England versus China at the 2011 Rabo FIH Champions Trophy: Hockey Preview
England is to face China today, June 28, in the Pool A match of the 2011 Rabo FIH Champions Trophy that will take place at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen, Netherlands.
England
This is the third match of the English women team that will determine, whether it will qualify into Pool C, competing for a medal win or into Pool D, fighting for the fifth position. In their previous two encounters against Argentina and South Korea,
the team met the loss by 1-0 and a draw at 2-2, respectively.
The team is currently at the third place in its pool with one point. This is an important match for them as a win in this game will not just do the job, but Argentina will have to defeat Korea, who is currently with 2 points, to allow England to advance
up to the top two of the pool.
Rebecca Herbert is among the top goal-scorers list with two goals in two appearances. She has been topping the list before too with four goals in total seven matches in the last Champions Trophy. Moreover, another hockey gem, Crista Cullen, is representing
England this year who was listed among the International Hockey Federation (FIH) Women’s All Star team in 2006, 2007 and 2010.
China
The same situation prevails for the Chinese women that met with a draw at 2-2 and a loss at 4-1 against South Korea and Argentina, respectively, holding just one point in Pool A.
If China wins the match against England and Argentina beats Korea, China will comfortably make it into the medal-winning round, Pool C.
It is heart-breaking that China is one of the two teams that have conceded most goals in two matches, totalling to six goals.
However, the Chinese Ma Yibo, who holds the national record of highest number of Champions Trophy matches played (55) will be accompanied by Zhao Yudiao. Moreover, another hockey star, Fu Barong, is the part of the Champions Trophy squad, who was listed
in the FIH Women’s All Star team four times with three years straight in 2006 and 2008-2010.
Players to Watch
From the English side, the highest capped player at 258, Kate Walsh, will be the player to watch whose leadership quality will allow the team to win the match against the Asian side. On the other hand, Ma Yibo performed very well in the last matches
and will be the centre of attention in today’s match too.
Head-to-Head Stats
The last encounter between the two nations took place in the 2010 Champions Trophy, held in Nottingham, when England defeated the Chinese women by 2-1. Moreover, in the same year at the 2010 World Cup in Rosario, England again overpowered the Chinese
by a 1-0 victory.
However, if 2009 is considered, China was the dominating team that defeated England twice by 4-1 in round one of the year’s Champions Trophy and by a humongous 7-0 in the fifth position match.
Prediction
On the basis of their last face-offs and their current performance at the 2011 Champions Trophy, both the teams are expected to give a neck-to-neck competition to each other. However, England will end up strong, beating down China by a 3-1 defeat.
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