The ‘RedSticks’ want to join the party
The women’s field hockey team is looking to emulate the men’s team by eliminating Belgium and entering the fight for medals
MADRID, 4 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish women’s field hockey team will try to emulate the men’s team and qualify for the semi-finals of the Paris Olympic Games on Monday (8:00 p.m.), for which they also need to beat Belgium, the current continental runner-up.
The ‘RedSticks’ pulled off a surprise victory in the tournament on Sunday, beating the Belgian team, the current Olympic champion, and now it is the ‘RedSticks’ who want to extend the celebration of national field hockey by once again placing themselves in the fight for medals and aspiring to an unusual double, which only basketball, in Rio 2016, has achieved with its two teams.
Spain has been waiting for more than two decades to be among the top four women’s field hockey teams at the Olympics. Fourth place in Sydney 2000 is the last great result, along with the historic gold in 1992, and the team led by Carlos García Cuenca is excited to end this wait.
The first phase of the ‘RedSticks’ invites some optimism despite the fact that it has been somewhat irregular. They started very well, with a great victory against Great Britain, key to securing third place and avoiding the greatest dangers of the other group, but the draw against the United States and the narrow victory against South Africa perhaps left more doubts than the defeats against Argentina and Australia, two of the candidates, where the game was much better.
The women’s team hopes to improve its chances against a Belgium team whose hockey is certainly not as physical, but it mainly needs to improve its aim from the penalty corner because its statistics in the group stage have been the most negative.
In fact, Spain has only scored two of the 40 shots taken, with goals against Great Britain and South Africa, an effectiveness that must be improved if it wants to aspire to enter the fight for the medals, although it also indicates that it attacks a lot and that it frequently enters the area of the rival teams.
The next test for the ‘RedSticks’ will be a Belgium that has given a good image and that will want revenge for the men’s team. The Belgians finished second in Group A behind the Netherlands, against whom they suffered their only defeat. The current runners-up in Europe, number three in the ranking, beat Germany, China, France and Japan and will now seek to cross paths with a Spanish team that they crushed in the last European Championship (5-0), but against which they had many more problems in the final of the last Pre-Olympic Championship, with a narrow victory by 2-1 after a final comeback.
“Belgium is a real third-ranked team and for me it is the third best team in the world behind the Netherlands and Argentina. In this last three-year work cycle after Tokyo they have made a spectacular improvement and have come to Paris to do something important. They are a team that controls different aspects of the game and have a lot of experience. They are a very difficult rival, at the level of Australia and Argentina,” said García Cuenca in statements provided by the RFEH.
For the coach, the duels against the ‘Red Panthers’ in the V Nations or the Pre-Olympic tournament have “an unreal competitive level”. “To win we have to play a ‘great game’, we have no other choice. We did it against Australia, although we had the first two minutes and the last five too many. We have to be 100% throughout the match. The players are mentally prepared for it and we are going for it,” he concluded.
DATASHEET.
–EQUIPMENT.
BELGIA: D’Hooghe (P), Marien, Englebert, Vandermeiren, Puvrez, Struijk, Gerniers, Vanden Borre, Hillewaert, Ballenghien, Brasseur, Rasir, White, Blockmans, Nelen y Belis.
SPAIN: Clara Pérez (P), Amundson, Giné, L. Barrios, López, Strappato, Jiménez, Torres-Quevedo, Blanca Pérez, Álvarez, Segú, Beatriz Pérez, García, S. Barrios, Iglesias and Riera.
–STADIUM: Yves-du-Manour.