Charlotte Stapenhorst is a prolific striker with the German women’s national team and she will be looking to add to her tally as Die Danas travel to London to take on Great Britain in the FIH Hockey Pro League. The two teams are well matched: Great Britain is currently one point ahead of Germany in the league – fourth and fifth placed respectively – albeit the Great Britain team has played two more matches.
The matches will take place on 12 and 13 May at the Lee Valley Hockey Stadium in London and, for Stapenhorst, the trip will be something of a homecoming.
“It is little personal for me as I went to school at Repton College in England and I played there for Beeston Hockey Club. I know the players and I really like playing against them. I love playing in London, it just feels cool to go there.”
There is some disruption to the German squad as a number of players are still involved in the final stages of the German hockey league. As a result, a number of promising under 21 players are included in the squad travelling to London.
“It’s been a stressful few weeks with the domestic league so it is nice to be back with Die Danas,” says Stapenhorst. “But the preparation has been totally different with many players missing because of the German league finals. We have a lot of new players coming in but it is nice to be back with the squad.
“Normally we would have 25 girls who play in the [national] squad regularly but now it is different, with these [domestic] league fixtures still to fulfil. But it is also perfect to have lots of girls in the squad who want to play. After the Olympics they will be able to come into the squad full time and be ready to be Die Danas.”
While the inclusion of the under 21 players is good for Germany’s future squads, for the immediate challenge of the FIH Hockey Pro League, Head Coach Xavier Reckinger will need to call on all his coaching talent to gel a squad that has hardly trained together.
“Headaches for Xavier are fine,” says Stapenhorst with a smile. “He is totally used to it. The league has been very good for us. Travelling the world playing Pro League has not been possible so the [domestic] league has been really helpful for us to stay playing hockey.
“Against Argentina [in the FIH Hockey Pro League] we had people missing because of the EHL but everyone was really working for each other. It was a ‘team work’ win and we all really enjoyed it.”
And looking ahead to next week’s matches, Stapenhorst says: “Great Britain is always tough to play against. And everyone is preparing for the Olympics, so everyone is really approaching their best now. We have to be really prepared for a big defensive fight. What you can do, even if you haven’t played much international hockey, is you can defend. So I think it will be a hard-fought, defensive game.
“A good outcome is to get everyone in and make sure we take some learnings with us. We want to win, obviously, but we have a tough, intense few weeks. At the Euros’, we will see where we stand and see if we are going the right way.
“But, ultimately, we want to be at our best for the Olympics so we have to make sure that we build up and don’t be frustrated if things don’t go right to start with.”
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