Archive for category: General

Women’s Hockey World Cup – Pool A

Ireland 0 Germany 3 (N Lorenz, C Stapenhorst, S Zimmerman)

Ireland were unable to summon the victory required to reach the knock-out stages of the women’s World Cup and must now regroup for the classification matches which start next Sunday in Amsterdam.

Coming into the tie, Ireland required a three-goal victory to be guaranteed a place in the knock-out stages while anything other than a win would send them into the 9th to 16th place playoffs.

And while they put in a performance full of endeavour and fight, Germany’s accuracy yielded goals from Nike Lorenz in the first half and a close range killer from Charlotte Stapenhorst. Sonja Zimmerman completed the win from a 57th minute penalty stroke.

“The scoreline doesn’t really tell the tale of the game,” said captain Katie Mullan post-match. “We really threw everything at Germany today but we needed to be a little bit more clinical and take our chances and that’s across the full attacking line.

“We showed a lot of character over the last 24 hours [since the defeat to Chile]. We turned it around and we showed a lot more hockey that we like to play. In tournament hockey you have to execute those pressure moments and we know that from 2018 and today we didn’t do that as we needed.”

In a lively start, Mullan’s strong running caused Germany plenty of discomfort and a lovely slip pass through from Deirdre Duke gave her a strong shooting opportunity. She cracked goalwards but Nathalie Kubalski calmly batted it away.

Germany, meanwhile, were working the ball through their star turn Nike Lorenz who pulled the strings for Elisa Gräve to first a dangerous shot which Ayeisha McFerran blocked.

Lorenz again was the creator for Charlotte Stapenhorst’s sharp chance, McFerran again getting a crucial pad on it.

And the world number four side took the lead in the 23rd minute from a clever switch to the left where Lorenz was on hand to flick across goal and find the net.

The Green Army stepped up quickly, Katie McKee and Michelle Carey both firing efforts on goal before the main break and they carried the momentum into the second half, winning their first penalty corner after the resumption.

Mullan’s through pass was inches from getting the perfect connection from Naomi Carroll but they were rocked once more in the 35th minute. Kira Horn’s driving run put Ireland on the back foot and while Sarah McAuley got a vital intervention, Stapenhorst pounced on the loose ball to sweep into the net.

Needing a huge comeback, they continued to make inroads with Mullan’s pass just evading a final touch from Naomi Carroll. And Sean Dancer threw caution to the wind in the closing quarter, swapping out goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran for an extra outfielder.

It led to Zara Malseed drawing the best save of the day from Kubalski, diving full length to repel the shot on the turn.

They bravely kept out two penalty corners with no recognised goalkeeper but Germany did get eventually another when Sonja Zimmerman netted a penalty stroke after Sarah McAuley blocked a shot on the empty goal with her body.

Lorenz had another stroke chance with 20 seconds to go but McFerran produced a magnificent save down low to limit the damage to three.

Reflecting on missing out on a playoff spot, coach Sean Dancer said it was a steep learning curve for this side featuring four uncapped players prior to the event and just five with experience from 2018.

“We knew coming into the tournament, it is a new and young group. We are certainly going to have some ups and downs and have to progress. When we review the tournament, we will have to take a lot of lessons out of the game but last night wasn’t the time to do it.

“We did bounce back and got ourselves into a good space to compete today. Sometimes that is not always the case in a tournament when you haven’t won the game you should have won.

“We knew it was a game we had to win and anything else would push us out. That was the mindset; we were going hell for leather to get something out of it. I was proud of how we played today; we are making some real progress.”

It means Ireland will now play their next fixture on Sunday with the opponent to be confirmed on Saturday in Amsterdam and Mullan says there is something still on the line.

“We didn’t want things to go like this but the difference between this and the last World Cup is that there’s still something very important to play for and I really do still believe in this group and there is a lot more to show. It’s important we come out in the next two [classification] games and show that.”

Ireland: A McFerran, R Upton, L Tice, E Curran, H McLoughlin, M Carey, C Perdue, S Hawkshaw, K Mullan, N Carroll, D Duke

Subs: S McAuley, Z Malseed, S Torrans, C Beggs, K McKee, C Hamill, L Murphy

Germany: N Kubalski, K Horn, A Wortmann, N Lorenz, A Schröder, L Michell, C Stapenhorst, S Zimmermann, C Pieper, V Huse, H Granitzki

Subs: S Oruz, E Gräve, P Heinz, P Maertens, L Weidemann, B Wenzel, J Sonntag

Umpires: M Giddens (USA), A Rostron (RSA)

Ireland 1 (S O’Brien) Japan 2 (M Toriyama, Y Nagai)

Ireland completed their World Cup preparations with a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Japan in the fourth fixture of this week’s SoftCo Series at Belfield.

Síofra O’Brien’s first international strike from close range was outdone by efforts from Mai Toriyama in the first minute and a spectacular winner from Yuri Nagai in a crackling first half.

Coach Sean Dancer, he was frustrated his young side could not eke out cleaner chances to make the difference in front of a capacity home crowd.

“We just didn’t have enough consistency and do the things we needed to do well enough,” he said, reflecting on the uncapped series.

“They hurt us with their outletting and we didn’t control that well enough. We are progressing with our attacking game but we need to put more chances away.

