With less than 48 hours before the fourth Indoor Hockey World Cup gets underway, the excitement in the German city of Leipzig is really ramping up. Players, coaches and spectators are all abuzz with anticipation as the showcase event prepares to burst into action.
We talk to some of the players and coaches who will be participating in the event.
Sweden men are making their debut at this year’s World Cup and Erik Ströby and Johan Björkman are two of the players hoping to help their team make an impact on the international stage. 27-year-old Ströby currently plays his club hockey for Partille SC, while 21-year-old Björkman is a future star of the game. He plays for HTHC in Germany, where he was a member of the team that won the Euro Hockey League. He was also top-scorer and voted best player at the EuroHockey Indoor Nations Championship.
Björkman has no qualms about facing his club colleagues when Sweden play Germany: “I am really looking forward to playing Germany and Austria, they are finalists from last year’s Euro’s, so that will be a great challenge.”
And Ströby echoes his teammate’s sentiments: ‘My feelings going into the World Cup are mixed, but mainly I feel excited. It will be a blast to play against the best indoor nations in the world.”
Björkman adds: “Playing at the World Cup is perhaps the biggest event that’s happened for Swedish hockey. I hope that all the other young players all over Europe, but especially Sweden, will see that even a small country can make it to the World Cup with a lot of hard work and dedication.”
One team that is always expected to perform well at any hockey event is the Netherlands. The coach to the women’s team is Marieke Dijkstra. She said that preparations for the event had gone well and the team would be looking for a podium finish.
“Over the last couple of years we have improved our technique and tactics, and we have experienced players in the side,” she said. “Being the European Champions last year does put us under some pressure, but we have the added motivation of wanting to emulate the success of the outdoor team.”
Laurien Leurink is a member of the Dutch squad. She says: “Every match will be a new challenge, playing against a different country with different game tactics. We are especially looking forward to playing against non-European participants, like South Africa. And of course we are also really looking forward to playing against Poland. Our semi-final against them last year, at the European Championships, was very exciting.”
And Kiki Collot d'Escury, also of the Netherlands, adds: “We all very passionate about the indoor game. It’s an intensive game, when you work with such a small group (12 instead of 18), you become very close and depend on each other, even more on the field. When you are on the indoor pitch, you are always involved in the game, whereas in the outdoor game you can have moments in which you are not really participating, the indoor game does not give you that option.”
One team that will be an unknown quantity is Iran. The men’s team are Asian Indoor Hockey Champions and they come to the World Cup with high hopes of putting indoor hockey on the map in Iran.
Coach Esfandyar Safaei, says: “Although we are in a very tough group, our team is technically well-prepared and in very high spirits.” And Binavand, who is part of the Iranian squad, adds: “I am looking forwards to playing Germany because technically they are the best side. I hope that we play great hockey and gain lots of new fans.”
Switzerland men are another team hopeful of making the quarter-final stages. Their coach, Christian Stengler, says: “We are looking forward to a very competitive pool and we are aware that it will be getting the little things right which will make the difference. Our focus is to improve match by match to seize the chance going through the pool successfully.
“Our leading players have had experience of playing abroad, especially in Germany. Manuel Keller, Nicolas Steffen (both Düsseldorfer HC) and Yanik Kloter (Harvestehuder THC). This is important experience that they are bringing to the squad.”
And finally, some words from the other debutantes at this year’s Indoor Hockey World Cup, Belgium. Coach Quentin Noel says: “Our team is still very young, but our goal is to gain experience at this level, learn as much as we can and capitalise on it with a view to competing at the forthcoming EuroHockey Indoor Nations Championship in 2016.
“We are four years ahead of our schedule, based on our initial development plan. We are realistic, but a top eight finish would be a fantastic achievement.”
