Following a productive eight-game tour to Argentina and USA in February, Les Bleus have another chance to play against Argentina when they arrive in Paris for a four-day camp in April.
The two matches will be played at INSEP, the national Olympic training centre, located in Paris.
With the majority of their players based in Belgium, Netherlands and Spain in their respective club seasons, Argentina has found Paris to be the perfect location for their four-daycamp and two test series against their hosts.
ÔÇ£We are happy to welcome Argentina to INSEP in April. INSEP is a world-class facility that has undergone a +Ôé¼200m refurbishment in the last few years, and we hope that many teams will be able to come to INSEP in the future to train and play in these excellent conditions,ÔÇØ said Fr├®d├®ric Delannoy National Technical Director of the FFH.
France national coach, Scott Goodheart, has selected a squad of 22 players for the two matches.
ÔÇ£We are still finalising the selection of the two teams, as our plans changed a little after the February tour. We had some technical issues exposed when we played the four games in Buenos Aires, and we want to see if there has been some development in these areas. As such, we will select slightly different teams than originally planned,ÔÇØ said Goodheart.
The April matches ahead for France (all at INSEP, Paris):
12 April, 18h30 vs Argentina
14 April, 12h00 vs Argentina
Argentina is currently ranked 11 in the world, due to their surprise non-qualification at the 2010 World Cup. Despite this, they have been regular World Cup and Olympic Games attendees for the last 20 years, and were ranked world number 6 in 2009.
France is currently ranked 17 in the world, and is chasing their first qualification to the Olympic Games since 1972.
Source: French Hockey Media Release
