The weekend of Saturday the 2nd and Sunday the 3rd of November sees some excitement in the world of hockey. Great Britain’s men’s and women’s hockey teams look to secure their places at next year’s Tokyo Olympics, against Malaysia and Chile respectively. The format is quite simple; the teams will have a two legged playoff, with an aggregate score to find a winner.
The squads have been announced for Great Britain women’s team in the last few days. The Welsh captain, Leah Wilkinson, and the young Scottish forward, Charlotte Watson, return to the side after making their debut’s for GB earlier in the year. Both players were present for their respective home nations at the EuroHockey Championship II, held in Glasgow this summer. Watson, who plays for Dundee Wanderers, came away with a gold medal as the host nation won the tournament. A few milestones are set to be achieved. In all likelihood, skipper Hollie Pearne-Webb will reach her 80th GB cap, with Susannah Townsend her 70th and Giselle Ansley her 65th, while Sarah Robertson will hit 140 combined appearances for both Scotland and GB.
The women’s team will play Chile, with expectations being that this will be a fairly straightforward contest for the Brits. The hosts are ranked fifth in the world, whilst the Latin Americans are ranked in 18th position, as of September 2019. However, not much is known about the Chileans, when compared to other nations involved in the play-off process and do seem to be a moderately credible side. They came fourth at the Pan American Games, held in August. Chile placed second in pool B, only losing to the USA in the first round, beating Uruguay 5 – 0 in the Quarter Finals. However, they did lose to eventual champions Argentina in the Semi Finals and went down 1 – 5 to the USA in the Bronze Medal Match. Maria Maldonado and Manuela Urroz placed joint third in the goalscoring charts for this tournament, with six goals each, so could be ones to watch – Urroz has scored an impressive 13 goals in total for her country, this calendar year.
The men’s match against Malaysia should be a bit closer. GB/England are seventh in the FIH World Rankings, whilst their opponents are merely four places below them in 11th. Although GB had a decent Pro League in the first half of 2019, England had a disappointing EuroHockey Championships over the summer, coming fifth, while Scotland faired even worse, finish seventh and being relegated to the second tier. Wales were also at this tournament and finished sixth, which would have been, largely, what they were aiming for, but still not setting the tournament alight. This could be a good time for Malaysia to play Great Britain, if the recent form of the home nations continues on for the GB side. The most recent tournaments for the tourists came in 2018, where they came fifteenth at the World Cup, fifth at the Commonwealth Games and won the Silver Medal at the Asian Games. However, as a competing nation, they haven’t qualified for the Olympic Games since Sydney 2000, where they finished in disappointing eleventh place. This is a big game for both sides, as neither want to miss out on a competition of a lifetime.
There will be four matches played across the 2nd and 3rd of November at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre.
Saturday 2nd November
14.00 GB Women vs. Chilie
16.30 GB Men vs. Malaysia
Sunday 3rd November
12.00 GB Women vs. Chile
15.00 GB Men vs. Malaysia
