~ USA Ladies’s Hockey Workforce are positioned in Pool B together with India, New Zealand, and Italy ~
Ranchi, 4th January 2024: After lacking out on an Olympic berth in Tokyo, a motivated USA workforce arrived in Ranchi, Jharkhand on Thursday night for the highly-awaited FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers Ranchi 2024, hoping to carve a street to Paris. The USA workforce led by Co-Captains Amanda Golini and Ashley Hoffman will face off in opposition to India of their first Pool B match on thirteenth January 2024, which would be the first assembly between the 2 groups since 2021/22 FIH Ladies’s Hockey Professional League. The World No. 15 will then tackle Italy of their second recreation on 14th January adopted by their remaining pool recreation in opposition to New Zealand on sixteenth January.
Upon arriving in Ranchi, Golini expressed pleasure on the workforce’s return to India and applauded the grand welcome. “The welcome was superb, the dancing, the photographs, the whole lot was unbelievable. We loved quite a bit. Thanks a lot for this, and we’re blessed to be right here,” she stated.
Golini additionally defined the explanations behind workforce’s early arrival to India, describing the identical as a part of the workforce’s technique. “Irrespective of the place we go, our workers does an excellent job of planning in order that we get acclimatized to the climate, the situations. So, it’s positively part of the technique to succeed in a bit early,” she stated.
In the meantime, each Golini and Ashley Hoffman have been additionally a part of the USA Ladies’s Hockey Workforce that confronted off in opposition to India within the 2019 FIH Ladies’s Hockey Olympics Qualifiers. India have been capable of qualify for Tokyo on an mixture rating – with a 5-1 win within the first recreation and a 1-4 loss to USA of their second match. Regardless of a exceptional comeback within the second recreation in opposition to India, USA have been unable to e book a berth to 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
On being requested about learnings from the earlier expertise of enjoying FIH Olympic Qualifiers in India, Hoffman stated, “All through our preparations, we’ve been leaning on our earlier experiences of enjoying in India, with the environments with the loud crowds, and we’ve shared the identical with the remainder of the workforce. We’re assured that this expertise might be essential in guiding us, particularly in a packed stadium with Indian followers.”
Furthermore, the USA Ladies’s Hockey Workforce that confronted in India in 2019 was led by Coach Janneke Schopman, the present Indian Ladies’s Hockey Workforce Chief Coach. Talking on her experiences of enjoying underneath Schopman, Hoffman stated, “I believe coaches evolve as gamers do, so I’m positive to count on new issues from her because it’s been a number of years since she has coached us. However I’m positive we are able to count on a number of issues related which can be staple model of her hockey techniques. I’m total very excited to play in opposition to her. This might be an thrilling approach to meet her once more.”
In the meantime, the present USA Ladies’s Hockey Workforce Head Coach David Passmore gave an evaluation on the present USA squad and defined how earlier experiences of enjoying in India will assist his workforce.
“General, it’s nonetheless fairly a younger squad when it comes to caps, and age, however it’s additionally a extremely thrilling squad. We’ve some nice younger gamers and fortunately we’ve a number of gamers who’ve performed on this setting earlier than in Olympic Qualifiers. So, it’s an actual combination and mix. We’ve gelled very well over the past six months as a bunch, which is most essential. We’ve quite a lot of self-belief. If we play our greatest, we are able to beat everybody. We have to take it one recreation at a time,” he signed off.
Matches might be stay on Sports18 / Jio Cinema.
