Netherlands, Ukraine and Poland embrace Hockey 5s World Cup experience

The Netherlands, Ukraine and Poland are embracing the first ever FIH Hockey 5s World Cup in Oman this week as the three European sides in the 16-strong field.

The Dutch were utterly dominant in the women’s EuroHockey5s Championship 2023 last summer, averaging 12 goals per game in the group stages before beating Switzerland 5-0 in the semi-finals and Poland 7-3 in the decider.

With the Dutch women’s team being the reigning Olympic, World Cup, European and Indoor World Cup champions, victory here would add to their full set.

Their key player is Noor de Baat who captained the side last summer, scoring 9 goals, including two in the final against Poland. They are in a group Fiji, Malaysia and Oman.

Poland are in Pool C with India, Namibia and USA having taken silver last summer in Europe. They raced through the group stages and then edged out Ukraine 3-2 to make it to the final.

Amelia Katerla is among the ones to watch; she top-scored with 11 goals in 6 games, including a goal in the semi-final that paved the way for Poland to secure a spot in the final.

As for Ukraine, they won a dramatic bronze medal win over Switzerland to complete the European quota for this week’s event.

It came amid the backdrop of the war in their country, showing their incredible resilience and determination. After three group stage wins, they narrowly lost their semi-final contest against Poland by a 3-2 margin, but sealed the World Cup spot with a convincing 6-2 win over Switzerland in the bronze medal match.   

23-year-old Karyna Leonova was the breakout star, top scoring for them, with 11 goals. She is among a number of the side racing across the globe from Valencia from the Olympic qualifiers.

They have a group featuring Australia, South Africa and Zambia with matches getting under way at 4am (CET) on Wednesday morning. The top two from each group go through to the knock-out rounds with the medals decided on Saturday.

Women’s Pool A – Fiji, Malaysia, Netherlands, Oman 

Women’s Pool B – Australia, South Africa, Ukraine, Zambia 

Women’s Pool C – India, Namibia, Poland, USA 

Women’s Pool D – New Zealand, Paraguay, Thailand, Uruguay 

** All matches will be streamed live (and available on-demand) on the Watch.Hockey app

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