Yesterday, the last four for the 2024 Olympic women’s field hockey tournament were determined.
A gripping eight hours of hockey yielded four worthy contenders for the Olympic championship — Belgium, Netherlands, Argentina, and China.
You had a penalty shootout, and games which turned with goals in the final quarter. You had superstars as well as young stars stepping up in critical situations. You had aerials, VAR decisions, and a plot twist involving the back of the stick.
Of the four semifinalists, three came out of Pool A of the Olympics. We had called Pool B the “Pool of Death” because of the fact that four past Olympic and/or World Cup champions (Argentina, Australia, Team GB, and Spain) had been in the round-robin pool. It’s that Murderer’s Row of teams that the United States had to confront in just 120 hours last week, and fell short even before the final pool game against South Africa at the weekend.
Too, but for Germany’s shootout loss at the hands of Argentina, it could have been a clean sweep for the “A” teams.
Will that make for a reconsideration of the U.S. performance at the Olympics? Not really; the level of competition is very high at the international level, and it is a very tough ask for any team to play four Tests in six days.
It remains to be seen which of the four women’s sides will come out on top when the final horn sounds at Yves-du-Manoir on Friday. Let the Games commence!
