Hero Honda FIH World Cup Goes Online Hero ... - SportingPulse

WORLD CUP
D E L H I 2 0 1 0
ROAD TO THE HERO HONDA FIH WORLD CUP
In this edition of the newsletter we are featuring former World Champions Netherlands and Africa’s
most successful side, South Africa.
The Dutch eager to lift the Trophy
The Netherlands are three time
winners of the World Cup, an
achievement that ranks second
only to Pakistan’s four triumphs.
They qualified for the Hero Honda
FIH 2010 World Cup by reaching
the semifinals of the 2009 Euro
Hockey Nations Tournament,
where they eventually finished
third.
The ultimate goal for the Dutch is
to lift the Hero Honda FIH World
Cup trophy on March 13. For
this purpose they will have to go
through nations that have had
their number in recent years:
Australia and Germany. Also,
they must fend off upstart
opponents like Argentina as well
as the dangerous Koreans. The
latter moved into the semi-finals
at the expense of Holland at the
2006 World Cup and also
haunted them in the ABN AMRO
Champions Trophy 2009.
Coach Michel van den Heuvel
will rely on the services of the
experienced Teun de Nooijer,
who will be participating in his
fifth World Cup, penalty corner
specialist Taeke Taekema and
goalkeeper Guus Vogels. Along
side them will be FIH 2005 Young
Player of the Year Robert van der
Horst, who has been emerging
steadily as the future ‘Oranje’
leader and Mink van der
Weerden, who has been lighting
up scoreboards in the past two
seasons of the Dutch top flight.
Not having reached a final in the
World Cup since 1998 does not sit
well with the incumbent decision
makers of Dutch hockey and a
country with more than 200,000
registered hockey players is
becoming impatient.
South Africa out to earn respect
South Africa are making their
fourth World Cup apperance
following participations in Sydney
1994, Kuala Lumpur 2002 and
Mönchengladbach 2006. South
Africa qualified for the Hero
Honda FIH World Cup 2010 by
defeating Egypt 3-1 in the final of
the 2009 Africa Cup, which took
place in Accra, Ghana.
Head coach Gregg Clark is
charged with the task to return
South Africa to respectability. Their
final placings in previous World
Cups have been at the lower end
of the classification table. In other
recent major competitions, South
Africa finished with the wooden
spoon at the Beijing Olympic
Games 2008 and 5th at the
Champions Challenge in
December 2009. Both tournaments
were played under Clark’s
tutelage. Clark and his troops
are once again up against the
world’s best and hope to put up
a respectable show. Not ranked
among the world’s top 12, Clark
must rely on ‘a few good men’.
One of those men is captain and
central defender Austin Smith,
who plays for Dutch Premier
League club Den Bosch and was
included in the FIH’s All-Star Team
for 2009. Another is the centre half
Lloyd Madsen, who also plies his
trade in the auspicious Dutch top
flight. In fact each member of the
squad will have to give their level
best for South Africa to create a
major impression at the Hero
Honda FIH World Cup 2010.
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