Monday, August 6, 2012

Go USA Field Hockey!! London Olympics


GO USA Field Hockey!!!
The Olympics have been dominating my life for the past week and so far I have managed to watch beach volleyball, fencing, judo, gymnastics, handball, cycling, tennis, water polo, equestrian, shooting, archery, swimming, diving, indoor volleyball, soccer, rowing, wrestling, weightlifting, table tennis, and some of the running preliminaries, but by far my favorite has been watching USA FIELD HOCKEY!

To set the stage I think it’s worth mentioning that field hockey venue is located right next to the swimming venue making it in the middle of all the action. The other unique thing about the field hockey venue is that they are playing on a blue turf field with PINK sidelines. It looks awesome!! The Olympic organizers decided that the blue turf makes it easier for the viewers to see the ball and watching at home I didn’t have any problems seeing the ball.

The way the Olympic field hockey tournament works is that the teams are split into 2 groups of 6 with the top 2 from each group advancing to compete for the medals. Team USA is joined by Argentina, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa in Group B. Team USA started off the tournament against a strong German team. We looked a little jittery in the first half and gave up a couple of goals. The first goal was on a penalty corner with the German player unleashing a crazy drag flick from the top of the circle. The second goal for German came on a numbers up situation and was a beautiful reverse chip shot into the upper right corner of the goal. Team USA really picked up the pace coming out of halftime. They looked much more calm and were doing a great job keeping possession and being patient on defense. Their hard work was rewarded with a goal on a penalty corner making it a one-goal game. Team USA really put pressure on the German team until the end of the game including pulling the goalie and putting in a kicking back to generate more attack. Unfortunately we came up short losing to Germany 2-1, but I think they were really able to work out the kinks in preparation for the Argentina game.

The USA vs. Argentina game is a rematch of the 2011 Pan American field hockey championship game where the USA upset the number one ranked Argentine team to earn an Olympic berth. Since then, the Argentina team has dropped in rankings to number 2 in the world and I’m sure they were out for revenge. The USA team really picked off where they left off in the Germany game and looked confident. They were generating great attack and working hard to keep Argentina’s attack under control. Finally towards the end of the first half, Team USA got a goal on a beautiful diving tip on a cross into the circle. Even though we had the lead, Team USA never settled and kept attacking for the rest of the game. The defense also really buckled down and Team USA walked away another upset victory against Argentina.

Watching these awesome field hockey games has really made me want to pick up my stick and play! Team USA is off to a strong start and I can’t wait to watch them in their remaining games!!!

GO TEAM USA!!

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