Almost Daily Olympics Blog: A Weekend Full Of Fun
Here's a quick pattern for kiwi hockey folk and casual Olympics observers to tap into...
Black Sticks Men vs India: 2-3 loss.
Penalty Corners: 1/10.
Black Sticks Women vs Argentina: 3-0 win.
Penalty Corners: 2/3.
Black Sticks Men vs Spain: 4-3 win.
Penalty Corners: 2/5.
The first up loss against India was frustrating given those penalty corner numbers, which clouded the whole performance from the lads. It all felt a bit lacklustre, with the kiws unable to string together passing combinations and moments of razzle dazzle to create. Unlike the Indian men who can genuinely dribble around/through any defender, Aotearoa plays a different style and both kiwi teams need a couple goals from penalty corners to make up for x-factor up front.
The wahine showcased all of this in their win against Argentina. First and foremost, the kiwi women were without Stacey Michelsen and Sam Charlton with Michelsen being the most skillful/x-factor player on the women's team. Charlton is a classy midfielder/defender and having both these two out of the team took something important away, aside from the immense experience. These stats tell the basic premise of Black Sticks Women vs Argentina...
Shots: 5 (NZ) - 13 (ARG).
PC: 3 - 6.
Circle Penetrations: 4 - 20.
Argentina felt like the funkier team, more creative, more skillful and to be honest more fun to watch. This is where we get into the identity of either Aotearoa hockey team as they play hockey like kiwis in being well organised defensively, working extremely hard to have defensive numbers and manipulating their opposition with nifty defensive screens. The women have Liz Thompson and Ella Gunson leading their defensive unit, while the lads have skipper (and goal-scorer!) Blair Tarrant, Kane Russell, Nic Woods and Shea McAleese playing the most minutes of their defensive group.
Everything starts from defence for the Black Sticks teams. Both teams showed that they can work down-field through passing combinations and you are far more likely to see passages of four-five passes working down the field compared to watching a kiwi player run with the ball (apart from Michelsen). Hence, every PC is a important chance to score or at the very least control the tempo and where games are played.
Tonight the women play Japan, who lost their first game 3-4 to China. This feels like a very win-able game for the kiwis and I suspect we will see some of the more energetic players shine. Kelsey Smith is a key energizer-bunny in the midfield for Aotearoa, while Katie Doar impressed in a defensive midfield position where her class in holding possession and shifting the ball was on full display; not bad for 19-year-old.
Holly Pearson scored the well-taken third goal for Aotearoa against Argentina and along with Olivia Shannon, they are two more youngsters to keep an eye on. These two and Doar fit into the whole team system, while adding something extra whether it be smooth class for Doar or Shannon's emerging x-factor up front. Shannon is 20-years-old and Pearson is 22-years-old, so kia kaha the young kiwis.
The men's win over Spain overnight was massive. Spain and Argentina play with a certain Latin/Espanol vigour that made their encounter (1-1 draw) extremely fun to watch, then flipping their games against Aotearoa into a hockey battle and battle of cultures; kiwis are gritty, mellow types. In their numerous games against Australia ahead of the Olympics, I was curious to see how the lack of firepower via retirements would impact the kiwis and while my hunch is that this will hold them back, there was no lack of firepower against Spain.
Stephen Jenness is all firepower/x-factor. Give this dude a sniff of a goal and he'll bang it in. Add Nick Wilson and Hugo Inglis to that striking line for three serious world-class players. Jenness' individual magic snared the first goal, Wilson's work on the baseline created the winning goal. Kane Russell's drag-flick was also impressive as it was fired mid-right and this would have gone straight at the Spanish goalie if he was standing in the middle. Francisco Cortes lined up to the left (kiwis perspective) and this left a defender on the right, so Russell flicked it low and hard at the defender.
These little details are immense for Aotearoa. Film sessions, noting details early in the game and adapting to their opponent.
George Muir came into the team and I liked the balance offered by him and Jake Smith up front, alongside the more creative weapons. Muir was outside the initial Black Sticks squad until it was bolstered to include a few more players and his work ethic helps absorb some of the defensive workload. Jared Panchia has slotted back into the midfield after spending a lot of time as a striker and this plays into his strengths in the same vein as Doar for the wahine as he can be creative, while also using his skill to find space the shuffle the ball along.
Again, it's balance. Steve Edwards is a veteran midfielder and with a steady defence, Sean Findlay is able to settle into Olympic hockey. Findlay is 19-years-old and recently burst into the squad, which has been evident in a couple turnovers and generally a tough introduction to Olympic hockey. In a team that knows who they are and what they do well, expect Findlay to express himself moving forward.
