03 January, 2024 FIH President, Tayyab Ikram, wishes the global hockey family a happy new year, as he reflects on the major strides made by the global hockey community both on and off the field over the past year. Watch the full video below where he also shares his vision for the upcoming Olympic year and the exciting new avenues in hockey that will be explored through 2024. Source: fih.hockey
16 December 2023 Lausanne, Switzerland: Germany went one step further than they did in 2021, upgrading their silver to gold by claiming a 2-1 victory over France in the final of the FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup in Malaysia. A brave performance from the Germans saw them coming back from a goal down to clinch the win against a determined French side. Spain ensured they wouldn’t leave Malaysia empty-handed after beating India 3-1 to secure the bronze medal. In the battle for fifth place, it was the Netherlands who prevailed with a 2-1 victory over Australia, while 2021 champions Argentina had to be content with seventh spot after a 6-3 win over Pakistan. After 12 days of exhilarating action, Belgium’s Hugo Labouchere finished as the tournament’s top scorer with nine goals while the top goal-scoring team was Spain with 27. France’s Gaspard Xavier was named player of the tournament and also received the FIH Rising Star award while Germany’s Joshua Onyekwue Nnaji was named best goalkeeper of the tournament. Here is how all four matches played out on the final day… Argentina vs Pakistan (Full-Time Score: 6-3) Argentina beat Pakistan 6-3 to finish their tournament on a winning note. The South Americans scored first, a Tomas Ruiz drag flick looping back to him off the keeper for an easy hit in. Arbaz Ahmad responded for Pakistan with a drag flick but Argentina regained the lead from a low Ruiz drag flick. Just five minutes later they turned over possession weakly for Ahmad to then score from the resulting penalty stroke. The half ended 2-2. Argentina survived another poor turnover in the opening minute of the second half before going ahead again, Joaquin Toscani making a devastating run from midfield to feed Ramiro Infanzon for a deflection. The Argentinians extended their lead when Ignacio Nardolillo stole a ball 60m out and fed Bautista Capurro who screamed in his reverse shot. Ahmad then handed Pakistan a lifeline, completing his hat-trick from another penalty stroke, but Argentina responded immediately with an Ignacio Persoglio drag flick. Juan Fernandez then sealed the match and 7th place in the tournament for Argentina with a deflection from open play. Player of the match Argentinian Joaquin Toscani reflected: “It’s good because the match was very hard. It was important to finish the tournament well. We learned that you need to defend to win matches, and you need the goals that you have in the rival area, you have to finish.” Netherlands vs Australia (Full-Time Score: 2-1) The Dutch dominated the statistics and were patient with possession in a deserved 2-1 win over Australia. The Australians created dangerous chances for deflections in the opening half but the Dutch simply had the better opportunities throughout. Australian keeper Max Larkin made a great stick save to deny Timo Boers from a penalty corner in the 14th minute and added two more saves from open play before failing to clear a loose ball, Dylan Lucieer pouncing on the scraps for Netherlands to lead 1-0 at half time. The Dutch controlled the second half, starving Australia of possession and testing the excellent Larkin repeatedly before Bouwe Buitenhuis popped a delicate overhead to unmarked Casper van der Veen on the p-spot for their second goal. Cooper Burns gave Australia faint hopes after rifling in a drag flick from a penalty corner just 90 seconds from time, but the Dutch secured the win and with that, fifth place in the tournament. Player of the match for the Netherlands was Boris Aardenburg who reflected on the lessons learned: “I think the mentality, we started with a pretty tough match against Argentina where the mentality wasn’t there. After we learnt in a few games that we could turn the