Monday
May 25 |
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More than 250 Press Accreditations have been issued for this World Cup.
Here are some other numbers released by the Organization Committee:
- 24 teams from 17 different nations
- 84 games in 13 days
- more than 200 training sessions at 5 different locations
- 60 officials from 25 different nations
- approximately 380 volunteers and 70 hostesses
- 160 ballpersons
- 14 special buses, 35 Volvo cars and 100 bicycles
- 64 mobile phones
- 85 Philips TV screens
- 33 IBM computers and 12 printers
- 11 photocopy machines
(700,000 copies of various reports will be made)
- 10,000 copies of the daily "Dagelijks World Cup Bulletin"
- TV coverage sent to 33 countries
- total budget: 7.6 million Dutch florins
- gate money: 40%
- sponsors: 40%
- TV rights, Government grants: 20%
(The quantity of beer consumed so far has not been released)
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Day 6 of competition, with games for both "B" Pools.
On the women's side, logic prevailed with Korea beating England (3-2),
Argentina beating New Zealand (2-1) and the Netherlands having less
problem than in their previous games to beat India (5-0).
Although they are still looking for their first point, the Indian women's
team is playing quite well, considering that women have only started to play
the game competitively in their country fairly recently.
In this pool, Argentina and Holland will reach the semi-finals; they will
meet each other for the top rank on Wednesday. In pool "A", Australia and
Germany will be qualified and will battle each other on Tuesday for the pool
supremacy, although the "Hockeyroos" have been so dominant so far that there
is little doubt on the result.
On the men's side, Australia trashed an uninspired Malaysian team 8-0
(with 4 goals from striker Jay Stacy, including 3 penalty corners) and England
beat a courageous but modest Polish team 5-2.
Canadian Umpire
Sumesh Putra
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The game of the day was Pakistan-Spain: both the reigning World Champions
and the Olympic Silver Medallists have showed great things since the beginning
of this tournament. For us Canadians, it was satisfying to see that Canadian
umpire Sumesh Putra had been trusted for this high level game. Sumesh
did a great job and, from all accounts, is highly respected by the players and
coaches. Interestingly, Sumesh had to call two bullies in this game, when the
ball was caught in the keeper's pads, a call seldom seen at this level of
competition.
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Although all the goals came from penalty-corners, the game was much more
open than the clash between Germany and Holland the previous day, with both
teams not as strictly and dryly organized. Spain impresses as a strong team
in all aspects of the game: they are athletic (and their suntanned latin type
is not lost on the Dutch teenagers!), fast, technically sound, organized and
have amazing penalty-corner combinations. These are not of the hammering type
too often used by the Dutch or the Germans but a series of short passes which
puts the defense in a knot or out of position!
Spain opened the score just before half time with a stunning 1-2-3 penalty
corner combination. Pakistan equalized shortly after but didn't seem greatly
inspired yesterday and Shabbaz himself only showed glimpses of his brilliance,
including a solitary raid on the Spanish defense followed by a shot on goal
which created a penalty stroke (missed…). Spain scored again on a penalty
corner then showed their experience by weathering a flurry of Pakistani attacks.
Shabbaz is the most well known player here; when he gets the ball, you can
hear the whole stadium murmuring "Shabbaz..." and getting ready to
witness another magical trick from the Master! On Sunday, his rest day, he came
to the Stadium to "hang around" and you could almost see the crowd opening
in front of him with respect. The kids are looking up at him in awe and for
some of them it was hockey heaven when he showed up at the mini-hockey pitch
and played a few minutes with them!
Tuesday, big game again for our Canadian boys against Germany. Will they
be able to neutralize the German Rocket Oliver Domke?..
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DIARY: MAY 25
For more information:
fhc@fieldhockey.ca
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'98 World Cup Menu
CANADIAN CORNER !