Shout-out to the goalies as well. Leon Hayward made 67 percent of his saves vs India, followed up by 67 percent vs Spain. Grace O'Hanlon made 100 percent of her saves vs Argentina.
Ongoing Surfing (written Monday morning)
Both Ella Williams and Billy Stairmand moved forward in their respective Surfing competitions. Williams has another heat this morning against Brisa Hennessy which will be a great opportunity for Williams to move forward after she finished 2nd in her first heat. Williams' score of 9.70 was a wee way behind Caroline Marks' 13.40 who is among the best surfers in the world and every progression through this competition for Williams is exciting.
Stairmand looked slick in his early heat with speed across the waves and aerial moves to bump his score up. John John Florence is another top-tier World Surfing League beast and he put up 12.77, while Stairmand wasn't far behind with 11.34. Stairmand appears to have some extra juice compared to Williams, although this will be tested in his next round against Italo Ferreira later this afternoon.
Williams had Marks in her heat and now Hennessy who are both top-tier WSL athletes. Stairmand had Florence in his heat and now Ferreira who are both monsters. Tough task for the kiwis but it's fabulous to see them competing at this level.
Golf Prep
Women's golf doesn't start until Sunday and Lydia Ko now enters the Tokyo Olympics with a bit of form. Ko had been on a tough run of results since returning to USA from tournaments in Thailand and Singapore with 35T, 9T, 61T, 52T, 22T which was flipped into 6T at the Evian Championship over the weekend. Here's some of Ko's best stats from her year on the LPGA Tour...
Race to CME Globe Season: 2nd.
Prize Money: 3rd.
Putts per GIR: 3rd.
Putting Average: 3rd.
Scoring Average: 5th.
Rounds Under Par: 7th.
While on the topic of Golf, here are Ryan Fox's results on the European Tour this year: 14T, 14T, 146T, 44T, 67T.
Cycling Road Race
The men’s road race was compelling viewing from both a kiwi and sports fan perspective. Patty Bevin put in a massive shift mid-way through the race to help out comrade George Bennett, although as Mark Watson kept telling us in commentary - “you can’t burn all your matches too early”. Bevin didn’t do that in a reckless sense, he was trying to set Bennett up and that saw Bevin bow out early before Bennett sat in the main peloton all by himself. Bennett couldn’t keep up with the lads at the front of the pack and that involved frequent checks for the camouflaged white jersey of Bennett among a gang of other white jerseys - ‘oh there he is!’.
Bennett eventually fell off from the main leaders and this quickly turned into a classic Olympics vibe as I suddenly sharpened my focus on to Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogacar who are apparently really, really good. The winner though was Richard Carapaz from Ecuador who like Bennett was left all alone in the leading group and then broke away with Brandon McNulty (USA), before breaking away from him to win the race rather easily. In an event where it looks like almost half the riders didn’t finish and among the best in the world, Carapaz still managed to charge away on a climb and win. Shout out to him.
Splashing Around
Lewis Clareburt was Aotearoa’s first major medal opportunity. Gunning for NZ’s first medal in the pool by anyone since Danyon Loader in 1996 in fact. The 22 year old qualified with the second quickest time in the heats but at least a couple fellas in his race had kept some juice in the tank, to be fair. USA’s Chase Kalisz. Hungary’s David Verraszto. These guys had quicker swims in them compared to Clareburt who’d set a personal best in his heat – a national best too, it was a fantastic swim. He’d dodged a bullet with local favourite Daiya Seto, who has the quickest time for the year, failed to even qualify for the final but that was still a stacked field and Clareburt was always gonna need something special.
Sure enough Kalisz zoomed out to a big lead on the breaststroke legs and there wasn’t any catching him from there. Clareburt didn’t get off to the quickest start himself, turning fifth at the 100m mark, but his backstroke was fantastic and for a little spell there until Kalisz pulled away he was briefly leading the race. Even then, he managed to hold firm through his trickirer breaststroke to get into the freestyle which he’d looked sharp at the night before in his heat. With fifty metres remaining he was swimming in second place. Then as the rest of the field found that final burst of energy to surge into the finish... Clareburt faded.
Fifty metres away from an Olympic medal but after turning in second he finished in second to last. 4:11.22 his official time which was considerably slower than the 4:09.49 he’d swum to qualify. The race in general was slower. Short turnaround from heats to final probably a part of that as Kalisz was the only bloke to swim faster than his qualifying time in the final. But Clareburt was nearly two seconds off his – a qualifying time that would have been good for silver in the final.
