This night at 7 p.m., the U.S. girls’s nationwide subject hockey staff will participate in an eight-team match known as the FIH Nations Cup.
It’s a qualifying match which is able to see solely the victor promoted to the top-level FIH Professional League, which supplies collaborating sides higher publicity and the power to earn FIH world rankings factors.
Really, it’s not essentially that cut-and-dried in the case of the promotion/relegation side of this match. USA Subject Hockey’s press releases main as much as this competitors have at all times had a model on this sentence when describing the Nations Cup:
…..giving the profitable staff the choice to be promoted to the FIH Hockey Professional League the following season….
Let me level you to the phrase “possibility” within the quote. This isn’t a basic promotion/relegation scenario the place the last-place staff in an higher competitors is required to alter locations with the highest-ranked staff in a decrease competitors.
We’ve seen conditions the place a professional/rel situation has been waylaid, principally due to monetary contraints. We’ve seen this in Scotland, when a staff profitable the second division championship had been denied promotion to the Scottish Premier League, which prevented the relegation of the last-place staff that 12 months.
In England, Macclesfield City had the Convention League in 1993. The Convention League, on the time, was the fifth-level competitors which might have introduced promotion to The Soccer League, the four-level skilled pyramid which incorporates the world-famous Premier League. Nevertheless, Macclesfield had been denied entry as a result of the staff’s house stadium didn’t meet Soccer League requirements.
And some years in the past in subject hockey, america girls completed final within the FIH Professional League, however averted the drop when New Zealand’s women and men opted out of the Professional League, permitting the U.S. to stay within the PL for the 2023-2024 season.
Now, I believe there are a number of why america selected a staff with out roughly half its current Olympians on the roster. One, after all, is that the staff is selecting the staff that’s in the very best type proper now, versus final summer season. You take a look at the 19-player roster, and also you see Jenny Rizzo, who was one in all solely two Individuals within the Girls’s Hockey India League, in addition to teen sensation Reese D’Ariano, who lately took Younger Participant of the Event within the FIH Indoor World Cup.
However I additionally assume the U.S. is demonstrating one thing known as a “flex.” If the U.S. is ready to win this eight-nations match with out its beginning goalkeeper, a Honda Award winner, and the Olympic captain, it could be an especially sturdy assertion in regards to the depth of the U.S. staff. It’s a staff balancing youth, velocity, and expertise.
The American aspect has a fairly straightforward group, with Canada, Chile, and Japan comprising Pool A. The higher threats are in Pool B, with Korea, Eire, Scotland, and New Zealand. I believe the New Zealand Black Sticks would be the best rival on this championship, although, as we’ve seen, any dip in type by the U.S. can be duly handled by the opposition.
Must be an fascinating week.
