Paris — Let’s take the Germany v Spain men’s Olympic pool match as a barometer of what teams face during the cauldron, noise and intensity of a 13-day competition.
First, there was Germany star Christopher Ruhr picking up a one-match suspension which left coach Andre Henning befuddled by the new FIH ruling procedure over stick danger. Then, there was Ruhr and team-mates citing the Athletes’ Village food as “catastrophic”, with lengthy queues for good measure.
Further, coaches these days (certainly in the men’s game) have their work cut out in trying to find a way to navigate their way towards medal matches (or face the likely merry-go-round of coaching changes after an Olympics).
For Spain came away pretty miffed on the back of a 4-0 defeat to GB on the opening day. That they were able to offer the same performance against Germany to prevail 2-0 over the world champions shows what level of detail will usher gold next month.
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