The FIH Junior Women’s World Cup has yielded its share of dramatic results in the classification rounds, as the 24 teams which have already played pool matches were slotted into three brackets to determine overall placings.
Meeting yesterday in Santiago in the 5th-8th bracket were two of the longtime stalwarts of women’s international field hockey — England and the United States. Both of them have more than a century of organized international and domestic hockey, and each have invested tens of millions into the sport.
England came into the tournament having made the Final Four four out of the last five JWCs, while the United States has never finished higher than seventh.
But one single play represents a reversal of fortune for both nations. With under seven minutes left in regulation, England had a penalty corner with the match tied 1-1. The Lions’ shot was saved by U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Klebasko, and an immediate clearance from corner defender Mia Schoenbeck found her college teammate Ava Moore in the right alley.
It was the start of a snowbird, an immediate transition from defense to offense that threatened the England goal cage because much of the opposition had pushed forward to execute the penalty corner.
Moore would find Alana McVeigh in the final third, then passed it to teen sensation Reese D’Ariano, whose brilliant one-touch finish found net.
The play took nine seconds. But it means a new history for the U.S. junior national team program.
That’s because the 2-1 win guarantees a finish of no lower than sixth in this competition. No matter what happens in tomorrow’s fifth-place match, it would represent the highest-ever finish for an American junior national side in an FIH world-level competition.
Given the talent which has come through the U.S. junior national side over the last quarter-century, that’s saying something.