Hockey Sticks At The Ready

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It's Sunday and I'm wandering around YouTube looking for free live sport. Normally there's a cricket or football game that I can cling onto (have to work out what Romanian team to support) but find myself surprisingly stopping at women's hockey. Why would I want to watch a sport I've little knowledge of  and not taken any interest in the past? Well it's in Cardiff (Wales were playing), I noted that this game is part of a tournament, and my daughter plays hockey at school.

In other words I've a plan to knock off another day from the summer holiday.

This tournament is called Eurohockey Championships II. It involves eight nations just below the top tier. For the moment they are playing in two groups of four before everything then goes into the knockout stage. The reward for the final two is entry into the elite group of nations.

There were two matches on Monday. The first we would miss and it didn't matter anyway. The second however was France Italy. This was good because in the absence of Wales we had a team to support in view of our ancestry.

Just to give you a clue...

"Italia! Italia!"

So found ourselves in Sophia Gardens at around five thirty in the evening. Also home for Glamorgan Cricket Club it's a complex that houses the Welsh Hockey HQ with it's own (much smaller pitch). Had our hot dogs (which tasted better than the Five Guys thing at the Red Dragon Centre on Friday)soft drinks and we were ready.

As we entered the pitch both teams were training and the announcer was giving out the teams. There was a group of young Frenchmen to our right. You could tell they were French by their tops (a giveaway that) and the way they cheered when every player from their side was mentioned (one I noticed that received a whistle). However when it was time for the national anthems it was they who belted out Les Marseillaise with commendable gusto more I noticed than the team. The Italians ladies (dressed in white) sang their tune as loud as possible as if their lives depended on it.

"Allez le Bleu" shouted one of the Frenchmen as the match started. Or if you can imagine a surprisingly gruff voice "ARRLLLEZ LE BLEU!!".

And indeed France in the beginning did attack. So much so that my hockey ignorance began to show. There was apparently a foul on a French player in the Italian half. Ah I said to my daughter "a free kick".

Well she gave me a look of utter contempt that only a teenage girl could give.

But after this French pressure Italy a few minutes later scored.

"Italia! Italia!"

The French tried again. Just missing the goal whilst the Italian goalie threw herself spectacularly across the line.

Soon after I started clapping. Italy scored with a goal a few yards from the halfway line. It was spectacular....but no one was celebrating....cue contemptuous daughter look two. She tells me that you have to be in the semi circled area to by the net to score a goal. 

Ahh right....

There then was an altercation. A French player fouled an Italian who turned round and raised her stick. Before it turned all martial arts though they were both sent off. Didn't seem to bother Italy though. A run off the wing, a cross from which a strike by an oncoming Italian player caught the defence and the goalie off guard. The most football like goal of the game.

Moments later there was a third. A back flip of the stick to the net. 3-0 Italy. And that was the score at half time.

"Italia! Italia!"

The Italians spent half time by the pitch. The French ladies went off to their French dressing room presumably to be shouted out with various French swear words by the French coach.

If there was swearing though it didn't work. Four minutes into the second half Italy scored again. Soon after that there was a penalty  that made it five.

Even the sin binning of an Italian player didn't matter. Just like football when a team tries to throw everything but the kitchen sink to try and retrieve itself from a bad scoreline leaving itself venerable to opposition attack. There was a one on one between the Italian player and the French goalie. I'll give you another clue what happened.

"Italia! Italia!"

To be the Frenchmen I mentioned earlier still shouted support to their countrywomen...just a little more muted with every goal that crossed the line.

And before the final whistle there was another ....seven nil ....."Italia! Italia!".

It's not for me to talk about either team's chances in the tournament. I lack the knowledge to say anything about that. Except in retrospect the fact that the Italian ladies sang the national anthem as forcefully as possible unlike their French counterparts was perhaps a sign that they were a team. Which (let's face it the French lost seven nil!) their opponents really were not.

I must admit I enjoyed my first hockey game and more importantly so did my daughter. Unfortunately work means I can't go to any other match but we'll see whether the wife can take her in the next few days.

Oh yes just one more time.

"Italia! Italia!"

Until the next time.