game around, especially against Belgium, we showed a lot of toughness.” India vs Spain (Full-Time Score: 1-3) Spain proved the better team on the day and emerged as 3-1 winners against India in the third-place playoff. The first half was evenly contested, India starting better but unable to beat Jan Capellades in goal. The momentum then shifted towards the Spanish who were patient in possession, and Nicolas Alvarez fired in a field goal to take the lead. India hit back off a penalty corner, Sunil Jojo, reacting fastest to the rebound and levelling the scores at 1-1 before the break. Spain dominated in the third quarter, but Indian goalkeeper Mohith Shashikumar proved up to the task. Capellades then made an excellent save for Spain before Pau Petchame finally snuck one through the Indian defence to regain the lead. Spain put the game out of reach in the final quarter, Pol Cabre Verdiell crossing to Alvarez for a deflection. India had opportunities to claw their way back through several penalty corners, but Capellades kept them out, with some assistance from the crossbar, and Spain secured a well-deserved bronze medal. Player of the match was a delighted Pau Petchame for Spain who said: “For me and all the team it’s history… we wanted to win third place because we worked a lot in the last two years… we are proud of all the team, they are so happy, I am so happy.” Germany vs France (Full-Time Score: 2-1) Germany came from behind to beat France 2-1 as both teams enjoyed periods of dominance in a fitting final. French goalkeeper Marius Clément got his angles exactly right in the opening minute to deny the Germans an early lead. A German defender then miss-trapped a ball and it sat up beautifully for Tom Gaillard who unfortunately failed to connect with his shot. Clément again reacted quickly to shut down Ben Hasbach as the first quarter ended. Jules Verrier opened the scoring for France in the second period, receiving a glorious pass from Louis Haertelmeyer and evading numerous defenders to beat the keeper from close range. The rest of the half was tightly contested, and France led 1-0 at the break. The momentum was building for Germany though, and Jan Cordes
13 December 2023 Lausanne, Switzerland: Whilst half of the teams – hosts France and all Continental Champions – that will play for a historical medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic hockey tournaments are already known, the other half will come from the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers that promise to be incredibly exciting! All four Qualifiers will take place in January, with the first one starting in exactly one month! The teams that will finish in the top-3 of each Qualifier will seal their qualification to the next Olympiad. Here’s the full programme: Women Valencia, Spain (13-21 January) Pool A: Belgium, Korea, Ireland, Ukraine Pool B: Great Britain, Spain, Canada, Malaysia Ranchi, India (13-19 January) Pool A: Germany, Japan, Chile, Czech Republic Pool B: India, New Zealand, United States, Italy Men Valencia, Spain (13-21 January) Pool A: Belgium, Ireland, Japan, Ukraine Pool B: Spain, Korea, Austria, Egypt Muscat, Oman (15-21 January) Pool A: Great Britain, Malaysia, Pakistan, China Pool B: Germany, New Zealand, Canada, Chile Teams have been divided into the two Pools of each Qualifier on the basis of their world ranking at midnight on 5 November 2023, once all Continental Championships were completed (based on the predetermined rules mentioned in the FIH Qualification System for the Paris Olympics, which can be accessed here). All FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier matches will be streamed live on Watch.Hockey, with no geo-blocking*. Please visit Olympics.Hockey for more details about the qualifiers, as well as hockey at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. #EnRouteToParis #HockeyEquals #HockeyInvites *except on the Indian sub-continent For more information about FIH and hockey in general, please download the Watch.Hockey app or follow the FIH social media channels – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – and website.
