Women’s Hockey World Cup
Spain and the Netherlands 2022
Match Day 1
Friday 1 July
Results
Spain 4 – 1 Canada
What’s Happened Today
The opening match of this World Cup saw co-hosts Spain take on Canada in Pool C. The Spanish, ranked seventh in the world, were favourites against 14th placed Canada, who are the lowest placed side in their first round group. It’s the only game of the day and all eyes were focused on this fixture, that was umpired by Trinidadian Ayanna McClean and Hannah Harrison from England. New Zealand’s Kelly Hudson was the match’s video umpire. Ayanna McClean is the Caribbean’s foremost hockey umpire and has been on the Half Court Press Podcast, you can listen to her thoughts on umpiring here. The venue in Spain is the Terrassa Olympic Stadium, in Catalonia. It’s normally used for football, being home to local side Terrassa FC. However, it has a strong history in the far superior game of hockey. It hosted the hockey tournament at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, where Spain, themselves, won the gold medal in the Women’s event.
Best Goal
The opening goal of the tournament was scored on the rebound, by Belén Iglesias, from a fourth minute Spanish short corner. They dominated the first half, scoring several more after the quarter time interval. However, the best goal of the day came after a beautiful bit of build up play from Spain, that started from their playmaker Gigi Oliver. It culminated with Oliva herself popping up on the left hand side and supplying a delightful 45 degree angled pass into the circle for Begoña Garcia to deflect the ball past Rowan Harris in the Canadian goal and into the corner of the goal in the 28th minute of the match. This gave the host nation a four goal lead going into the half time break, as well as the first field goal of the tournament. It inferred a psychological sense of superiority for the Latin Europeans, who had dominated possession, territory, shots and short corners up until this point in the match.
Star Player
The stand out players in the opening and solitary game of match day one were the playmakers of either team. Canada’s captain, Natalie Sourisseau, is energetic, dynamic and assertive. She committed herself admirable throughout the match. However, the star player of the day undoubtedly was the Spanish midfielder Georgina Oliva. Her impact on the outcome of the game was greater than that of her opposite number, playing a consistent part in her side’s build up play, winning a short corner and setting up the goal of the match as well. She was also named the Most Valuable Player, of the match, by the tournament organisers.
Favourite Moment
The best part of the day for me, was the start of the opening match. It’s always great to be watching a World Cup, a truly great sporting spectacle. It’s such an enjoyable festival for the sport of hockey, it was the highlight of the evening for me today.
