Ahead of the 15th edition of the FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup taking place in Spain and the Netherlands (1-17 July), we’re conducting a series of exclusive interviews with the participating teams. Today: Nike Lorenz and Sonja Zimmermann (GER).
Nike, what are your expectations as a team for this World Cup?
What we can say for sure is that we do want to win knockout games. That's the really nice phase of the tournament. So that's definitely games that we want to win and preferably a couple of those. Personally, expectations would be - since it's like a special organization of the tournament, in two countries - to actually experience the whole of the tournament, with the travels and everything what it's about. That would mean a semifinal for us.
Sonja, how do you look at the performance of your team at the Tokyo Olympics? On one side, you lost to Argentina in the quarterfinals, which is surely a disappointment, but on the other side, you won against GB which eventually got the bronze medal. So how do you look at this?
That's a tough question. I think it's been a good tournament when we consider the group phase because we nearly won all our matches - we only didn't win against the Netherlands - and we were playing a great tournament. We were a team and everybody knew each other on the field. It was a great experience. Then, just one knockout game (the quarter final against Argentina). For sure it wasn’t the result that we wanted to. It also hasn't been our best match. So, in the end, we didn't get the result we wanted and for sure we weren't satisfied with that but still there were some good aspects throughout the tournament.
Nike, right before that however, you had finished runners-up at the Eurohockey championships, only losing to the Netherlands in the final. That must be a reference to establish the potential of your team?
I agree. I think in general the Europeans have definitely stepped up. The whole tournament has gotten so competitive throughout the last couple of years. For us it's such a good challenge to play a tournament like that right before the Olympics. We definitely knew our potential going to Tokyo. But still, GB won a bronze medal and we beat them in the group phase … So, we had more potential going into the tournament that we fulfilled at the end, but good stuff to work with for the future.
Sonja, Germany finished runners-up at the Women's Junior World Cup in South Africa in April this year. Do you look at this as a positive sign for your team as well?
For sure! I think this shows that in Germany the clubs are doing a great work and that we have so much potential. Already some of the girls that played there will help us out and will play in our squad. I’m really positive about that and I think that in the future this could help us very much.
Nike, your team is in a Pool with Chile, Ireland and the Netherlands. How do you look at each of these teams?
The Netherlands are the best team in the world right now. It’s going to be nice to play them on their home soil. Definitely always a good checkpoint to see where we’re standing in a group phase already. Ireland, tough paced, fast-paced game. Not the most technical game I would say, but definitely very physical. Always a challenge for the German girls who prefer a structure of the game. Definitely high in contrast, I would say. As for Chile, honestly we haven't played them for so long that we'll have to see where they're at. I think it should be the easiest opponent in the group phase but that’s what I say from playing them a couple of years ago. I’ve no idea where they’re right now, so that’s a big question mark.
Which message would you like to give to your fans?
Sonja: Come out there, support us and waive the German flag!
Nike: It’s been a while having you by our side so we’re very excited to hopefully have a lot of you guys travelling with us and supporting us from the stands, giving us hugs after the game. We all can’t wait and the Pro League matches in Germany have already shown how many fans we have. So we hope to get them all!
#HWC2022
