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Hockey World Cup 2018: Single-minded France surprise Spain in impressive draw
France dominated Spain for most of the 60-minute match and held on for a 1-1 draw. The result keeps the hopes alive for both teams to make it to the crossover stage in a group headed by Argentina.
For the last two years, France were preparing hard for the World Cup, hoping that a decent performance in Bhubaneswar might lead to an upturn in fortunes for the sport in the country.
Hockey is a professional sport in France, and hence the players had to prepare for life beyond the sport. That meant even shifting base to a common place for a camp was not possible for most players. With many of their players turning out for Belgium clubs and some studying in Paris, it was decided to divide the players into two camps.
They were held at Brussels and Paris thrice a week and the players used to travel on rotation and train together. But on Monday, while playing against the higher ranked Spain, it never appeared throughout the match that France, the lowest ranked team (World No 20) in the tournament, had not trained together as a unit.
France dominated Spain for most of the 60-minute match and held on for a 1-1 draw. The result keeps the hopes alive for both teams to make it to the crossover stage in a group headed by Argentina.
Timothee Clement put France in the lead in the sixth minute and till the third quarter they maintained it. Spain had to wait till the 48th minute to find the equaliser through Alvaro Iglesias, who deflected the ball int. After that France got a couple of good chances, including a penalty stroke in the final quarter. However, Spain, considered as one of the world’s strongest defensive teams, didn’t let the opponent succeed.
“Yes, it is true many of our players play in Belgium while the rest play in France. But it is good. The integration does not take time. We are playing a World Cup after a long time. I am a little disappointed as we had a chance of winning and upsetting a team that is ranked much above us. I also missed a penalty stroke which was disappointing. We played well, and we had the chance of winning the match,” said France’s Hugo Genestet. “Spain is a tough opponent and we are proud of what we did. They always give us a tough time whenever we play against them.”
Spain’s Albert Beltran said: “We are a bit disappointed with the result. We have a history of beating and giving oppositions, who are ranked better than us, a tough time but at the same time we also have a history of losing to teams ranked lower than us. Our realistic aim is to reach the semi-finals and we are working towards it one by one.”
“At times it happens. We played really well against Olympic champions Argentina (lost 3-4) but today it did not work for us. We should have performed better. We hope to beat New Zealand next up and qualify for the knockout stage.”
