Today’s Game of the Day
Hartland Arrowhead (Wisc.) vs. Ft. Worth Trinity Valley (Tex.), 1:25 p.m. 
The final day of the Gateway Classic pits Wisconsin’s state champion agains a Trinity Valley School team that will contend for Southern Prep Conference honors.

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After last year’s record-breaking season by players and teams all over the nation, the nation’s field hockey playing schools are taking stock in what’s been gained and what’s been lost.

Primarily, there has been a loss of innocence because of continuing threats from outside of the game, whether it’s the threat of mandatory eyewear, or lead scares in artificial turf and/or artificial grass, or the departure of prominent figures in the sport.

Since the end of last season, we’ve seen the sport lose a number of its writers, so much so that the network of field hockey journalists may be irreparably damaged.

Long-time coaches have retired. Joyce Jones left the sidelines at Princeton (N.J.) after 31 years and Pat Shea left Duxbury (Mass.) after 24 years. But one member of the nation’s 500-win club, Debby Watson, returns to the sideline this year as the head coach and school president of Dardenne Prairie Barat Academy (Mo.) in a state-of-the-art multipurpose turf stadium that bears her name. This means that all 11 members of the 500-win club for scholastic field hockey coaches will be active this season.

The year will start with Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) looking to do something that no field hockey program in the history of the National Federation has ever done: win 10 straight state championships. It’s very doable for this program, thanks in large part to defender Melanie Dawson, the last of the six hockey-playing Dawson sisters. Look also at the front line, where junior Kelsey Mitchell is the nation’s second-leading returning career goal scorer (63).

As usual, the Vikings will play two Pennsylvania teams in preparation for expected runs at the NJSIAA state championship and Tournament of Champions. Emmaus appears on the schedule for the fifth straight time, and is a team, despite losing 10 seniors, which is likely to be as good as it has ever been. A number of players in the younger grades, such as Madison Blyler, Samantha Wootsick, and Alley Evans, will have to come together quickly. Wootsick, especially, has an incredible fluidity.

Eastern will also travel to Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.), a team which, despite having 50-goal scorer Kathleen Sharkey, didn’t even make the state tournament a year ago. The Blue Knights, however, have the talent to make another state championship run thanks to attackers Devon Gagliardi and Kelsey Kolojejchick. Sem also has a number of players who distinguished themselves in summer play at the USA Field Hockey Futures Regional Rumble.

Wyoming Seminary is one of several high-level opponents featured on the schedule of Lehighton (Pa.). The Indians may have the nation’s toughest schedule. Shawn Hindy’s group not only plays Sem, but is scheduled to meet Selinsgrove (Pa.), Millersville Penn Manor (Pa.), and Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.).

A couple of other teams bear watching this season. Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.), a team which has feasted on out-of-state competition the last five seasons, takes its game to Virginia Beach as part of the 16-team Sun Devil Invitational the weekend after Labor Day. Though powerhouses Frank W. Cox and Princess Anne are not in this tournament, well-coached teams from Norfolk, North Carolina, and central and northern Virginia should provide a stern test for a Valkyries program which started the season with the nation’s longest current win streak.

Also, the race for supremacy in California rests on two schools on the opposite side of the coaching ledger. For Escondido San Pasqual (Calif.), its fate rests on the move its present coach, Kelli Gannon, made in moving from San Diego Westview (Calif.). The other, Carlsbad La Costa Canyon (Calif.), has as its story a move its coach didn’t make. At one point last year, LCC head coach Kim Elmore was about ready to step aside to spend more time with family.

However, after the Mavericks won their third straight CIF San Diego Section Division I championship, it’s evident that the lure of continued success (the team is 69-4 the last three seasons) has kept her at the helm, as well as her ability to get the most out of her players.

Today’s Game of the Day
Winnetka New Trier (Ill.) vs. St. Louis Villa Duchesne (Mo.) at Busch Sports Complex, 5:45 p.m.
The second day of the Gateway Classic sees these two champions meet in Pool A.

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You’ll love ‘em, you’ll hate ‘em. But you’ll never forget ‘em: our second year of selecting our Games of the Day for the regular season — and this year, we’re being stubborn and keeping to only one per day, even though days like Sept. 27 are chock full of tremendous action. We’ve got plenty of “derby” matches, and confrontations between top teams. But there are a few I’d like to point out here.

The weekend after Labor Day, last year’s season-ending No. 2 team, Louisville Sacred Heart (Ky.), travels to Virginia Beach to play in the Sun Devil Invitational. The Sept. 13 game between Sussex Tech and Tower Hill is the 2007 state championship game that never got played because Sussex Tech was kicked out of the tournament for using an ineligible player.

On Oct. 17, Hudson Western Reserve Academy (Ohio) travels the 200 miles up I-90 to play Buffalo Nichols School (N.Y.), the only American high school to play in a Canadian league. And the Oct. 28th game between Haddonfield (N.J.) Memorial and Moorestown (N.J.) features two of America’s oldest programs.

8-29: Oak Park River Forest (Ill.) vs. Casady (Okla.) at Busch Sports Complex, 5:45 p.m.
8-30: Winnetka New Trier (Ill.) vs. St. Louis Villa Duchesne (Mo.) at Busch Sports Complex, 10 a.m.
8-31: Hartland Arrowhead (Wisc.) vs. Ft. Worth Trinity Valley (Tex.) Busch Sports Complex, 1:25 p.m.

