The World Hockey League’s Round 1 started off on Saturday, 9th of April, in Singapore, with seven matches being held on the first day. The league will follow different formats for the Male and Female teams. The Men’s Hockey teams are divided into two pools. They will first play against teams from their own pool followed by matches against teams from the opposing pools. Meanwhile the Women’s Hockey teams will follow a round-robin format where each team gets to play with the other teams.
The matches kicked off at the Sengkang Stadium on the morning of the 9th. Four matches were held in the Men’s category; with four teams participating from each pool. From Pool A, the first match was between Thailand and Brunei in which Thailand defeated Brunei by scoring seven goals against them while Brunei was not able to score any despite numerous efforts to bag a goal. This was followed by another match, at 3 pm local time, held between Hong Kong and Vietnam. The match was delayed due to the weather but when it finally started off, spectators saw an interesting play put forth by the Hong Kong team as they scored eight goals and were successful in grabbing a win against Vietnam which managed to score only one goal. Felix remained a highlight of this match as he scored goal after goal.
From Pool B, the first match was held between Sri Lanka and Myanmar where Sri Lanka managed to score seven goals as a result of the combined effort of the Sri Lankan men which was evident on the field. This was followed by another match between Singapore and Kazakhstan where Singapore scored six goals against which Kazakhstan was unsuccessful in scoring even a single goal. However, the Coach of the Singaporean team, Soloman Casoogee, was not very content with the performance of his team. According to Singapore Hockey, he said: “(we were) then sloppy in our team defensive duties, so not everyone were chasing back and marking where they should have been. So all in all, a sloppy effort and we will need to be better in the next game.”
Male
Teams | Score |
Thailand vs. Brunei | 7-0 |
Sri Lanka vs. Myanmar | 7-0 |
Hong Kong vs. Vietnam | 8-1 |
Singapore vs. Kazakhstan | 6-0 |
Men’s Hockey: Singapore vs. Kazakhstan
In the Female category, three matches were held. The first match was held between Hong Kong and Brunei where Hong Kong was successful in scoring three goals against Brunei. In the second Women’s Hockey match of the day, the girls from Thailand put on an impressive play, scoring a whopping 14 goals against Cambodia. The Thailand team seemed to be on fire, attacking Cambodia from left, right and center. The Captain of the Thailand team proved her skills on the field, scoring several goals alongside the rest of her team. The third match of the day, in the Female category, was held between Singapore and Sri Lanka where Sri Lanka managed to score only one goal against which Singapore bagged six and took the victory title from them.
Female
Teams | Score |
Hong Kong vs. Brunei | 3-0 |
Thailand vs. Cambodia | 14-0 |
Singapore vs. Sri Lanka | 6-1 |
Women’s Hockey: Sri Lanka vs. Singapore
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