“I’ve been impressed by all [the uncapped players]. Being uncapped and going to a World Cup to face Holland, what more could you want?

Charlotte Beggs offers some really nice skills and certainly progressed. She has worked hard physically over the last three months and doesn’t look out of place – she will get stronger and stronger. Her skillset is quality.

“I was really pleased for Síofra O’Brien to get her goal; she has been working hard and put some good pressure, is carrying the ball well. Katie McKee scored the other day so the young ones are stepping up.”

It concludes a strange phase for Ireland, meeting Japan eight times in a three-week period, four times in Okayama, four in Dublin.

“These Japan games never got stale and they play a style of hockey which we want to be able to execute and compete against. It shows why we were so happy to beat them last Sunday and it showed some rewards for the hard work we have been doing.”

The Irish players will now take in two three rest days before flying out to Amsterdam for the World Cup next Monday with a hit-out against India serving as final tuning.

Dancer says, despite a couple of facial injuries to Naomi Carroll and Deirdre Duke, the side came through this physical test in good health and ready to face the Netherlands on Saturday, July 2nd.

“Everyone is actually in a really good spot. If you had asked me four weeks ago, it would have been a different conversation. Everyone is ticking along well; the players will get some R&R for a few days, then work on a few things in

Earlier in the day, Ireland’s Under-23 side beat Ukraine 3-0 with final quarter goals Ellen Reid, Leah O’Shea and Mikayla Power.

It was a special contest with Minister for State for Special Education and Inclusion Josepha Madigan and Senator Emer Currie greeting the two teams prior to the match.

Ukraine Hockey Federation vice president Maryna Horokova presented Hockey Ireland President Ann Rosa with a special memento to thank the hosts for all their efforts to support Ukraine’s visit to Ireland.

In the game itself, it was evenly matched with the game scoreless until the end of the third quarter before Ireland cut loose. Ellen Reid scored from a corner rebound to make it 1-0 before Cork woman Leah O’Shea scored a peach of a goal for the second.

Power then netted an excellent individual strike, weaving through the Ukraine defence before lashing home.

In game one, all the goals came in the final quarter with USA taking the lead in the closing phase only for India to storm back and win 4-1. India will take up a place in the final against the Netherlands on Sunday.

Before that, the Netherlands face Ukraine at 9am on Saturday morning before Ireland face USA at 11am.

Ireland: A McFerran, S McAuley, S Hawkshaw, K Mullan, H McLoughlin, S Torrans, L Tice, N Carroll, C Perdue, K McKee, E Curran

Subs: M Carey, R Upton, C Beggs, S O’Brien, D Duke, C Hamill, Z Malseed

Japan: A Tanaka, Y Asai, M Suzuki, Y Nagai, H Nagai, S Oikawa, M Kozuka, M Segawa, S Kobayakawa, M Toriyama,, A Shimada

Subs: E Nakamura, N Matsumoto, M Tsubouchi, K Mori, M Kawamura, K Urata, S Omoto

Women

SoftCo Series: Ireland 1 (S O’Brien) Japan 2 (M Toriyama, Y Nagai)

Uniphar Under-23 series: India 4 (Annu 2, N Toppo, V Phalke) USA 1 (H Miller); Ireland 3 (E Reid, L O’Shea, M Power) Ukraine 0

Saturday 25th June 2022

Uniphar Under-23 series: Netherlands v Ukraine, Belfield, 9am; Ireland v USA, Belfield, 11am

Ireland 1 (N Carroll) Japan 0

Naomi Carroll’s sixth minute penalty corner goal earned Ireland a victory over world number 10 side Japan on day two of the SoftCo Series at Belfield this week.

It was a positive performance from the new look side as they controlled the tie from start to finish with Carroll getting a delicate touch for the only of the game, using her quick reactions to see off the chance.

Ireland did create a number of other chances but were not able to get the final touch but this was a hugely encouraging performance on the final lead into July’s World Cup.

Dancer’s side are back in action on Wednesday in game three of the series at 5pm.

Earlier in the day, the Irish Under-23 selection was undone 4-1 by India in the Uniphar Five Nations tournament which also runs throughout the week at Belfield.

The Junior Green Army were well in the contest at half-time with Cork Harlequins’ Leah O’Shea on the mark but the Indians were accurate on the counter-attack to pull clear in the second half.

Ireland are next in action on Wednesday when they meet the Junior World Cup champions, the Netherlands, before facing Ukraine on Thursday evening.

Monday’s Under-23 fixtures between USA and Ukraine (1pm) and India against the Netherlands (3pm) are free entry while all games this week are free for Ukranians in Ireland.

Elsewhere, Ali Keogh reached the 100-cap milestone to earn a golden whistle. It came in slightly bizarre circumstances as she became the first umpire to officiate two games in one day in the FIH Pro League.

She took charge of the women’s game between England and Belgium and was due to sit in as a reserve for the men’s game which followed on court.

However, an injury to Paul Walker saw her step in and oversee her second fixture of the day, a 5-0 win for Belgium.

Ireland: L Murphy, S McAuley, Z Malseed, M Carey, R Upton, S Hawkshaw, K Mullan, H McLoughlin, S Torrans, C Perdue, E Curran

Subs: N Carroll, C Beggs, K McKee, E Getty, S O’Brien, D Duke, C Hamill, A McFerran