The waiting and preparations are nearly over. Teams face less than a week before they take to the field in Toronto for the start of the Pan-American Games. While the squads have been building for this moment ever since qualification was announced, for some sides, their recent endeavours have meant that the Pan-Am Games has an even greater significance.
For the teams that have returned to the continent following the Hockey World League Semi-Finals, they will know that they either: have a ticket to Rio 2016; need to win in order to qualify for Rio; or know what they have to do to build for the long-term - maybe with Tokyo 2020 in mind.
For all the teams, the Pan-American Games is one of the biggest competitions in the calendar. Not only do the players get to demonstrate their hockey skills to a wide and, often new , audience, but they can also gain invaluable world ranking points and for some teams, there is always the chance of that Olympic qualification spot.
Six nations from the continent went to the Hockey World League Semi-Finalsin hope of achieving an early Olympic qualification spot, and the events – two men's competitions and two women's competitions – have brought mixed blessings to the Pan-American teams who took part. Here we take a quick look at how the teams fared and what the players and managers had to say about the experience.
Argentina men were winners in Buenos Aires in every sense of the word, picking up a silver medal and an automatic Olympic qualification spot. Speaking after the event, coach Carlos Retegui was playing it cool. "Yes, we are very pleased to have won and to qualify, but now we have work to do and I must get my squad re-focused."
Juan Gilardi was in London for the 2012 Olympics, but then the 34-year-old was assistant coach to the Argentina women. He is looking forward to his own moment in the sun. "It is amazing, we are so happy to have qualified for the Olympics. Our objective from now is to prepare for Rio, so of course performing well at the Pan-Ams is crucial in that. After the World Cup in 2014 we changed the way we trained. We will now look at this again. We have players in Europe and here, so we need individual training plans as well as groups training. We still need to grow up."
At London I was assistant coach with the women's team. I will hope to play the Olympics at 34 years old. It has come at the end of my career, but I am so happy about that."
Their counterparts, Las Leonas, were made to sweat for a while. They finished fourth in Valencia after losing to Germany on shoot-out. The first three teams in each of the two Semi-Finals automatically qualified, then it came down to where the other teams finish in that event and what their current world ranking is. It wasn't until Australia defeated New Zealand in the other Hockey World League Semi-Final that Argentina's place at Rio 2016 was assured. New Zealand have a World Ranking of four, which meant that Argentina's ranking of three gave them the nod over the Black Sticks.
Speaking after their loss to Germany in the semi-finals, Argentina's coach Santi Capurro spoke philosophically about the result. Argentina had plenty of chances to kill the game off during the match, but an outstanding performance by German goalkeeper Kristina Reynolds in the match and then in the shoot-out meant Germany took the qualification spot. "Hey, I am proud of my team and how they played but today it just didn't fall our way. We will go back, regroup and come back to contest the Pan-Americans. Whether we had qualified or not, we always look to win every game and the Pan-Ams is our next target."
For Craig Parnham's USA women's team, the Hockey World League Semi-Finals were a frustrating disappointment. They finished fifth overall and really must win the Pan-American Games to ensure they are on the field in Rio. A disappointing capitulation to Argentina in the quarter finals in the Hockey World League Semi-Finals in Valencia means USA's triumphant surge up the rankings and into the top four was brought to a crashing halt. It has almost certainly a drop in USA's FIH World Ranking, with Germany, China and England all queuing up to overtake USA by virtue of their performances in the same tournament.
Since returning to their home base at Spooky Nook, the team has been working hard on improving the elements of their game that let them down in Valencia.
Coach Craig Parnham said: "The final phase of our preparations have gone well. We have had a productive week and are looking forward to getting to Toronto. We are excited to get the tournament underway. We will look to continue to be consistent in respect of the number of opportunities that we create as well as maintaining a strong defensive platform from which to play off."
Canada men enjoyed their time in Buenos Aires, a fourth place finish puts them nicely in contention for Olympic qualification and they performed way beyond their world ranking spot. Their results means the Canadians will move up the FIH World Rankings, possibly overhauling Ireland and South Africa in the process.
The same level of achievement and success was not enjoyed by Canada women. Losses to China, Argentina, Great Britain and Spain in the pool matches and then a defeat by 29th ranked Uruguay in the 9/10th play-off left the north American side feeling wounded.
Speaking after their final game, Canada women's coach Ian Rutledge said: “We’re a young team and we need experience and I think this tournament (HWL Semi-Final) has provided us with that. It shows us where we are at and a benchmark for us. We can now go away and grow, work on the areas that we need to be at to compete against the top teams.
“From the tournament perspective, it was a really important tournament for us to attempt to qualify. From a process point of view and a long-term view, this experience will do our young team a world of good."
Experience is certainly something that Uruguay will have gained from their experiences in Valencia. The team brought a flair and excitement to the tournament and improved with every game. As a nation that has no water-based pitch and has not competed at such a high quality world level before, the South American team won a lot of admirers. "This has been a great learning curve for us," said captain Sofia Mora.
With qualification spots still up for grabs, nothing will be decided until all the continental qualifiers are completed, and with so much at stake, expect the going to get tough in Toronto.
