Germany will look to begin its campaign at the FIH Women’s Hockey Olympic Qualifiers with a big win in Saturday’s tournament opener against Chile.
At 5th, Germany is the highest ranked side in the eight-team competition while Chile is a lowly 14th. The German team played 19 matches last year, while the South American nation, which played just nine.
Germany, also known as Die Danas, has never missed any edition of the Olympics. On the other hand, Chile has never made it to the Summer Games.
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The last time two outfits faced each other, Germany comprehensively beat Chile 4-1 in the group stage of the 2022 Hockey World Cup.
But here’s the catch - until that edition, Chile had never qualified for the World Cup too. Under the tutelage of Sergio Vigil, a passionate coach from Argentina, Las Diablas unlocked that achievement by defeating the USA in the semifinals of the Pan American Cup earlier in that year.
The same core of players, led by experienced skipper and defender Camila Caram (266 caps), along with the same coach, is in Ranchi and Germany would hope to avoid complacency when the two teams step on the turf at the Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Stadium.
With the match scheduled for a 12 pm IST start, both teams had practice sessions on Friday afternoon under the shining sun to get used to the slightly warmer conditions as well as the pace of the turf.
The Nike Lorenz-led German team, coached by Valentin Altenburg, focussed majorly on Penalty Corner routines. Chile worked on plays in the final third with two sets of five players competing against each other, which indicated that the South American team is looking to enter the contest with the mentality of nothing to lose.
However, the same approach could also result in a heavy defeat against a side which has quality forward in Charlotte Stapenhorst.
In the second Group A fixture of the day, Japan will take on the Czech Republic.
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