Author of five Australian hockey books, Mark Tronson suggests that the Hockeyroos experience along with their hunger for Gold will provide the girls with what-it-takes to satisfy the pundits.
The Hockeyroos schedule of Pool matches:
29 July v New Zealand
31 July v Germany
2 August v USA
4 August v South Africa
6 August v Argentina
The full draw for Pool 1 and 2 are set out in order for hockey supporters might follow the competition with interest. (www.london2012.com)
Women's Tournament
Pool 1
Netherlands
Great Britain
China
Korea
Japan
Belgium
Pool 2
Argentina
Germany
New Zealand
Australia
USA
South Africa
Observations
The first thing to note is that this Olympic tournament Pool 2 is very evenly matched. Anyone who has followed the Hockeyroos and top level of international women's hockey (Champions Trophies, World Cups and Olympics) appreciates that it is a statistical margin of error that wins or loses matches.
In other words, a result might go one way one day as someone made an uncommon mistake, and next day, the opposite number makes a similar mistake and the result goes the other way.
This bodes well for this London Olympic women's hockey tournament and in a sense Australia is very fortunate to being playing New Zealand first up as these two teams are just so close. A win for the Hockeyroos would set them up very nicely.
The Hockeyroos normally match the Germans, can generally put paid to the USA and South Africa, but the Argentinians are a different matter altogether.
For mine, Argentina should make I through to the London Olympic semi-finals, with Australia, New Zealand and Germany battling it out for that second spot.
