March 19, 2026 — A tough road

The FIH did something a little different for seeding teams for the 2026 FIH Women’s World Cup, which will be held in the second half of August.

In the past, the pools would be determined only after every berth was claimed. The teams would then be seeded in a serpentine fashion — going left to right in a grid whose width is determined by the number of pools in the competition.

That made it easy to figure out the pools for any upcoming FIH competition: in a World Cup with four groups, the top team in world rankings would play in a pool against the eighth, ninth, and 16th-ranked teams:

This time around, however, the FIH took a page out of the FIFA World Cup, placing the first four teams (Holland, Argentina, Belgium, and China) on the top line. The next four teams were randomly drawn for the second line, while another four were randomly assigned to the third line, while the last four were randomly drawn for the last four slots in the four pools.

Yep, a random draw was done for the pools, which has yielded a Group of Death:

Let’s not mince words here: this group is tough. Argentina has given the United States fits in world-level events over the years, and so has Germany, the team that put the U.S. in second place during qualifications for the 2024 Olympics.

The format of the competition means that the United States needs five or six points (two wins or a win and two draws) to make it into the top half of the knockout phase of the competition. The tournament, after pool play, splits into two single-elimination brackets — one for the medals, and one to determine 9th through 16th place.

Then again, perhaps Pool B is the Group of Death because the United States is in it. Let’s see what happens in training and friendlies between now and August.