Pre Match Breakdown For The Irish Games!
IRELAND V INDIA AND IRELAND V GREAT BRITIAN PRE-MATCH BREAKDOWN FOR THE WEEKEND!
Saba and Saba To Go’s Resident Hockey Superfan Ruthy’s Pre Match Thoughts for the next two games!!
Three down, two to go for the Green Army in their hunt for a Quarter-Final spot in Tokyo as the Irish Women’s Hockey team take on India at 3.45 am (Irish Time) tomorrow morning.
Following a strong start with a 2-0 victory over South Africa last Saturday and two huge efforts this week against world number one and two, The Netherlands and Germany respectively, the upcoming back-to-back fixtures against India and Great Britain are “all or nothing” fixtures to secure that coveted quarter-final spot.
India, which are ranked 10th in the world, just one below Ireland, has yet to record points and will be targeting the Irish to keep their Tokyo campaign alive. Ireland who will surely be still ruing their recent loss against Germany on Wednesday will likely come out hard and fast, hungry to all but secure that spot if they can pick up 3 points against the Indians. With the match slotted for 11.45 am local time, the heat and conditions are sure to play a factor for both sides, and discipline and focus will be crucial in the strategy for the win.
On Saturday, Ireland will then meet current Olympic Champions, Great Britain at 12.45 pm, Irish time. GB is sitting 3rd in the pool on 6 points after registering a 4-1 win over South Africa and India earlier in the week and narrowly losing 1-2 to Germany. Their tightly contested match against The Netherlands earlier today, saw them lose out 0-1 after a penalty stroke was all that could divide the two sides. Just one point for Team GB will be enough to secure their place in the final eight. GB will have more time to recover with a 48-hour gap between fixtures, whilst Ireland has just a 24-hour turnaround between India and GB.
It’s all to play for still. My alarm clock is already set for the morning, and hopefully, I can tune in for Saturday’s final match from my holidays in County Clare!