11 December, 2023 Still reeling from dropping out of quarter-final contention, Belgium produced a massive 12-goal win over Canada to ensure they progressed to the playoff for ninth to 12th place at the FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. They’ll take on Malaysia in their next match after the hosts claimed a 4-1 victory over Egypt. South Africa recorded a comfortable 5-1 win over Chile to set up a clash with New Zealand, who emerged as 3-2 victors in a closely fought encounter with Korea. This leaves Egypt, Canada, Chile and Korea fighting over the bottom four places. Here’s how all four matches played out on Day 7… Malaysia vs Egypt (Full-Time Score: 4-1) Hosts Malaysia dominated all the statistics in their 4-1 win over Egypt. Harris Osman opened the scoring for Malaysia with a tap-in at the post after a powerful pass from midfield was deflected by two Malaysian players to undo the Egyptian defence. Mohamed Rafaizel produced some high-quality goalkeeping to deny the Egyptians before Harizan Faris fired a straight drag flick home for Malaysia to lead 2-0 at half-time. Malaysia were awarded 14 penalty corners in the second half but Mahmoud Hassan and the Egyptian defence frustrated them with some fine saves. Muhammad Danish Aiman eventually produced a low drag flick to beat the keeper on his right foot, and Che Nur Aqilrullah completed the win with a scrambled goal from open play. There was some consolation for the Egyptians as Abdelmonem Basel rifled in a brilliant goal. Player of the match Shahmie Suhaime said afterwards: “I had a very confident game today. Consistency is the point.” Belgium vs Canada (Full-Time Score: 12-0) Belgium romped home 12-0 against Canada with three players completing hat-tricks or better – Max Luyten completing his in the opening 10 minutes. First was a neat tap-in from in front of goal, followed by a diving deflection at the post. His third was an incredible reflex deflection as he was diving towards goal, somehow getting his stick to a ball high above his sliding body. Lucas Balthazar added a drag flick for the Belgians to end the half 4-0 up. Balthazar added two more in the second half – both from penalty corners – while Hugo Labouchere bagged his hat-trick in the space of eight minutes in the third quarter from two accurate drag flicks and a penalty stroke. Labouchere slotted in his fourth off a drag flick in the fourth quarter, Thomas Crols added a field goal and Luyten grabbed his fourth as the Belgians wrapped up the mammoth win. Player of the match Max Luyten explained: “We were pretty disappointed to not come out of the group stage because we felt we were a team that deserved to play a quarter-final and go and play for the medals, and we wanted to show the world that we’re a team that actually should play for medals and I think we did that.” South Africa vs Chile (Full-Time Score: 5-1) South Africa produced a dominant performance in beating Chile 5-1. Hans Neethling picked out a perfectly placed Ditlhakanyane Leruo who fired in from close range for an early score. David Tshebi then found himself on the end of another Neethling feed and teased his shot past the keeper to double the lead by half-time. The South Africans opened the gap even further in the third quarter, Neethling riding a heavy challenge and finding the net for his first, and then getting on the end of the good pass to deflect in for his second. Alexei de Witt pulled one back for the Chileans from a penalty corner, the South African keeper beaten by a big deflection off the first wave’s leg. But Nathan Ansell put in another one for South Africa, the penalty corner injector pouncing on the rebound after Julián Villanueva made a good initial save. Player of the match Hans Neethling commented on what the team did differently from the previous matches: “We backed our midfielders more and we played shorter passes.” Korea vs New Zealand (Full-Time Score: 2-3) New Zealand came from behind for a 2-3 win in a hotly contested match against Korea. The Koreans scored first, JunYeol Lim working beautifully in the circle for a reverse stick goal. Jonty Elms struck back to level the scores at 1-1 just before half-time. James Hickson rounded off some good inter-passing to give the junior Black Sticks the lead for the first time after 37 minutes. But Korea drew level within a minute, Dohyun Lim rifling a penalty corner in low at the keeper’s left foot. New Zealand then reclaimed the lead, Luke Aldred setting Scott Cosslett up with a beautifully executed short corner variation. Korea pulled their keeper off in the dying minutes to chase the game but the Kiwis absorbed the sustained period of pressure to hold on for the win. Player of the match Scott Cosslett looked ahead to the New Zealanders’ next match against South Africa: “We know we’re a good team. We’ve played them before, it was a good match, they’re a good team too, so we’ve got to just go away, prep right and come back with the same energy and fire that we had today.” To see the current pool standings after Day 7, click here. To see the full match schedule, click here. FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup Malaysia 2023 – 11 December 2023 Bukit Jalil National Hockey Stadium, Kuala Lumpur Result: Match 25 Malaysia 4-1 Egypt Player of the Match: Shahmie Suhaime (MAS) Umpires: Hideki Kinoshita (JPN) and Hyosik You (KOR) Result: Match 26 Belgium 12-0 Canada Player of the Match: Max Luyten (BEL) Umpires: Bruce Bale (ENG) and Jonathan von Hoesslin (RSA) Result: Match 27 South Africa 5-1 Chile Player of the Match: Hans Neethling (RSA) Umpires: Nazmi Kamaruddin (MAS) and Rajput Sourabh (IND) Result: Match 28 Korea 2-3 New Zealand Player of the Match: Scott Cosslett (NZL) Umpires: Antonio Ilgrande (ITA) and Lukasz Zwierzchowski (POL) Source: fih.hockey
