When the Netherlands face Germany in the FIH Hockey Pro League on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 March, they will be looking to continue their push for top place in the FIH Pro League table. The Dutch currently sit in second place in the league, behind Belgium, with four wins, four draws and just one loss. The Oranje, who are ranked at number two in the world, will also be looking for a confidence boost against a side that they will meet in pool A at the rescheduled Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 as well as at the EuroHockey Championships.
Germany, who are ranked sixth in the world, have yet to really get going in the competition. Die Honamas have played just four games and are in eighth position. Their last match was a 1-1 draw against Belgium, which would have been a real confidence boost for the squad as they had lost the previous day’s match 6-1.
For Jeroen Hertzberger, the Netherlands skilful forward, any match against Germany is always an exciting encounter and this one has a heightened sense of anticipation because it has been such a long time coming. The last FIH Pro league for the Netherlands was that exciting encounter with the Belgium Red Lions on 4 November.
In terms of getting their FIH Hockey Pro League campaign back on track, it is important to get a result over the German team. Hertzberger knows he and his colleagues will need to find a way through the tight German defence.
“The Germans are a really good team and they know how to defend really well. We will be trying to manipulate their defence to create some chances. Their man marking is very good but we will try to go round them, not through them.”
When it comes to his own team’s fallibilities, Hertzberger says it is efficiency in front of goal that can let the side down. “We are on the right track and playing really well but it hasn’t always the case that we have been efficient. We will try to be as sharp as we can be in front of goal.”
The Dutch team will also be pushing hard to win penalty corners as this is an area where they spend a lot of time honing their options. As Hertzberger says, the squad has been getting ready for this return to action for a long time now, four months of waiting could see a very exciting and high octane encounter take place in the Wagener Stadium in Amsterdam.
“We train every week, we are ready for anything that comes, and we are really excited to play games again. We want to give the hockey world some nice entertaining hockey and usually any match between us and Germany is good, entertaining hockey so I hope we can do that again.”
Although the fans will not be allowed into the stadium itself, the matches will be available to watch via television or digital streaming thanks to our broadcast partnerships, as well as on the new Watch.Hockey app in every country where a rights holding broadcaster is not showing the matches live.
You can also keep up to date with all the latest news on the FIH Hockey Pro League via the event website and through FIH social media channels - Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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