When you’ve won both the Hockey World Cup and the Olympic Games in the past three-year period, how do you keep the fire in the belly and the quest for victory burning bright?
For Belgium defender Arthur van Doren it all comes down to the tight knit nature of the squad.
‘We are in really nice place with the team collectively. We enjoy testing each other and that works really well. Therefore, it seems we keep on going like this for now. We are having fun as well as getting the best from each other. Our strongest player is the team. Sometimes it is a corner with Alexander Hendrickx, sometimes it is a nice team goal.’
Van Doren was on his way to Amsterdam to meet up with the team ahead of Belgium’s two FIH Hockey Pro League matches against Netherlands. These are the last two matches of Season Three before the winter break and Van Doren was looking forward to ending 2021 on a high.
Reflecting on the earlier Hockey Pro League matches against Germany, which Belgium won convincingly, he said: ’We were pretty happy. Beating Germany twice is always a good result, and we did pretty well under the new coach and with the new staff. Two really good performances, with a couple of new guys fitting in really well.
‘Every coach has his own way of coaching and that is the same for Michel [van den Heuvel]. He has been in the programme for five or six years and knows us pretty well and we know him. He has been leading all training in the Shane McLeod era and he deserves, and demands, a lot of respect from the team.’
Belgium face a new challenge from the Netherlands. Van der Heuvel’s opposite number Jeroen Delmee is putting out a very inexperienced squad, particularly when compared to the highly-capped Belgium team. Van Doren acknowledges this will provide a different type of challenge.
‘I have played in Holland for quite a few years and I know the quality they have. A lot of talented youth are banging on the door. It will bring new challenges because a lot of guys who were ‘the ones to watch’ are not there anymore. It will be a good battle.
‘It is always end-to-end stuff when we play Holland. We are going to make this game a really entertaining match for the people watching back home.’
Watch the full interview on Watch.Hockey.
