between skill and self-control.

Please feel free to post anything you like on this thread if you're a general, new, or serious fan of (women's) field hockey.





FIH Rankings

 

[IcebergSlim]

I've been a fan of women's field hockey for such a long time. My high school team (Eastern High School, New Jersey USA) is consistently ranked tops in the nation in girls' field hockey - go EHS Vikings!

I'm a male, but I'm Asian-Indian (originally from India), and as you may know, India was quite the legendary team in men's field hockey on the world stage, led by the amazing Dhyan Chand.

Well, this year's men's field hockey draw at the Summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil looks exciting indeed, and India is a competitive nation, but my attention is drawn towards the women's competition, and I'll be watching the games (including today's exciting opener between USA and Argentina, both top contenders) on the TV station USA-HD.

In the women's draw, Holland, Argentina, Australia, America, and a few others (India is somewhere on the list too actually) are great contenders, and any one of them can rise to the challenge of the Rio spotlight this August.

#1 Holland has boasted talents such as Joyce Sombroek, while rival #2 Argentina has boasted talents such as Noel Barrionuevo.

My money is on Argentina, and I think they can pull off the upset victory over Holland who, even though arguably the most gifted team in women's field hockey history, won the gold medal in London 2012, so hey, give someone else a chance...

Women's field hockey is under-rated and very exciting, since it employs a terrific balance between skill and self-control.

Please feel free to post anything you like on this thread if you're a general, new, or serious fan of (women's) field hockey.





FIH Rankings



View attachment 84482

I lived in Australia for a couple of years as a kid and played Men's Field Hockey.....great sport......back then the Indians and Pakistanis played IN BARE FEET.....

 

[Abishai100]

Cool, they also play soccer bare feet (you may know?).

Argentina just had a goal called back against the USA, so it's still scoreless in the 3rd period. These athletes are gorgeous!

 

[Abishai100]

Great Britain is currently stunning highly-ranked Australia and leading them 2-1.

 

[Abishai100]

More Stats

Highly-ranked New Zealand tops Korea 4-1, someplace-rivals Japan and India tie 1-1, tournament favorites Holland is crushing Spain 5-0, and Germany is leading China 1-0.

This is turning out to be a spectator breeze.

Here's a picture of Germany winning the gold in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

 

[Abishai100]

Argentine Ascension

Well, here's my favorite Argentine field hockey player, Agustina Albertario. She's feisty and provides a great complementary role which gives her team some nice sanity. Hopefully, she and her team will recover nicely from their shocking loss to a surprisingly energetic America.

That's my final post for this thread until the Quarterfinals. I'll simply be coasting and enjoying TV, so feel free to post whatever you like and I hope you'll wait for my Quarterfinal and Final posts. Keep it engaging, and keep it clean!

 

[Abishai100]

America Excels

Well, USA continues its stunning early run by upsetting tough-contender Australia, and a tough Germany upsets New Zealand.

I couldn't resist posting that news. Now, 'till the QFs.

 

[Abishai100]

Still-Qualifying Run

Argentina women's defeated Japan 4-0 but then lost to surprising Great Britain 3-2 and then again to Australia 1-0, but they're still in the running to qualify for the QFs.

 

[Abishai100]

QF Predictions


I just love Argentina, and the surprising Granatto scored in both of the team's high-scoring wins over Japan and India. Unfortunately, Argentina has to square off against the dominating Netherlands in the QFs, but since they're my favorite team (and dark-horse to win it all), I'm gonna say they pull off the bizarre upset.

Here're the other QF match-ups and my picks

US-Germany (US)
New Zealand-Australia (New Zealand)
Great Britain-Spain (Great Britain)

I pick Argentina to defeat New Zealand in the finals (and Great Britain wins Bronze).

FIH Rio

 

[Abishai100]

QF Results

Well, the QFs have come to a close today with four exciting games. I was 2-2 in my predictions. New Zealand defeated Australia 4-2, and Great Britain defeated Spain 3-1, but the US lost to Germany 1-2, and Argentina lost to the Netherlands 2-3.

So it will be Netherlands v Germany in one Semi-Final (SF) match on Wednesday (8/17), and New Zealand v Great Britain in the other SF match.

I'll stay true to my original predictions from the QF match-ups and pick Netherlands to play New Zealand in the Finals and Great Britain to win the Bronze.

Since my favorite team, Argentina, is out, I have to pick the team that ousted it (Netherlands) to win it all. But who knows?

Lots of fierce play, good teamwork, and adequate TV coverage for this event in Rio.

 

[Abishai100]

SF Report

Well, Netherlands (the tournament favorites now) have defeated Germany in the semi-finals 1-1 (4-3 p.s.o., with Ellen Hoog sealing the deal in the 7th round) and will face the winner of the New Zealand-Great Britain match.

Great Britain, the surprising darlings of the tournament, are shockingly leading top-contender New Zealand 3-0 in the second half. Two goals from Alexandra Danson (21m, 51m) and one from Helen Richardson-Walsh (47m).

It looks like New Zealand will play Germany for the Bronze, while Great Britain squares off against the Netherlands in the final match on Friday (8/19), unless New Zealand is able to pull off a miraculous turn-around down 3-0.

Go Netherlands!

 

[Abishai100]

Great Britain / Germany

Well, the darlings of the Rio women's field hockey tournament, Great Britain have pulled off the shocking upset against Netherlands (3-3, 2-0 p.s.o.) and claimed the gold medal. Germany upset New Zealand to win the bronze.

Germany has also won the women's soccer gold medal, and today the men's soccer team try to upset the favorites (the host nation) Brazil to claim the gold.

Sports has brought Germany a long way from the shadow of Nazi Germany.

I still can't believe Great Britain has won the women's field hockey tournament, in a field ripe with incredible gifted teams such as Netherlands, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia (and the USA).

Maybe the world wanted to see the dominance of Holland in women's field hockey finally come to an end. It's all moot for me, since I was rooting for Argentina.

So that's my last post, the tourney ends. I really enjoyed following the games on my LG HDTV and my Dell laptop (isn't it funny how tech-gadget access makes consumer brand-marketing sexy?).


Go Germany!

 

[FJO]

It is a great mystery that field hockey is relatively popular, but TEAM HANDBALL is hardly known.