Hockey at London 2012: The Olympic lowdown

Ireland might not be competing after March’s qualification tournament near misses, but there’s still plenty to pique the interest of hockey fans at the London 2012 Olympics, which get underway this weekend. Here’s Southern Fried Hockey’s guide to the tournament.

THE BASICS When: Sunday July 29 – Saturday August 11 Where: Riverbank Arena, London. Straying from convention, the pitch will be blue instead of green, and the ball yellow instead of white. Medal events: 2 Athletes: 384 (192 men, 192 women) Tournament format: Two pools of six, with the top two in each advancing to semi-finals. Golden goal extra-time and penalty shoot-outs can be used to resolve ties in knockout matches. Where can I see it: All games will be available on BBC Red Button, while RTE will show some games via live stream on http://www.rte.ie/sport/olympics/ Who is in with who? Men’s Pool A: Australia; Great Britain; Spain; Pakistan; Argentina; South Africa. Men’s Pool B: Germany; Netherlands; South Korea; New Zealand; India; Belgium. Women’s Pool A: Netherlands; Great Britain; China; Korea; Japan; Belgium; Women’s Pool B: Argentina; Germany; New Zealand; Australia; United States of America; South Africa. Schedule: Games will begin at 8.30am daily during the pool stage with little let-up until the final whistle each day at 9.45pm. The full schedule can be seen here. WHO ARE THE FAVOURITES? Irishman Stephen Findlater of The Hook has been compiling detailed team-by-team guides to each side at the Olympic for the International Hockey Federation website; you can read them here. Odds to win the competitions outright, supplied by Ladbrokes.com: Men: Australia 13/10; Germany 7/2; Netherlands 11/2; GB 13/2; Spain 8/1; New Zealand 20/1; Belgium 28/1; South Korea 33/1; Argentina 33/1; India 40/1; Pakistan 80/1; South Africa 100/1 Women: Netherlands 11/10; Argentina 7/2; GB 11/2; Germany 13/2; Australia 18/1; New Zealand 20/1; South Africa 25/1; China 25/1; South Korea 33/1; USA 50/1; Japan 50/1; Belgium 80/1. PLAYERS TO WATCH Jamie Dwyer (Australia): The Australia forward has been world player of the year five times since 2004 and scored the winning goal in the 2004 final against defending champions Holland which finally brought the Kookaburras their first – and so far only – Olympic gold medal. His build-up to this tournament has had to be carefully managed following a serious knee injury in 2011, but he is now primed to light up London. Just check out some of his outrageous finishing below: Luciana Aymar (Argentina): Even Dwyer’s five-time world player of the year mantle can be usurped by Aymar, who has won the gong seven times. Arguably the greatest player of her generation, she is a renowned scorer of spectacular solo goals; this effort against Korea in 2006 is memorable for the audacious dummy of the goalkeeper, though this one (below) from last year’s World Cup arguably tops it. She’s 35 now so this may be your last chance to see her at the top level, make the most of it. Moritz Fürste (Germany): The heartbeat of the defending champions. 27-year-old Fürste returned from a knee injury in March to captain his club UHC Hamburg to its third Euro Hockey League title in just five years. An Olympic, World and European champion, he will hope to leave Germany with another medal to remember him by before he departs to play his club hockey with Club de Campo in Spain. This video is a few years old but gives you some measure of his influence. Maartje Paumen (Netherlands): Renowned as one of the women’s game’s most fearsome drag-flickers, Dutch skipper Paumen, 27, is also a powerful defender with a big reach who was named 2011 FIH Player of the Year, having helped her side concede just twice in five games. The top scorer in Champions Trophy history, she also picked off a goal in every game of the Netherlands’ 2010 World Cup campaign and needs only two goals to equal Australian Alyson Annan’s overall Olympic record of 13. WHAT ELSE TO LOOK OUT FOR? Hosts with the most: Great Britain’s women’s team have been steadily building towards this tournament on home soil, improving with each tournament while Dutch coach Max Calvas pitched them as favourites following the Investec London Cup. They’re seeking a first gold at an Olympics since 1988 but it will be fascinating to see how they cope with the increased media attention and profile.

