OPINION: DIFFERING RESULTS OF INDOOR QUALIFIER ARE SYMBOLIC

By Al Mattei

Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com

As the hour of competition neared for the U.S. men's and women's indoor national field hockey teams arrived, both teams knew what they had to do -- win their final round-robin matches in a March 2002 qualifier to get into the inaugural 2003 Indoor World Cup of field hockey.

The average sports fan could make a guess at what happened next. The rag-tag men would try hard but lose, and the women, having only three other competitors, would only have to show up in order to collect one of the two World Cup berths.

But that didn't happen.

Rather, the results were just the opposite. An American women's team, heavy on credentials but only together for a few days, dropped its final game on a fortunate deflection in the final few minutes against Trinidad & Tobago in a game the Stars and Stripes needed to have.

Meanwhile, the American men's team, which had been together for several years training together and seperately in Europe and Australia, went through most of its competitors with amazing ease. It then lost to Canada -- a team which was clearly the class of the field -- then bested Brazil in the final pool match to secure its ticket to the World Cup with just one loss.

Stunning stuff, to say the least.

But it was, oddly enough, predictable.

The American men's indoor field hockey team has been a little like the St. Anthony's high school basketball team in Jersey City. It is a ragamuffin team with little space to call its own, and is seen as an underdog every time out. That is, until the whistle blows.

Only then does this blur of navy and red becomes a purposeful attack. This unlikely group of players includes German-born penalty corner specialist Olaf Maack, a handful of Olympic players, a couple of veterans, and a teenager -- 17-year-old Patrick Harris. His crafty play and California looks were an instant hit among fans and competitors: members of the Mexican women's team posed for photographs with him after the closing ceremonies.

On the other hand, the women's national team was one which had a number of obstacles in getting together -- the ultimate barrier, of course, being the fallout from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The American team was stuck in Virginia Beach on the eve of the 2001 World Cup qualifying tournament in France, and could not travel in the days following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, meaning that they had to miss out on qualification for the 2002 World Cup.

However, Le Federation International de Hockee (FIH) allowed the Americans to play the last-place team from that qualifier.

Preparations leading up to that three-game series with India ultimately hurt the plans of the American indoor effort. If the Americans had participated in France, then senior women's national team players would have likely made up a good chunk of the indoor national team to be sent to Rockville, Md. in March 2002.

Instead, members of the under-23 women's national team were sent to the Pan American qualifier as well as to the National Indoor Tournament in Pennsylvania a fortnight earlier.

Coinciding with the NIT, however, was an open tryout for the India series, since a pair of senior outdoor players were lost with knee injuries at the FIH Champions' Challenge.

That meant that the product the Americans sent to Pennsylvania would not be its best; and it certainly showed, since the team finished near the bottom of the classifications.

Still, there was plenty of optimism coming into the Pan American qualifier, especially after an 8-0 defeat of Venezuela in the first of three matches.

But the second game proved to be the undoing of the dream.

In that outing, the United States badly outshot Mexico, but had to rely on a Tiffany Leister corner shot to level the score at 1-1 heading into the final five minutes of play. But the Tricolores got the last word in, scoring seconds before the final horn to take a 2-1 win.

After a day off, the Americans were to play Trinidad & Tobago in the pentultimate match of the tournament. The long layoff proved costly, however. The U.S., needing the three points for the win over T&T, never held the lead in the 40-minute contest.

The U.S. had its chances, even after former American University star Stacey Siu-Butt gave the Hoca Warriors a 3-2 lead just after the interval. Finally, after 10 minutes of solid pressure, Sara Broderick fought in a goal to tie the match.

The United States, with nine minutes to go, could still go the World Cup with one goal and some perfect defense.

But as the clock wound to under five minutes, Siu-Butt was standing over the ball, about three meters outside the scoring circle, studying the American defense on a free hit.

The Americans had hunkered down in a perfect box formation in front of the goal cage. But two passes cut through the box, leading to a lightning deflection off the stick of Trinidad's Oire Trotman.

Goal.

What was evident to those in hockey circles after the tournament was the value of preparation for this qualifier. The differences between the two U.S. teams were laid bare.

The men's effort was one borne of hard work and preparation off the pitch: organizing, negotiating, training. And, as men's field hockey rates somewhere around the popularity of cricket and team handball in the American sporting lexicon, nobody saw it coming.

But, as mentioned before, you could see the women's downfall coming from two weeks away, despite the obvious effort the Americans put forth.

So, what is to be done?.

It says here that the American indoor effort should become a separate umbrella, sort of like how U.S. Futsal maintains a certain autonomy from the United States Soccer Foundation.

Separate sponsors, organization, coaching, and a separate selection into a separate player pool are what seemed to have worked in 2002.

Yes, it is easy to blame Osama bin Laden for this entire series of events. But given the specialized skills needed for indoor hockey (a flying goalie, a see-step-pass mentality, and dead-eye finishing), you will likely see major reforms in American indoor preparations for qualifications four years hence.

Guess we have four years to wait.