For Uruguay and Canada women's teams at the Hockey World League Semi-Finals in Valencia, the top-flight international event was both a baptism of fire and a reckoner. One dead certainty to emerge from the competition: both teams will be raring to go in Toronto. "We will go crazy at the Pan Ams," was Canadian captain Kate Gillis' promise.
In Valencia, Uruguay finished bottom of the 10 teams, beaten in the 9/10th play-offs by their north American rivals in a spirited 2-0 game, but with the two teams ranked 29th and 20th respectively, the results were no great surprise.
What was perhaps a surprise to many in the hockey world, was how quickly both teams adapted to life in the top flight. Janine Stanley expressed it best. "When we came here we had very little experience of video referrals, we have very little experience on water-based pitches, we were playing top-flight teams whose athletes are in full-time training, but we competed well."
For Kate Gillis, captain of the Canadian team, ninth place was definitely not where they wanted to finish. "We had a tough tournament and didn’t finish where we wanted to. But it was important for us to finish on a good note and go into the Pan Ams on a high."
Until that final win over Uruguay, Canada had failed to get any points on the board, finishing the pool in last place with 16 goals against them and just two – albeit against a strong Great Britain team – to their name. The most devastating loss for the squad in terms of a missed opportunity was a 3-0 to Spain, a game the team had targeted as a winnable match. Prior to that, they and suffered a 6-0 mauling at the hands of Argentina and a 3-0 loss to China.
In the immediate aftermath of the Spanish game, the Canadian players were inconsolable, but two days after the event, Gillis had regained perspective: “We had a great opportunity to learn from a bunch of teams. This was the first time we have played a whole group of teams at this level. Usually, we play Argentina and the USA in different circumstances. But here, every game, we play an amazing team. We can learn from ourselves and also from the other teams."
Janine Stanley had a similar take on the competition. "Look, we came here as 29th in the world, we played against the best teams and we didn't disgrace ourselves. In fact, against South Africa (a 1-1 draw) we could have won the game and against Ireland we came close (3-2). Both those teams are ranked much higher. (South Africa is currently ranked 11th and Ireland is ranked 14th)."
"We will go back to Uruguay with more confidence, more experience of top level hockey and with an awareness of just how fast this game can be played. Over the course of this competition, well you saw, we got better with each game."
Uruguay certainly won admirers for their performances in Valencia. For a country that has no water-based pitch to train on, they adapted quickly to conditions. "Our learning curve was huge," says Stanley, "every game we discovered new things about ourselves and about the team as a whole."
Both Canada and Uruguay came to the tournament as prepared as resources would allow. For Uruguay this meant training every day since February and then a three week camp in Valencia prior to the tournament to get used to the pitch. "Our players, they work or they are students so the training has to take place in the evenings," said Stanley. "Sometimes we would train really late at night, but this is the sacrifice we have to make."
With four players at 20 or under in the squad, Uruguay are definitely a team to watch in the future. Constanza Barrandeguy and Milagros Algorta were particularly impressing in Valencia. "Yes, we have a lot of young players and we are committed," says Stanley. "We are targeting a semi-final place at the Pan-American Games this year, and that will draw more attention to hockey from the government."
She explains that the economy at large plays a big part in hockey's development in Uruguay. "We are a small country, and not a wealthy country, so our infrastructure is poor. When we take part in big tournaments like the Hockey World League, that gets us noticed and hopefully, our federation will be able to get more resources."
Canada also has an inexperienced team. Gillis points out that the highest number of caps for any Canadian player is 130, which is "average" for the top 10 teams. While this is good for the future of the team, she says, it has meant that the young players have had to grow up quickly in Valencia. “We have had a lot turnover of players in the last couple of years so it is hard to sustain experience, which to us would mean the world. We are trying to get as much experience as we can but you can’t put a fast-forward button on that. Even though we are young, if we can keep the same group and build common experience and common exposure, we can progress a bit quicker."
The Canadian Hockey Federation has been investing in its hockey teams, both men's and women's, increasing the back room staff and the professionalism in the team's support network. “There’s been a big push for our staff members to be more involved and doing more roles," says Gillis. "Before, we had staff doing three roles and it didn’t work out well. Now, we have a nutritionist, physiologist, our own physiotherapist. That level of professionalism has come into our sport and helped us to get to places like this."
Combine this new level of support, the experience gained by their players at the Hockey World League and the fact that, like Uruguay, Canada is a relatively young team, and you can see why Gillis is optimistic about her team's prospects in the future. Asked about her thoughts on Canada's immediate prospects at this year's Pan American Games, she says: "We can test the top sides and cause a shock. We take every game as an opportunity to play our best and if we do that, we look to win. We have Argentina in the pool so we want to use the info from how we played them here, see what we can change and bring it to the pool play.
“We’ve been lucky to be at the Hockey World League Semi-Finals and have this exposure to all three Pan Am teams before the event (Uruguay, USA and Argentina) and hopefully we will bring a different style of play and cause a few shocks. One of the things about the Hockey World League Semi-Finals is that we have learnt we can compete at this level. Knowing that, coming into each game feeling confident, knowing we can move the ball around the back really well. We now know we can play a high intensity game and go crazy at the Pan Ams."
While Argentina and the USA currently dominate the Pan American hockey scene, fans of the game will be delighted to see just how fast the challengers to their dominance are growing into their role. The support and awareness of field hockey in both Canada and Uruguay is growing, something that Gillis thinks can only be helped by the forthcoming Pan Am Games. "Hopefully, we can grow the sport and having the Pan Am Games at home in Toronto will be huge for people to come and watch. We want them to see what field hockey is all about because, obviously, Canada is more known for its ice hockey.
“A lot of people in Canada have never heard of field hockey. We are centralised in Vancouver because of the weather where it’s not as harsh and you can play almost all year round. Toronto has a big base too. With the Ireland series we had before coming here, we had friends and family out and we are slowly gaining fans and exposure. Once people start to know what it’s about, it can really take off in Canada. Now it’s all about ice hockey and soccer and we’re hoping to bring it to the people and show them what we can do. Show them how fast the game can be!"
