Rio Olympics : Hockey

USA piling on the pressure.

So, wanted to see a team sport and this is as good as any, better still I get to see Team GB play, our women against the USA in fact, should be some rivalry here.  It's at the Deodoro park,  OK then, train it is, I find the central station and buy a return ticket easily enough, time for a beer in fact, website reckons a twenty minute journey so I allow seventy just in case.  Heh, public transport.  I'm sure I get the right platform, but the train seems to be on the wrong line, stopping at every station instead of heading directly to the sport.  Worse, this 'red' line won't even take me all the way there.... OK, I get off at the Engenhão and change, well try to.  Seems the direct 'green' line is... not running? ...or something?  Another red train, in the end I stop at twenty stations rather than the hoped for three, and it takes over an hour.  Still, the stop is actually in the park so... ah, no.  For some reason we don't stop there, but travel on and I have to jog back half a mile, sigh.   Through security, more queues, and finally I'm in, missed twenty minutes, not great when the game only lasts an hour.

The crucial penalty corner.

Well, didn't miss any goals anyway, seems to be a close game, hard fought too, the (British!) announcer keeps having to report on our players getting two minute timeouts for 'temper'.  Goalless at half time, but not long into the second half, er, third period, the girls in blue score, woo!  Um, boo I mean, turns out those sneaky Americans are wearing our kit... well, red is better anyway.  We're on the back foot though, the USA keep the ball well, their defence is on form too.  Good spectator sport this, I guess just an accident of history that sports with inflated balls and no sticks conquered the world instead.

Yet another shot of me in an arena.

Not sure I entirely understand the rules, but no big deal, I can see where the goals are.  GB moves forward, and wins a penalty... corner?  Seems to involve most of our team ganging up on a few Americans, I'm not too surprised when a goal results, all square!  It's all GB now, though time is ticking away, can they get another, yes they can!  A great shot from distance, a bit of worry as apparently the ball has to touch one of our sticks within the semicircle for it to count, there's some deliberation but the goal is good.  Just a few minutes of nail biting and it's a result - must confess, while I'm not normally much of one for nationalism, there is something satisfying about beating the USA.

China working one of their many fruitless penalty corners.

I get another match for my money, can't fault the value here.  More ladies, China v. New Zealand, think I'm neutral, haven't quite forgiven the kiwis for their 'paths' yet.  They don't seem to need my full support though, before long the girls, unsurprisingly in all black, start scoring.  Not much of a crowd, a lot of the British and American fans have left, the remaining locals seem to either be cheering on China, or just amusing themselves - one largish group chanting, I'm pretty sure, 'frango, frango', that is, 'chicken, chicken'.  Not sure why.  Meanwhile NZ are scoring more goals, and while the Chinese keep getting penalty corners they can't capitalise on them.  It finishes up 3-0, well that was fun, and at least it is not a long walk to get on the train, I get back to the centre easily enough, and even find a bar with a samba night - well it is Saturday - before trudging up the huge hill to bed.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.