Saturday
May 23 |
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Mr. Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the I.O.C. (International
Olympic Committee), paid a visit to the World Cup of field hockey in Utrecht.
He commented that "the Dutch have shown through the years that they know
how to organize an event with the impact of a World Cup".
About field hockey, he said that "it will remain in the Olympic program
forever" then made the very important announcement that, starting in
Athens (2004), the number of women's teams in the Olympic tournament will be
increased to 12, to match the number of teams in the men's competition!
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Day 4 of competition
On the women's side, the teams of Pool "B" were in action. Argentina
disposed handsomely of England (4-2) while later in the day Holland
struggle to beat Korea (1-0). Once again, the Dutch team showed great
technical abilities and speed but couldn't score on a very patient Korean team.
The orange crowd is starting to be a bit worried for their women's team but
didn't spare their faithful and loud support. Yesterday, everybody was given
a rattle (orange, of course) and during 70 minutes it sounded like an army of
crickets was relentlessly pushing the Dutch team towards the goal. (We also
found out later that these rattles are very efficient when used to attract
the attention of waiters in restaurants!)
In this pool, we are heading for a showdown between Argentina and Holland,
both still unbeaten, on the last day of round-robin play (Wednesday May 27).
On the men's side, Pakistan is now the only unbeaten team in Pool "B". They
took the upper hand on a valiant English team after what was described by the
Pakistani coach as "a tennis game": the score was 7-5!!! He added
that it was a superb open game, perfect for promoting the game, thanks to the
new rules (in particular the no off-side one).
As for the English team, they had trouble realizing that they had scored
5 goals on the reigning World Champions but had still lost the game!.. According
to them, they gave away "soft" goals and couldn't neutralize an amazing
Shabbaz. The famous player with electric heels once again delighted the
crowd and the 7th and last Pakistani goal brought the crowd to their feet for a long
appreciative ovation: Shabbaz got the ball on the center line and, even though
carrying the ball, ran away from the English defense dragging the goal-keeper
to one side before putting the ball right on the stick of a teammate in front
of the empty goal. The understatement of the day goes to the coach of the
English team (Australian Barry Dancer) when he said at the post-game press
conference "Reports of Shabbaz' demise are incorrect".
Later in the day, Australia and Spain squared for a rematch of the Atlanta
Olympic semi-final. It was another superb and intense game, the Australians
leveling the score at 2-2 with a powerful penalty corner with 10 minutes to go.
| The Spanish defense is under pressure...
... and Australia finally equalizes
with a powerful penalty corner.
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Sunday, teams from both "B" Pools will take the field with, on the men's side,
a clash of titans between Germany and Holland. The Canadian contingent will
wait for their very important game against New Zealand.
CANADIAN CORNER !
Kelvin WOOD navigated the polders to reach Utrecht!
Kelvin played many years for Canada
(including at the 1976 Olympics)
and is still playing for the
Calgary Saracens F.H.C.
(as well as coaching young players)
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DIARY: MAY 23
For more information:
fhc@fieldhockey.ca
F.H.C. Menu
'98 World Cup Menu
