****Official Hockey Discussion Thread****

[Noble One]

Watching Australia v New Zealand women. Slightly scrappy contest with New Zealand having the edge.

Not the best sport to watch on TV. Early morning sun on a blue pitch makes the ball hard to follow.

[flibbertyjibber]

Originally Posted by Noble One

Watching Australia v New Zealand women. Slightly scrappy contest with New Zealand having the edge.

Not the best sport to watch on TV. Early morning sun on a blue pitch makes the ball hard to follow.

The blue pitch was specifically to make it easier to follow the ball. Not worked then (I watching the Denmark v India archery at present)

[_Ed_]

It's great when the sun goes behind a cloud - much sharper than I remember it being on a green pitch. But, yeah, it's harder in bright sunlight. There's a bit of glare.

Goalies on both sides having a good game by the look of it. Could easily have been many more goals.

[Flem274*]

Originally Posted by flibbertyjibber

The blue pitch was specifically to make it easier to follow the ball. Not worked then (I watching the Denmark v India archery at present)

I was going to ask why the field was blue.

Hey, they have UDRS too. Will India object to it in this sport as well?

Great to see us in the lead.

[Burgey]

God the Hockeyroos are a shadow of their former selves. Great effort by NZ here though.

[Burgey]

This Flynn chick for NZ is well hot.

[Flem274*]

Yesss gj NZ.

Is it just me or is that blue field huge?

[Meridio]

Stoked with that result. Was a pretty frantic game, and quite tight defensively. Think both sides were not as slick as they'd like to be, often the final pass would let them down after some good lead up play. Obviously, Australia a long way off where they were a few years ago.

[Flem274*]

Who are the favourites for the tournament?

[MrPrez]

Originally Posted by vic_orthdox

Must be frightening running out of the goals for a penalty corner, knowing the ball is about to be whacked straight at you. Got lots of respect for hockey players.

It is. I generally run our first team defence at centre half. Despite being the quickest guy in the team I am usually employed on the post. Hate post so much, have deflected a ball into the goal accidentally more often than actually saved our skins. I once got hit on the back of the head with a flick in indoor. Wasn't fun but actually wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be. Carried on playing, just a bit dazed.

Originally Posted by flibbertyjibber

The blue pitch was specifically to make it easier to follow the ball. Not worked then (I watching the Denmark v India archery at present)

Didn't look too fly to me, can't say I'd want to play on one. Although iirc I played on one in u13, couldn't tell you whether it was better or worse though.

[flibbertyjibber]

Originally Posted by Flem274*

Who are the favourites for the tournament?

From what I heard on radio before the games the womens is wide open and Australia are hot favourites in the mens.

GB started well 3-0 up 8 minutes before half time, not sure how good/bad Japan are though.

[superkingdave]

Some decent goals amongst GBs 4 as well. Impressed.

[weldone]

Hope Indians can put up a fight before the Dutch today.

[Meridio]

Really disappointing result for the NZ men today, going down 2-0 to Korea. First ten minutes of the game we were all over them; then, for the rest of the first half we could barely get it out of our half, and Korea scored twice. Second half we were a bit better but the final ball let us down, and we also missed all three penalty corners we won. Makes it that much harder for us to qualify, means we'll have to beat at least one of Germany or the Netherlands, barring some major upsets. Korea looked decent, though not that great I thought - defensively they were very strong, but their main route of attack was to smash it into the circle and hope to find a player (which they did, twice).

Australia vs SA was next and was predictably one-sided, though I was actually reasonably impressed with SA - they've improved a lot in the last few years. First half in particular they kept pace with Aus. Australia were ridiculously good on attack, though defensively I thought they looked a little bit suspect at times, also were very cynical, number 19 in particular (cbf checking his name) who seemed a total thug, always leading/following through on tackles with elbows and shoulders. Got one green card, but should've been yellowed twice tbh.

Anyway, was freaking awesome to watch. So, so fast and skillful. Not just in a straight line either, the way these guys can change direction or spin around and not lose any pace is incredible. Also, just to be a **** and rub in how I'm here and you aren't, here's a couple of photos from the last two days. Think there's a crack in my camera lens, which ****s me off.

[uvelocity]

that blue field is hard on the eyes imo