While in Madrid I went to see some of the Women's Hockey World Cup. I managed to get to four days of the event, and see all the finals. The event was held at a large sporting complex just out of Madrid, and so there was a free shuttle bus that picked up from the last metro stop. The first day that i went to the hockey I had a little trouble finding the shuttle bus, the street signs in Madrid aren't particularly regular, and when they are put up, they are small tiles on the sides of buildings, so by the time i had worked out which corner i needed to be on, and which side of the corner, the bus had just left. Thankfully, while waiting I noticed a british couple, obvious by the Sunderland jackets they were wearing, and started chatting to them. They had decided to get a taxi to the ground as they didn't want to miss the england game, and said i could share the ride with them. It was very nice of them and meant i got out to the hockey in time to see the second half of the game between Nederlands and Germany and then all of the England game.
England were playing spain and needed to beat them to finish second in the group. Spain took the early lead and it was only part way through the 2nd half that England managed to equalise. Spain played really well and kept England out, so they finish second in the group and will be playing in the major semis. The Spanish fans are certainly vocal, and Spain has been playing much better than was expected.
The final match was Australia v Argentenia, this was for the top of the group as they are on equal points at the moment. The game was really fast and lots of fun to watch, Australia won 3-0, again much better than I expected, but it also meant that they were against Spain for a place in the Grand Finals.
The second day i went to was the playoff for the finals. I had met another Australian in the hostel and she had said that she was pretty keen to come and watch the hockey, especially when i explained that there was a free stand and so if we bought sandwiches before hand the day would be really cheap. We walked to the bus station, which was further than i thought it would be (oops), but got there in time for the second bus which meant we arrived shortly after the first match had started. I can't actually remember too much of the early matches, China gave a hockey lesson to South Africa and Korea were also really strong, but the main matches were the last two of the day. NED v ARG and AUST v ESP. The free stands got pretty packed for the first semi final with lots of Dutch supporters in orange and even more argentinian supporters in blue and white. V and I were in the middle of a large amount of blue and white, and while we hadn't really picked a favourite i was certainly eager to see Holland win. Holland showed why they are the favourites for the tournament with really strong defense and very quick attacks. They won 3-1. The noise during the game was huge, there were enough dutch fans that they were generally able to compete with the argentinian fans for the chants and general cheering, so it was a great atmosphere.
The final game was Aust v spain. V and I watched slightly worried as most of the argentinian fans from the previous game swapped shirts to spanish ones, and changed the flags overs. For every holland supporter who left the stands about 3 more spanish supporters piled in. by the time the game started there was no room in the stand, with people sitting on all the stairs and standing at the back. V and I were very much the lone green and gold in a sea of red and yellow. The game was pretty tense with the defense on both sides keeping out all the attacks. Australia had some really good chances but just couldn't put them away and made some pretty elementary errors. It was 0-0 with about 1 min to go when a stroke was called against australia. The spanish fans went mad and Australia protested hugely. The decision was overturned to a short, but by this time the clock had run down and all of a sudden all the lights on the pitch went out. It was really strange. The umpires had no choice but the send the players off the field until the lights could be switched back on. It took about 10 minutes but eventually the lights came back on and the final short was played out. Australia managed to hold spain out for two short corners and take the game into golden goal. I was so nervous by this time. Most of the spanish fans had also gone quiet, it really was pretty tense. After another short break the players came back on for the extra time, but were on the wrong sides of the field, so after a quick switch over the game restarted. Within two minutes Australia had a short corner. They had had about 10 during the game and hadn't put any away, so i crossed my fingers and hoped that they would manage this one. They did. Amazing dive from the side touched the ball behind the keeper. Australia had won. The spanish supporters went so quiet, while V and I were jumping up and down screaming and cheering. It was a great end to the game. We both left on a huge high. It was really late by the time we got back to the hostel and we were both starving so went for dinner at a resturant just down the road. The south african team were there having dinner and a couple of the aussie players also came in while we were there. I managed to have a quick chat to one of the, the assistant keeper, and she said that were all pretty pleased with the result of the game. Should think so to.
Saturday was the first day of the finals, with only three games late in the afternoon. USA were playing in the first match and once again their keeper played an excellent game. There was quite a bit of talk about her during the week and she ended up winning keeper of the tournament. India played really well against South Africa, there are a few forwards on the team who are really fast and skillful. They had a really nice goal. The final match was china v korea and china finally showed how they can play. They used to be one of the best teams around but this tournament they looked pretty weak and messy. All up i felt that this was probably a day i could have missed and not minded, but i still got to see some good hockey and enjoyed most of the games.
Sunday was the finals, and there was a pretty big crowd waiting for the bus when i got there. While waiting i met up with a couple of NZ girls who i'd seen around at the hockey for the last few days. We finally decided to introduce ourselves and then they asked me to teach them the words to the national anthem. They said that for the finals they would drop their policy of refusing to barrack for australia and cheer as loudly as possible. The first game was england v germany. I had heard someone comment the previous day that germany had already gone home, they weren't in the finals so that didn't care. They also said that while this meant england should win it could also mean that germany would put away 7 goals. England won the game fairly comfortably and finally looked like a team. Up until today they had been a bit messy and hadn't really looked confident, but in this match they played really well. The play off for third, spain v argentina was a brilliant match. I had thought it should be pretty firey and interesting and it certainly lived up to expectation. The stand i was in filled up with spanish fans, while the one next to it was filled with argentinean fans. Spain never really looked like they would be able to manage a win and Argentina dominated pretty much the whole game. It was a really fast game and lots of fun, argentina put away 5 goals to take the bronze medal in style.
The grand final, Australia v Holland. By this time there were quite a few aussie fans who had gathered around where i was sitting. I was wearing my green and gold macquarie uni hockey shirt, so had made it pretty obvious who i was barracking for, and with a few other fans we were able to make a fair bit of noise. Unfortunately Australia didn't look really strong against Holland and seemed to play most of the game in defence. However the defence was pretty strong and at half time it was still 0-0. Shortly after the 2nd half started Holland scored a goal and i worried that i would all be over. Holland are really good at defending a one goal lead. But Australia were awarded a penalty stroke and levelled the scores again. However that was pretty much the last time we looked like we just might be able to win. After that holland kept pressing forward and kept the australian defence and midfield pretty well rattled. There were so many poor passes that went straight back to holland and very little talking on field. We lost 3-1, and it could have been a lot worse if not for some great goal keeping and a few really well scrambled defences. Holland deserved to win and played really well.
The awards and medal ceremony went well, most of the awards were pretty much expected, although the player of the tournament was a bit unexpected, it went to a spanish player who had been yellow carded at least twice, if not three times during the tournament, and really wasn't one of the standout players for me. I was also dissappointed that Christa Cullen, one of the english players, didn't pick up any awards. She has had an amazing year and was definately one of the best defensive players i saw in the tournament. All up it was lots of fun and there was a lot of great hockey. There weren't as many goals as i would have liked, it was a really low scoring tournament, and often teams seemed happy to sit and defend a one goal lead. But at least i can now say i've been to a world cup.
Photos are on my yahoo photo site. Thought this post was long enough without adding to it. I'll post some of the photos from the rest of my spanish trip soon.