Wee bit of a story behind the scheduling there... swimming is one of the top rating television spectacles at the Olympic Games and apparently the 10.30am local start for the final (which an American won, remember) was down to American TV rights. NBC is the major broadcaster there I believe. They want the swimming in the best time zone for their viewers so instead of heats in the morning and finals that night it’s heats at night and finals the next morning. You do get a sleep in between but it means racing in the morning which is tougher. Definitely that’s the main point Clareburt himself has made about why he couldn’t close out the race. Devastating for him... he does still have his secondary event of the 200m individual medley though.
Or maybe Erika Fairweather could be the one to break the pool drought? She’s on at 2.20pm (in case you’re reading this before that happens) in the final of the women’s 400m freestyle having finished second in her heat with a New Zealand record, an incredible effort from the 17 year old. Again, we’ve learned the lesson from Lewis Clareburt about how the heats ain’t necessarily the best indication of how the final will go but she did qualify with the fourth best time. This is the face you make when you realise you just broke the national record...
Liberto Carlos
That second OlyWhites game was a bit of a shambles. They started very well against a Honduras team that didn’t look the most comfortable in defence but Winston Reid’s early doors injury was an utter disaster for the team – if he misses the rest of the tournament as you’d have to think is likely given the quick turnarounds in games then that probably dashes any hopes of doing much in the knockouts, especially if they can’t free Michael Boxall from his kidnappers in his place. Not cutting out the risk and replacing Boxall when they had the chance is looking pretty dumb right now given Reid’s not exactly unknown injury history. Could be left with just the one overage player the rest of the way, bloody hell.
And we just saw what that defence looks like without an experienced head. Fair play to George Stanger who is a quality prospect who has played Scottish Premiership already... but he’s not Winston Reid. And despite twice playing from in the lead the OlyWhites always looked shaky at the back and when Michael Woud concedes three preventable goals in one game then you’re probably not winning.
Woud is a brilliant keeper, he’s been an absolute standout at U17 and U20 World Cups for New Zealand. He had a shocker against Honduras but from some of the comments out there about him you’d think this was the first time most of those folks had ever seen him play... in which case obviously you’re gonna skew one way with the opinions and it’s not towards him being the next Gianluigi Buffon, but maybe don’t advertise your ignorance? Or at least don’t be a dick about it. Anyway if Winston Reid was out there at least two of those goals don’t happen because there’s no way he’s gonna shield the ball for his goalie and not cover the striker running through. Block the man off, bro. All you’ve gotta do. Or just put it fifteen rows back in the stands, also a valid option. But Stanger messed that up as badly as Woud did, if not worse, and the third goal he stood off way too long and then only got a deflection on the shot which deceived Woud (who still shoulda saved it). Reid’s defending that on the front foot and it’s a different outcome.
But South Korea did us a solid by putting four past a ten-man Romania so as long as they beat Honduras as you’d expect them to in the last game then a draw will be enough for us to progress into the knockouts. That’s still the aim here. Doing anything special in the knockouts is harder to envision without any overage defenders but getting there for the first time ever is still very possible.
No matter what happens, at least we got to witness Liberato Cacace (aka Liberto Carlos) score the greatest goal of all time...
First Serves
Good news on the tennis front as Michael Venus & Marcus Daniell were able to negotiate their first round men’s doubles tie against the Belarusian duo of Egor Gerasimov & Ilya Ivashka in straight sets: 6-3 7-6 (6). Things were tricky in the second set as neither pair was able to break serve, the kiwis missing a couple opportunities, but they did the goods in a narrow tiebreaker to advance to the second round.
All of these draws are slippery. But this is the best hope New Zealand has probably ever had since tennis became an Olympic sport. Michael Venus has won a French Open before. Daniell is a regular grand slam competitor at doubles level himself. In the second round they’ll take on the Netherlands’ Wesley Koolhof & Jean-Julien Rojer who are seeded eighth so no easy feat there. Both kiwi lads seem to be serving well though and a win here would put them into the semi-finals to play either Austria (Marach/Oswald) or Colombia (Cabal/Farah). The Colombians are third seeds, both top ten doubles players. Again, doubles is ruthless but you never know (half of the eight seeded pairs lost in the first round). That second round game is on tonight so one to get around for the potential of some more Great Olympic Moments.
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