Without as much as lifting a stick in Helsinki yesterday, Ireland reached the semi-finals of the European Nations' Cup qualifier after their pool rivals, Belarus and Wales, drew 1-1.
Apart from their desire to finish top of their pool, the only significance attached to today's game against Belarus is that it will determine whether Ireland meet France or the Czech Republic in Thursday's semi-finals. Victory then would secure the team a top-three finish in the tournament and a place in next year's European Nations' Cup Finals in Germany.
Playing on a pitch more commonly used for American Football, the players of Belarus and Wales could have done with helmets and shoulder pads to protect them from some bone-crunching tackling, the ferocity of which might even have caused your average quarterback to wince.
"Did you see all the elbows flying in midfield," asked a horrified Riet Kuper, the Irish coach, after the match. "That's not on, it's too rough," she said, while querying the standard of umpiring at the tournament.
Wales had one player sent off in the game (for what can only be described as the mother of all tackles-from-behind) while former president of the Irish Ladies' Hockey Union Anita Manning, who is a technical officer at the tournament, was called upon to wipe up the blood of Belarus sweeper Valentsina Sedliar, who was lucky to have a hand still attached to her right arm after another `enthusiastic' challenge by a Welsh forward.
Passing by the pitch, just as Manning was mopping up Sedliar's blood, was an under-12 football team from Thailand, who were taking part in the Helsinki Cup (an annual tournament featuring 700 teams from 21 countries) on the neighbouring fields. The shocked expressions on their little faces was one of the more amusing sights of the afternoon.
In their tournament, players who receive a green card for fair play and `exemplary sportsmanship' win a mountain bike. If the Finnish Hockey Association made similar awards, most of the Belarus and Welsh line-ups wouldn't have been cycling back to their hotels.
Rachel Thomas gave Wales the lead in the 50th minute, from a dubiously awarded penalty stroke, but hit the post from another stroke, nine minutes later and Belarus snatched a well-deserved equaliser, through Olga Apolaiko, three minutes from time. Wales now need Ireland to beat Belarus by two clear goals if they are to go through to the semi-finals.
In the day's other matches the Czech Republic, under the guidance of former Dutch international Gino Schilders, beat their neighbours Slovakia 4-0, while France inflicted a 10-0 drubbing on hosts Finland - a defeat that had some observers renaming the hapless Finnish coach Kari Saari . . . Hari Kari. "I'm not very good at this job," was his only on-the-record postmatch comment.
