Goal rush

Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: After the end of the second day of the junior World Cup in Bhubaneswar, the International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) media release highlighted that Spain had broken a long-standing goal-scoring record. Spain, one of the sport’s traditional superpowers, had scored 17 goals past US, whose field hockey federation (USA Field Hockey) still have to explain the differences between this format and the one played on ice to US natives.

It was, the FIH noted, “a new record for goals scored at the event in a single match as the European side put 17 goals past the USA. The previous record was a 13-0 victory for India against Singapore at the 1982 Junior World Cup.”

For all the emphasis on of the biggest upsets of the World Cup so far, France’s 5-4 win over India, the lopsided nature of the results has been one of the defining themes from Kalinga Stadium in the opening four days of competition. Consider this. Four of the 20 matches so far have seen sides winning by 10+ goals margins.

Even in a sport where winning by big margins isn’t exactly uncommon, this is unprecedented over the last decade. In the last three men’s junior World Cups put together (2009, 2013 and 2016), there has only been one instance of a match where the winning team won by a 10-goal margin (India vs Singapore in 2009).

Why? Most of the evidence points to the uncertainty that the Covid-19 pandemic brought with it. Money dried up in junior programmes, juniors either stopped completely training or had to go to extreme lengths to make ends meet, sponsors weren’t that keen to invest and sides that anyway paid to play had to keep doing the same thing because the alternative was to give up the sport. 

One only had to listen to Egypt coach, Abu-Talib Maggid, to know what Covid-19 did to their programme. “We did very little back home, in the last year we had very few training sessions. No sponsors because of Covid but the federation is doing their best. But it’s not an easy job.” It reflected in their performance against Argentina when they were beaten 14-0. In 2016, they conceded 13 goals in total. While even well-funded junior programmes like India’s and Germany’s also suffered because of the pandemic, the main difference was players continued to train. So there was always a level of continuity. That just wasn’t possible in some of the nations like Egypt whose coach admitted that they had fewer than 20 training sessions for the junior team in the last year.

Canada’s coach, Indy Sehmbi, who saw his wards beaten by France 11-1 on Saturday, was even more intimate with how Covid-19 had barbecued the country’s already meagre field hockey resources. He agreed the pandemic has artificially broadened the gap between the elites and nations like Canada that take great pride in punching above their weight. “Any kind of world event like this always broadens the gap between the people who have resources and who don’t.”

While kids don’t automatically turn to field hockey, there is the extra challenge of finding the money. Since the dough in the sport is non-existent, players have to routinely self fund. For example, the 20 players here had to chip in $6500 to make this trip. “It cost our guys $6500, think about that,” Sehmbi says. “We have a lot of barriers right now, maybe not as many as other people. But always proud of my players, we will focus on what we can do to get better. These 20 guys that we have here, we have to try to make them the best hockey players they can be. Some people say these people shouldn’t be here but no… how do you get better? So we have to learn and for countries like us that’s what it is.” 

A teacher by profession, Sehmbi speaks for himself but what he says is the lived experience of several of the teams here. “When the pandemic came, the players weren’t even allowed to do outdoor training, they weren’t allowed to do physiology. We had a really robust programme between 2017-2019 but after Covid hit… we lost probably 15-20 players from the programme. I’m sure other countries have similar experiences.”

These experiences have meant the teams that are either trying to regain a lost foothold or trying to be their gutsy selves have lost out big time. A few examples better illustrate this point. Canada, who got to the tournament only after a few of the bigger sides dropped out, have played India in each of the last three junior World Cups and their performances, in terms of results, have become progressively (2-3, 0-4 and 1-11). The bottom four teams in each Pool — Chile (Pool A), Canada (B), US (C) and Egypt (D) — between them have scored 6 goals and let in 74 goals in just 10 games. 

It’s undeniable the sport is more than loaded with at least seven-eight teams capable of winning the tournament which remember doesn’t have Australia, New Zealand and UK. But, for all that, the divide between the elite and the bottom rung is threatening to grow wider.