This week, the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams have been embarking in a world-level competition called the FIH Nations’ Cup.
The tournaments each have eight teams, and a prize at the end of it. The prize, for the champion, is admittance to the FIH Pro League, a higher level of world competition held around the globe over the course of about a year, much like the way that World Cup qualifiers are held in soccer.
But unlike FIFA competitions, the FIH Pro League doesn’t obligate every nation to host a game to create a true home-field advantage. Instead, many of the tournaments are held in just a handful of countries, meaning that a side like the United States doesn’t have a chance to turn a domestic ground like Bessant Field or Karen Shelton Stadium into the kind of win-at-all-cost fortress that, say, the Mexican soccer federation has used Estadio Azteca in the past.
So, as of this writing, the U.S. men’s national team sits at the bottom of Pool B with two defeats in two matches, meaning that they cannot win the tournament and have a berth in the next FIH Pro League.
The women, late today, let a 2-0 lead slip and allowed India to take a 3-2 win in its opening game of three in its pool, The American women are going to need results against Uruguay and Japan in the next couple of days to make it to the crossover round.
Now, I get the notion that the United States, in pulling together combinations and lineups in order to be effective in this summer’s FIH World cup and the 2028 Olympics, can, and should, seek to excel against the best competition available.
That competition is found in the FIH Pro League. However, the U.S. team’s historic record against opposing teams in Pro League play has not been very encouraging. In five seasons of FIH Pro League play, the U.S. team has won less than 10 percent of the time. It is a tournament that has proven to be very expensive to be a participant in because of travel, to the point that New Zealand, despite winning its way into the Pro League twice, ceded its place in the league to the team that was supposed to have been relegated, the United States.
Despite the history, the U.S. players, I think, are aspiring to win this tournament. There are teams in the Nations Cup that the U.S. has beaten before, like Chile, Uruguay, Korea, and India. But the team that scares me a bit is New Zealand. The Kiwis have always been a stout opponent, and they are the host nation for this tournament.
Let’s see how the Applebees learn from this tournament heading into the World Cup, no matter the outcome of this eight-nations competition.