The Great Britain women’s team trained quietly on Thursday knowing that, however they fare in tonight’s final, they will have achieved more than any of their predecessors. But this is a team who have made it clear they have come to Rio to win, not to settle for second place.
“We’re going to keep our feet on the ground,” said Danny Kerry, whose 11-year tenure as coach will reach both its sternest challenge and greatest opportunity on Friday. There has not been so much as a tweet out of the team as they observe a self‑imposed social media ban in the run-up to the most important match of their lives. “We’ve got one more big game and we won’t change anything about how we prepare,” said Alex Danson, whose two goals in the semi-final against New Zealand took her to joint leading tournament scorer.
A bronze medal four years ago represented the previous peak of their success, repeating their third-place finish of 1992. But even that had felt like heartbreak for many of the players, after their tight semi-final was decided by a controversial Argentinian goal.
Crista Cullen admitted that the bitter gall of that memory had fuelled her motivation to return for Rio, aged 30, having retired after London 2012. But the gold medal match here also represents an opportunity to settle a decade of hurt for a number of England players, whose World Cup performances have rarely lived up to their potential (they finished bottom of their group two years ago, after losing all but one of their games).
“There’s a number of us that have learnt from some heavy defeats over the years,” Danson said. Kerry believes that his team are demonstrating a new mental resilience here. “We’ve adapted some of our training to replicate some of the thinking that’s needed in tight games,” he said, “and I think we’ve learned some lessons.”
Something is certainly working: his team reached the final with a 100% win rate. But the Netherlands are another prospect entirely. They are the defending Olympic champions and have not lost a match at the Games since they finished with silver in 2004. In that 21-game run they have drawn only three.
Five of the Dutch team, including the captain, Maartje Paumen, will be looking for a third successive gold medal; all of them will be hoping to surpass Australia by becoming the only women’s side to claim a fourth title – not to mention the little matter of revenge, after the England team won a penalty shoot-out to steal the EuroHockey championships last year.
“They’ve probably got a bit of a point to prove,” Kerry said. “I think it’ll be a tight, cagey affair. They’ve got a lot of talented players. They’ll probably start as red hot favourites but we kind of like it that way.”
In that case, British women, read on. In 26 encounters between the two sides the Netherlands have won 19 and lost only one, a 1989 Champions Trophy game they edged 3-2. Britain have not won a game against the Dutch in six previous meetings at the Olympics.
Will there be blood? Britain’s semi-final against New Zealand was certainly a violent affair: Cullen was hit in the face and needed stitches mid-match; Georgia Twigg also took a blow to the head. Helen Richardson-Walsh hurt her hamstring. All three are recovered and fit to play in the final. However, perhaps it is the Netherlands keeper, Joyce Sombroek, who is the greatest danger. The Netherlands have had only two goals scored against them in this tournament, and Sombroek saw them safely through a penalty shoot-out against Germany in their semi. Cullen is not fazed. “We’ve got numerous attacking threats,” she said. “It’s difficult to cover everything and [our players] are taking their chances.”
They also have, as witnessed against New Zealand, a ring of steel in their own half. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone defend like that in the circle,” Danson said after that game. “No one can come through us.”
“We’ve got an incredibly dogged defensive side,” said Cullen. “We’re really resilient and so to score against us is hard. So, if they’re not going in one end and we’re putting them in the other end, then it works for us.”
