As the start of the TriFinance EuroHockey Championships on 17 August draws closer, the preparations are heating up, and test matches are being played around Europe.
On the weekend, the men of Germany and Belgium played two practice matches at the stadium in Boom, where the EuroHockey Championships will take place. Saturday's clash ended 5-2 for Germany, with the 2011 European Champions exercising firm control over the proceedings. On Sunday however, the Red Lions stunned their German opponents with a 5-0 win that included a hattrick from Florent van Aubel. German head coach Markus Weise showed himself unhappy with the performance of his team after the match but also indicated that he considers the Belgian men favorites for the European title.
The Belgian women welcomed their English counterparts for two test matches, also at the EuroHockey Championships stadium, and both encounters ended tied: Friday's 2-2 was followed by a 3-3 draw on Sunday, with the equalizer for England only forced in the dying minutes of the match as the Olympic bronze medalists pulled the goalkeeper off the field for an advantage in the number of field players.
Meanwhile, the Dutch women travelled to Mönchengladbach to play the German women twice, supplementing the programme of the ERGO Hockey Junior World Cup. Thursday saw a closely contested match which the Olympic Champions claimed with a 3-1 win, while Saturday's clash was a much clearer affair as the ladies from Holland swept up a 7-0 victory.
At the NOW: Pensions Nations Cup in Wakefield, the Netherlands held England to a 4-4 draw with a last minute penalty corner goal from dragflick expert Mink van der Weerden. With the draw, the Dutch men clinched the overall three-match series Nations Cup, after winning the first match 2-1 and drawing the second 3-3.
The event in Wakefield also paired the English and Malaysian junior men's teams in a parallel three-match series. Drawing the first match 3-3, the teams went on to split the subsequent two encounters, as England recorded a clear 5-1 victory in the second match and Malaysia took the third by the narrowest of margins 6-5. A 3-2 shoot-out result declared England the overall series winner.
Prior to the TriFinance EuroHockey Championships, the Pan American region crowns their men's continental champion in the Pan American Cup, starting in Canada on Saturday. Pool A features Argentina, the USA, Mexico and Uruguay, while Pool B is made up of Canada, Chile, Trinidad&Tobago and Brasil. The team at the top of the podium on Sunday, 17 August 2013, qualifies for the Rabobank Hockey World Cup next June - unless the winner is Argentina, who have already qualified for the event through their Hockey World League Semi-Final silver medal last month, in which case Korea would be confirmed as a World Cup participant thanks to their 4th place finish in the same Semi-Final tournament.
