The Women’s World Cup will be held in Terrassa and Amstelveen from July 1 to 17
TERRACE (BARCELONA), 17 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish women’s field hockey team will face Argentina, South Korea and Canada in the group stage of the Women’s Hockey World Cup that will be hosted by Terrassa (Spain) and Amstelveen (Netherlands) from July 1 to 17, this year.
The ‘Red Sticks’ will host Group C of the World Cup, in which they will face the powerful Argentine team, a rising Korea that seeks to recover its best version and a Canadian team that will try not to be the red ‘lantern’ .
Spain, who won their first and only World Cup medal in the previous round of London 2018, where they were third (bronze) after beating Australia, will try to improve their performance and take advantage of playing with the fans on their side.
They will now see them in ‘their’ World Cup, with players playing at home, with an ambitious Argentina that won the 2002 and 2010 World Cups (in Rosario), was bronze in 2006 and 2014, and has just won Olympic silver in Tokyo 2020. Korea, meanwhile, was bronze in 1990 and Canada was world silver in 1983 and bronze in 1986.
After the draw, the Spanish international player Georgina ‘Gigi’ Oliva valued the complicated cross. “We are facing Argentina, Korea and Canada and it will be very difficult but at the same time motivating,” she stressed.
There will be a total of 16 teams participating in this initial group stage, with groups A and B based in Amstelveen and C and D in Terrassa. The Netherlands team, co-host and double current world champion, leads Group A that it shares with Germany, Ireland – current world runner-up – and Chile.
Group B, which will also be based in the Dutch city, is made up of England, New Zealand, India and Chile. Meanwhile, Group D, based in Egar, will be made up of Australia, Belgium, Japan and South Africa.
The top four teams from each of the groups will go directly to the quarter-final matches. On the contrary, the second and third of each group will meet in the ‘crossover’ matches (equivalent to eighth), and the last of each group will fight to decide the last four of the 16 places.
Berta Bonastre and Santi Freixa, two Spanish hockey legends and excellent hosts, were the innocent hands of the draw together with the CEO of the FIH, Thierry Weil. “In Terrassa hockey is breathed everywhere. I am delighted to be part of this incredible event,” said Berta Bonastre, who will also be the director of the tournament after announcing, this week, that she was leaving the ‘Red Sticks’.
Santi Freixa assured that both Terrassa and Amstelveen are cities that live hockey. “In Amstelveen you see children on the street with a stick, and in Terrassa the same thing happens, they go to their clubs to train. This World Cup can inspire new generations to pick up a stick,” he predicted.
The president of the International Hockey Federation (FIH), Narinder Dhruv Batra, wanted to congratulate all the teams that qualified for this World Cup for their “talent and quality of spirit”, and assured that this tournament is the “pinnacle” of organized women’s hockey by the federation, where “hockey legends are forged”.
In addition, he thanked the Royal Spanish Hockey Federation (RFEH) and the Dutch federation for their previous work to be able to host, next July, the fifteenth edition of the World Cup. “Thank you for the dedication, professionalism and passion you have shown. We can only expect an exciting World Cup,” he said.
The mayor of Terrassa, Jordi Ballart, absent due to being positive for coronavirus, assured in a video that the city will live a “dream” by being able to host the World Cup, after already being a hockey sub-venue at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. “Terrassa welcomes the hockey family and we work to host a great event. We are an Olympic city and we want this World Cup, now, to be a turning point and demonstrate our potential in hockey, a sport that represents us”, he commented.
For his part, the president of the RFEH, Santiago Deó, commented that this World Cup will be “certainly” a “turning point” for Spanish hockey. “This World Cup will be in the same Olympic stadium where 30 years ago Spanish hockey undoubtedly achieved the greatest sporting feat in its history with the Olympic gold medal. And it has grown to become a true reality,” he said.
“This is a very important year for the RFEH, our centenary begins and we hope it will leave an indelible mark. Some of the celebrations will focus on this World Cup”, announced the president of the Spanish federation, during a draw that took place at the National Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia in Terrassa.
WORLD CUP GROUP STAGE DRAW.
GROUP A (Amstelveen): Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and Chile.
GROUP B (Amstelveen): England, New Zealand, India and China.
GROUP C (Terrassa): Argentina, SPAIN, South Korea and Canada.
GROUP D (Terrassa): Australia, Belgium, Japan and South Africa.