Participants and Schedule unveiled for 32nd Men’s Champions Trophy Hockey
The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has announced the participating teams and schedule for the 32nd men’s Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament 2010. The six nation competition will be played in Warsteiner Hockey Park in Monchengladbach, Germany from the 31st of July and end on the 8th of August.
Participating Teams
Teams competing in the tournament include Germany, Australia, New Zealand, England, Netherlands and Spain. Teams falling in five categories are selected ex-officio by FIH rules and regulations. These five categories demand the presence of the World Champions, Olympic Champions, Defending Champions of the Champions Trophy, Champions Challenge Winners and finally the host nation. The remaining nations are qualified based on their positions in the recent Olympics Games or the World Cup.
Only three teams qualified ex-officio for 2010 - Germany was selected for hosting the event along with their Olympics Champion status; Australia won the World Cup and is the defending champions of the tournament while New Zealand won the Champions Challenge trophy last year. The remaining three teams were selected based on their positions in the FIH World Cup 2010 which took place in February in New Delhi, India. Australia and Germany were already classified at the first and second positions in the World Cup while the next three teams selected for the tournament include the Netherlands, England and Spain.
Schedule
The tournament is scheduled to start on the 31st of July with the opening match between Germany and England. On the same day, Australia will play against New Zealand while the Netherlands will try to prove their superiority over Spain. Day 2 will commence with Germany facing off against New Zealand, the Netherlands will follow that up with a game against Australia and England will go all-out against Spain for the third match of the day. The third round starts on the 3rd of August where Australia will play against England, the Netherlands will be up against New Zealand while Germany will clash against Spain.
The game of the tournament featuring Germany and Australia will be played on the 5th of August which is expected to pull in a large crowd. The last round of pool games on the 7th of August will feature England going against New Zealand, the Netherlands playing against Germany while Australia will play against Spain. The classification games for the 5th place, 3rd place and the final will be played on the 8th of August.
Competition History
The Champions Trophy is hockey’s most prestigious annual tournament which was started by Pakistan in 1978. Australia is the tournament’s most successful team with 10 titles, followed by Germany with 9 and Netherlands with 8 titles. Pakistan is the only Asian team to win the competition and has 3 titles to its name. Spain on the other hand has won the title on one occasion.
Australia has won the highest number of silver medals with a total tally of 10 and this means that the World Champions have played the final on a record 20 occasions. The Australians have also won 4 Bronze medals during this tenure. Germany on the other hand has won 9 titles along with 7 silver and 6 bronze medals while Holland has won 5 Silver and 6 bronze medals. Pakistan’s tally of silver and bronze medals is 6 each while Spain has 1 silver and 3 bronze medal’s to its name. Korea and England both have one silver and 2 bronze medal’s respectively while Argentina and India have won a solitary bronze medal each.
Six teams qualify for the competition and the only exceptions came in the 1978 edition when 5 teams made it to the final round. Along with that, the 1980 edition saw 7 teams participating in the tournament while 8 teams took part in 1987.
Warm up games begin
Netherlands, Spain, England and New Zealand have already started begun with the warm-up games before the Champions Trophy. New Zealand played a game against Belgium and faced a 3-5 defeat. Andy Hayward scored two goals for New Zealand in the 25th and 69th minute while a third goal came from Hayden Shaw in the 47th minute of the match. New Zealand will play another game against Belgium before three games against France in Paris on the 24th, 25th and the 27th of July.
In another warm up game, Spain edged past England in Lilleshall, England. Sergi Enrique opened the scoring in the first half with a penalty stroke and Xavi Lleonart added a second in the following half. All 18 members of the Spanish squad participated in the game.
Netherlands on the other hand played two test matches against Pakistan and the series ended in a stalemate. The Dutch team lost the first game 1-4 while claimed a 3-2 victory in the second game.
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