On Sunday July 3rd we went to watch 2 games in Amstelveen. As it was only a 2 hour drive it was an opportunity to watch the Dutch team play against Germany. As a bonus we could watch England play India as well. With Maddie Hinch in the goal for England this was a bonus to see her play again after having seen her play in Rotterdam with Tilburg not so long ago.
The game of England against India was interesting and exiting. India was playing quick and technically beautiful hockey to watch. They had more possession and so called circle penetrations but still didn’t manage to get more out of the game than a 1-1 draw. India had at least 6 penalty corners but managed to score only from 1 of them. England on the other hand only had 2 penalty corners that were denied after video referral. India played well most of the time but they were not efficient in front of the goal. For England it was the opposite with periods with lots of missed passes and then suddenly excellent play leading to good goal scoring opportunities. But whenever England got close to the Indian goal they were very dangerous and the goal they scored was an absolute beauty, the best one of the whole evening. For the neutral viewer this was a nice and tight game to watch with opportunities for both teams to claim the victory until the last minute.
The game of Holland against Germany was quite different. Everyone thought it would be a tight game which it was for 50 minutes out of the total 60 minutes to play. But it wasn’t tight because of evenly matched teams. Instead Holland really outclassed Germany and there was really only 1 team that deserved the victory. Holland won in the end with 3-1 but for a very long time it was 1-0 with a couple of tight situations in front of the Dutch goal so Germany could have scored mor goals for sure. But if Holland would have been only a bit more efficient they would have scored at least 6 goals. Anyway, for the tension watching the game the fact that it stayed 1-0 for so long was a good thing. And there was a lot of excitement with all those changes and nearly scored goals from the Dutch team. The German play was a bit disappointing as it was quite physical with a lot of fouls and interruptions as a result and it made this game less interesting for the neutral viewer as it lacked the fluidity and speed that make hockey so beautiful to watch. But the atmosphere in the stadium was tremendous with all these Dutch hockey fans cheering their team on. The atmosphere in the packed stadium was always very positive and sportive.
Everything was well organised with side events for kids and budding referees, lots of stands with gear and food and drinks of course. The weather was also nice, no rain, and we had a wonderful afternoon watching top level hockey on the ‘holy ground’ of the Wagener stadium.
Response 418 
Leave a comment