• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

2014 Hockey World Cup

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...
 

Chubb

International Regular
Well I am hockey fan and player, but this is my first visit to CW for months, so apologies. Impressed with Argentina mens team FWIW.
 

Meridio

International Regular
Wahey, another person. Think Argentina's world ranking falls victim to geography; they're a better side than 11th in the world, but probably don't get the number of quality matches to improve it. Their drag-flicker looks very good, he gets a lot of power, probably the quickest I've seen this tournament. Having said that I think they play quite a negative game, they stack everyone into their own half when they don't have the ball and rely on winning corners.

Disappointing for the NZ girls drawing with Australia tonight; we had several very clear cut chances but poor finishing cost us. The men's team pretty much out of the running too, they're not going to beat the Netherlands. We've played some good hockey but are still a clear step below the top teams. Our best players are as good as anyone, but the rest are just that much slower, less skilful etc.
 

Top