One game remains for the Canadian Women’s Field Hockey Team at the World League Semifinal in Valencia, Spain, and while finishing with a win is most definitely the goal, success or failure doesn’t hinge on it.
In fact, when Canada faces Uruguay Friday at 10am PT/1pm ET, what they are most concerned with is consistency.
“Our performances have been pretty good on the whole,” says Women’s National Team head coach Ian Rutledge. “I’m confident if we play well, we’ve honored all the hard work we’ve done in the series.”
Despite having lost all their round robin matches, the Canadians haven’t looked out of place in this tournament, which features five out of the world’s top ten teams, and in which Canada is ranked the second lowest.
The Canadian women are typically among the youngest teams at every tournament in which they compete, making each time they step on a bigger stage – like this one where Olympic qualification was up for grabs – a learning experience.
The World League Semifinals have been no different.
After qualifying by finishing second at World League Round 2 in Dublin, Ireland, Canada knew it had a steep hill to climb if it wanted to qualify for Rio through World League. And while they weren’t able to manage a win in the first four matches, they were not disappointed with their play.
“With exception with the first half against Argentina, I think we’ve pretty much been in most games for the majority of the match,” adds Rutledge. “I think that’s a pretty pleasing place to be given the quality of the opponents we’ve come across.”
What’s also pleasing is what good performances mean moving forward.
With the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto just around the corner, and being the Canadian women’s final shot to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games, playing well and consistently is what they’ll need to do to give themselves the best shot possible.
“I think we continue to make progress. It’s already been a good year,” says Rutledge. “We’ve already achieved some good things with our World League 2 result and our series against Ireland.”
Finishing off the World League Semifinal with a win against Uruguay would also be an achievement. The result would mean they place ninth in the tournament – exactly where they’re ranked. And while it’s not the Olympic qualification they had hoped for, it’s a sign that that could be right around the corner.
