Meridio
International Regular
Thought I might make a thread for this - the Hockey World Cup (men's and women's; they're being held concurrently) started yesterday. It's being held in the Netherlands, who will be one of the top contenders in the men's and probably the overwhelming favourites in the women's. Australia and Germany are likely to be up there for the men with the Argies probably second favourites for the women. There's more than a decent chance of a few upsets though, particularly in the men's, with all countries ranked in the top 8 or so capable of beating each other. Belgium in particular have come a long way in the last few years.
NZ started with a 2-1 win over Korea this morning; it was a decent performance (scored a goal after 13 seconds), and Korea have been a team we've struggled against recently but we will need to be a lot better against the stronger teams in the group.
The NZ women started with a 4-3 win over Belgium. First half we went 3-0 up and should have been further ahead; we then scored another before Belgium came back with 3 second half goals (admittedly one courtesy of a poor umpiring decision), making for a nervy last few minutes. I thought we looked very dangerous on attack, but need to be far more clinical in front of goal - we had several clear cut chances that we should have put in. We also looked a bit suspect at the back, which is worrying.
Anyway, post away hockey fans...
NZ started with a 2-1 win over Korea this morning; it was a decent performance (scored a goal after 13 seconds), and Korea have been a team we've struggled against recently but we will need to be a lot better against the stronger teams in the group.
The NZ women started with a 4-3 win over Belgium. First half we went 3-0 up and should have been further ahead; we then scored another before Belgium came back with 3 second half goals (admittedly one courtesy of a poor umpiring decision), making for a nervy last few minutes. I thought we looked very dangerous on attack, but need to be far more clinical in front of goal - we had several clear cut chances that we should have put in. We also looked a bit suspect at the back, which is worrying.
Anyway, post away hockey fans...