With nine minutes left on the clock and the score 1-1, USA believed it had a genuine chance in the Pan American Games final in Santiago last year. With a world-class goalkeeper in Kelsey Bing, the Americans backed themselves to beat seven-time champion Argentina once the gold medal and the automatic qualification spot for Paris Olympics would have been decided via a penalty shootout.
However, a diving Eugenia Trinchinetti found the winning goal for Las Leonas (the lionesses) with a deflection that beat Bing. USA had to settle for silver.
Two months later, USA has topped its group - featuring India, New Zealand and Italy - at the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers here without conceding a single goal.
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“I wouldn’t have believed you, especially not having conceded a goal,” said US head coach David Passmore when asked if he expected his team to be in this position before the tournament.
Since finishing fifth at Rio Olympics in 2016, USA’s women’s hockey team had been struggling for stability in terms of coaches and also slipped down in the FIH Rankings. Irishman Passmore took the job in August 2022 and found that the national group barely spent time together.
“When I arrived 15 months ago, we just had nine athletes (in the central group) - six outfield players, three goalkeepers. Last year in May, we got 24 together. We’ve had the group together since then. We played in the Pro League last year. Since August, we’ve been preparing for the Pan Ams and then this tournament as a group of 24,” he said.
Passmore has previously worked as an assistant coach for Great Britain at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He was heavily involved in the junior and senior setups back home with the Irish women’s team’s silver medal at World Cup 2022 being the highlight. His twin daughters, aged 27, play hockey in Australia and Ireland while his twin sons, aged 22, are video analysts in the sport.
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Before replacing Greg Drake as the US head coach, Passmore had been a lecturer in ‘Coaching Science and Education’ at Dublin City University since 2012. As part of his new job, Passmore first tried to understand the field hockey culture in the US. “There’s no club hockey whatsoever in the US. When you finish college at 21-22, there’s no club to go and play for. You either play for the national team or you are finished. I couldn’t believe it when I first arrived, having come from Europe where there’s obviously a thriving club culture,” said the 53-year-old.
FILE PHOTO: David Passmore, head coach of the US women’s hockey team. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“It’s something that they miss out on and it’s a special culture. When they’re younger, the real drive is to get a university scholarship, so you get free education. The colleges have three full time coaches, strength and conditioning, nutrition, psychology support and amazing facilities but it doesn’t really prepare them for international hockey because they almost play too many games in a short period of time. The top players are spread out, so that’s why we have to have this centralised program,” he added.
Back in the US, the central group stays in one location and since the players are not professionals, they train in the morning and leave for work in the afternoon.
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In the ongoing Olympic Qualifiers, USA has been particularly impressive with its Penalty Corner defence, the defending in one-on-one situations, its pressing as well as the pace upfront with young forwards such as Ashley Sessa, Abigail Tamer and Madeleine Zimmer. One of the minds behind this defensive solidity and tactical astuteness is assistant coach Javier Telechea.
Telechea is an Argentine and also has coaching experience in the sport that his home nation loves the most - football. “In Argentina, we are born with a soccer ball in our hands,” said the 34-year-old, who was the assistant coach of Club Atlético Independiente when it won Copa Sudamericana in 2017.
“When I was coaching in soccer, I was assistant to a head coach who was actually a hockey coach. He made that transition. Together, we planned some tactics similar to hockey, keeping the offside in mind,” he adds.
On Thursday, two months after the heartbreaking loss in the Pan American Games final, USA faces Japan in the semifinals and a win would ensure its return to the Summer Games after eight years. Defeat would mean one final chance to qualify via a third-place playoff against the loser of the second semifinal between India and Germany.
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