The same goes for the men, whose star man Ashley Jackson was labelled “the Ronaldo of hockey” by his own captain Barry Middleton. The football analogies continue as Jackson is a penalty stroke expert, meaning superstitious English soccer fans who saw namesakes Cole and Young fail with spot-kicks at Euro 2012 may have to endure another Ashley stepping up to the spot for a vital penalty. GB men’s form has been ropey enough in the build-up, but they also provide significant Irish interest with the presence of Belfast man Iain Lewers – who won over 80 caps for Ireland before defecting to Great Britain in 2008 – in their line-up. The GB coaches are also both fascinating characters. Women’s supremo Danny Kerry gave his players the option of finding out how they learned about their selection – text, email or phone call – but isn’t afraid to lay into his squad in public, while men’s counterpart Jason Lee claims his side could out-do England’s footballers at everything from physical endurance to general knowledge and penalties. Number crunchers: Irish hockey followers may remember Pietie Coetzee, the South African who broke the women’s international goalscoring record with four goals in her side’s 5-5 draw with the USA at the Champions Challenge I in Dublin last summer. Coetzee now has a remarkable 241 goals in 245 appearances, and will be looking to add to her total in London. Meanwhile, Dutch legend Teun de Nooijer looks set to pass another landmark in a remarkable career; he has amassed a staggering 445 international caps, so should hit the 450 mark at this Olympics. De Nooijer is competing at his fifth Olympics, a record he shares with Spain’s Pol Amat. Shootout psyche-outs: Penalty strokes are a thing of the past for the Olympics, as the penalty 1-on-1 method made famous by the EHL has been adopted. In case you haven’t seen it yet, it involved players starting with the ball on the 25, then coming into the circle to take on a the goalkeeper, with eight seconds to score. Australia and New Zealand’s men had a go at it recently: TRIVIA *Germany’s Natascha Keller, Pakistan drag-flicking legend Sohail Abbas and Argentina’s Luciana Aymar will carry the flags for their countries at the opening ceremony; boxer Katie Taylor will carry the Irish flag. *Remarkably, Keller is the fifth in her family to win an Olympic hockey medal. Grandfather Erwin (silver, 1936), father Carsten (gold, 1972), brother Andrea (silver 1984 and 1988, gold, 1992) and brother Florian (gold, 2008) are the others, adding to Natascha’s gold in 2004.

*Ireland may not be represented on the playing side of things, but the country is punching at its weight on the umpiring side of the Olympics; Ray O’Connor is umpires manager while Carol Metchette and Colin Hutchinson will both officiate at the Games. In addition, Irish badminton Olympian Scott Evans has a hockey history, having previously played with Corinthian and represented Leinster at U16 level. *Belgium’s Tom and Jill Boon are the only brother and sister to both compete in the 2012 tournament. Jill was part of the Belgian side which defeated Ireland in the final of March’s Olympic qualifiers in Kontich, Belgium while Tom is former team-mate of Irish international Jason Lynch at Royal Racing Club Brussels. *South Africa had an unusually arduous journey to get to London; both their men’s and women’s sides qualified as African Cup winners, but their Olympic council insisted they give up those places and go down the fraught qualifier route to ensure their place. Both duly progressed in any case. CONTROVERSY *The blue pitch to be used for the Olympics – affectionately known as the “smurf turf” – has been heavily criticised by India coach Michael Nobbs and his Australian counterpart Ric Charlesworth, with both mainly complaining that it is too slow and uneven. While not necessarily referring to the Riverbank Arena itself, Nobbs is not a fan of the newer blue pitches in general: “During the tour (of Spain) we played on blue turf and let me tell you some interesting facts have come up. None of the teams we played during the tour could convert most of the penalty corners (including ourselves). We could convert only three of the 33 penalty corners.” *Argentina have been at the centre of a couple of pre-tournament controversies. In May, using the Falklands for an advertising campaign featuring hockey player Fernando Zylberberg and calling it Argentine soil angered the British. Then goalkeeper Belen Succi revealed she will miss the Olympics after falling pregnant; something which angered Las Leonas captain Luciana Aymar. “She could have waited three months,” said Aymar, who insists Succi ignored her pleas to wait until after the Olympics to plan the pregnancy. “It was a tough blow. I wish her the best as a mother-to-be, but for us as a team it was hard. As a goalie, ‘Goofy’ is huge, and the truth is she left us in a tight spot.”

*Dutch coach Paul Van Ass has made a rod for his own back by dropping two of world hockey’s most famous names for his side’s Olympic campaign. Penalty corner expert Taeke Taekema and EuroHockey League top scorer Jeroen Hertzberger have both been omitted from the Dutch panel of 16 by Van Ass, who also left his own son Seve at home. Van Ass – who showed Teun de Nooijer the door in January for a series against Ireland before later recalling him – has since been criticised by Taekema’s wife Rachel, sister of GB captain Kate Walsh, who hit out at the treatment of the Amsterdam star on Twitter: “Still in total shock!! This is not how you treat people… Being publicly messed around and s#%t on is appalling.. No class and no clue!!” (@racheltaekema)