The Women’s Hockey World Cup is just around the corner. It will begin on the first day of July, with the Final being held on the 17th, culminating a two and a half week long celebration of our amazing sport. 16 teams will compete across two separate facilities in Spain and the Netherlands – the first time a hockey World Cup has been split between different locations. Four groups of four teams will compete for success. The winners of each pool will qualify directly for the quarter finals, with the second and third place teams entering a cross over match, which equates to a second round of the tournament. Groups A and B will be based at the Wagener Stadium, in Amstelveen, with C and D staying in the Estadi Olympic de Terrassa in Spain. It’s the latter stadium that also has been earmarked for the Bronze and Gold Medal matches as well.
The Wagener Stadium is the home to the Amsterdam Hockey and Bandy Club and has a capacity of 9,000 people. It’s currently owned by the KNVB (Royal Dutch Hockey Federation), but was originally built by the AHBC in honour of their previous president, Joop Wagener. This will be the second World Cup that it has hosted, after the 1973 men’s event was held there. It has also played host to three EuroHockey Championships and several Champions Trophies. Estadi Olympic de Terrassa is the home of Atlètic Terrassa Hockey Club. The town itself has been one of the pioneers that introduced the sport of hockey into the wider region of Catalonia. The 11,500 capacity stadium has also hosted the hockey tournament 1992 Olympic Games.
The draw throws up some intriguing matches. In Group A, we have a Central European derby between the hosts Holland and their geographical neighbours Germany. We will also see a repeat of the 2018 World Cup Final between the Dutch and the Irish. In Group B we also have an interesting looking Asian derby with India and China both playing some decent hockey in their recent Pro League fixtures. Argentina will be favourites to top Group C, but a good Spanish team (who won the bronze medal in 2018) will look to make use of home advantage. Group D is arguably the group of death, with strong Australian and Belgium teams, as well as the Asian and African champions in Japan and South Africa.
According to the FIH website, there has been 14 editions of the Women’s World Cup, with 29 national teams playing a total of 571 matches and scoring 1906 goals in that time. Typically, when the powers that be introduced this competition to the game it was a men’s only setup. Although, it took a few years before women were included in the concept of a World Cup, we didn’t have to wait as long for equality as with the Olympic movement. In fact the inaugural women’s competition was held in 1974, an entire six years before we saw female hockey players at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Again, similar to the men’s tournament, the women’s World Cup took a while before it settled down into a regular pattern. It wasn’t until after 1986 that we saw a four year cycle between competitions.
In that first World Cup, in 1974, we saw ten team compete against each other, on the French Riviera. The venue was in the French coastal town of Mandelieu-la-Napoule, which is just south-west of Cannes and is known for having a fourteenth century fortified castle. Two groups of five teams played a round robin style first round, where each country played four games. Belgium, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Spain, were all drawn into Group A. India topped the group, with the Dutch ladies coming in second place, due to the tie-breaker rules as both teams won three and lost one of their games. Over in Group B, Argentina, Austria, France, Switzerland and West Germany were pitted together. Here, the West Germans topped the group, with four wins from four, whilst the Argentines came second, having won their other three matches. In the Semi Finals, we saw the group runners-ups come out on top, with Argentina beating India and the Netherlands getting over the top of their rivals West Germany, both games finishing 1-0. Whilst the West Germans took the Bronze medal, it was the Dutch who came out as the first ever women’s World Champions of hockey, winning 1-0 again, against the Latin Americans.
The Netherlands have gone on to dominate women’s hockey over the intervening years. In the 14 World Cup tournaments that have been held since 1974, the Dutch have won eight of them. In fact there has been on one occasion when they haven’t medaled at all, which was in 1994, as they have also secured four silver medals and a bronze over the years. Three other teams have also come out on top over the years. West Germany won the title in 1976 and 1981; Australia won back to back championships in 1994 and 1998. More recently, Argentina won in 2002 and 2010, both times beating the Dutch in the final.
The opening match of the 2022 Women’s World Cup will be on Friday 1st July, between Spain and Canada. It will be 9.30pm local time and 8.30pm if, like me, you are based in the United Kingdom. All matches in Britain will be shown on BT Sport.