9-2: Milton (Vt.) at Stowe (Vt.), 4 p.m.
9-3: Providence Moses Brown (R.I.) at Woonsocket (R.I.), 3:45 p.m.
9-4: Tiverton (R.I.) at South Kingstown (R.I.), 3:45 p.m.
9-5: Rye (N.Y.) at Bronxville (N.Y.), 4:45 p.m.
9-6: Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) at Flourtown Mount St. Joseph Academy (Pa.), 12:30 p.m.

9-8: Old Town (Maine) at Orono (Maine), 4 p.m.
9-9: Flourtown Mount St. Joseph Academy (Pa.) at Radnor Country Day School (Pa.), 3:45 p.m.
9-10: Pennsburg Upper Perkiomen (Pa.) at Emmaus (Pa.), 7:30 p.m.
9-11: Rye (N.Y.) Holy Child at Rye (N.Y.) Country Day, 4 p.m.
9-12: Charlotte (N.C.) Country Day School at Durham (N.C.) Academy, 4:30 p.m.
9-13: Georgetown Sussex Tech (Del.) at Wilmington Tower Hill (Del.), 11 a.m.

9-15: Haddonfield (N.J.) Memorial at Collingswood (N.J.), 3:45 p.m.
9-16: Denver Colorado Academy (Colo.) at Englewood Kent Denver (Colo.), 4:15 p.m.
9-17: San Diego Torrey Pines (Calif.) at San Diego Scripps Ranch (Calif.), 3:15 p.m.
9-18: Virginia Beach Frank W. Cox (Va.) at Virginia Beach Princess Anne (Va.), 3:45 p.m.
9-19: Tilton Winnisquam (N.H.) at Derryfield (N.H.), 3:45 p.m.
9-20: Lehighton (Pa.) at Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.), 10 a.m.

9-22: Greenfield (Mass.) at Hatfield Smith Academy (Mass.), 3:30 p.m.
9-23: Oak Park-River Forest (Ill.) at Lake Forest (Ill.), 5 p.m.
9-24: Lewisburg (Pa.) at Mifflinburg (Pa.), 4:30 p.m.
9-25: Columbus Bishop Watterson (Ohio) at Gahanna Columbus Academy (Ohio), 5 p.m.
9-26: Hammonton St. Joseph’s (N.J.) at Cherry Hill Camden Catholic (N.J.), 4 p.m.
9-27: Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) at Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.), 7 p.m.

9-29: Marlton Cherokee (N.J.) at Medford Lakes Shawnee (N.J.), 3:45 p.m.
9-30: Hudson (Ohio) at Hudson Western Reserve Academy (Ohio), 4:30 p.m.
10-1: Lawrenceville (N.J.) at Princeton (N.J.) Day School, 4 p.m.
10-2: Fort Worth Country Day School (Tex.) at Fort Worth Trinity Valley (Tex.), 5:30 p.m.
10-3: Baltimore Roland Park (Md.) at Baltimore Bryn Mawr (Md.), 4 p.m.
10-4: Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame (Ohio) at Louisville (Ky.) Collegiate, 6 p.m.

10-5: Acton-Boxboro (Mass.) vs. Worcester Notre Dame Academy (Mass.) at Worcester Doherty (Mass.), 6 p.m.
10-6: Millersville Penn Manor (Pa.) at Lititz Warwick (Pa.), 4:15 p.m.
10-7: Kingston Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) at Mountain Top Crestwood (Pa.), 4:15 p.m.
10-8: Delran Holy Cross (N.J.) at Delran (N.J.) 3:30 p.m.
10-9: Fairview Village Methacton (Pa.) at Pottstown Owen J. Roberts (Pa.), 7:30 p.m.
10-10: Richmond (Va.) Collegiate at Alexandria St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes (Va.), 4:15 p.m.
10-11: Lehighton (Pa.) at Selinsgrove (Pa.), Noon

10-12: St. Louis Cor Jesu (Mo.) at St. Louis Villa Duchesne (Mo.), 2 p.m.
10-13: Philadelphia Germantown Friends School (Pa.) at Wynnewood Friends Central (Pa.), 3:45 p.m.
10-14: Washington Georgetown Visitation (D.C.) at Washington National Cathedral (D.C.), 4:15 p.m.
10-15: Ann Arbor Pioneer (Mich.) at Grosse Point (Mich.) South, 4:15 p.m.
10-16: Carlsbad La Costa Canyon (Calif.) at Escondido San Pasqual (Calif.), 3:15 p.m.
10-17: Hudson Western Reserve Academy (Ohio) at Buffalo Nichols School (N.Y.), 4 p.m.
10-18: Emmaus (Pa.) at Voorhees Eastern (N.J.), 7:15 p.m.

10-19: Walpole (Mass.) at Worcester Notre Dame (Mass.), 6:30 p.m.
10-20: North Caldwell West Essex (N.J.) at Summit Oak Knoll (N.J.), 4 p.m.
10-21: Lake Forest (Del.) at Lewes Cape Henlopen (Del.), 7 p.m.
10-22: Bordentown (N.J.) vs. Columbus Northern Burlington (N.J.), 7 p.m.
10-23: North Dartmouth Bishop Stang (Mass.) at Oak Bluffs Martha’s Vineyard (Mass.), 3:15 p.m.
10-24: Los Gatos (Calif.) at Mountain View St. Francis (Calif.), 2:45 p.m.
10-25: Groton (Mass.) at Dedham Noble and Greenough (Mass.), 2:30 p.m.

10-27: Medford Lakes Shawnee (N.J.) at Medford Lenape (N.J.), 3:45 p.m.
10-28: Haddonfield (N.J.) Memorial at Moorestown (N.J.), 3:45 p.m.
10-29: South Windsor (Conn.) at Granby (Conn.), 3 p.m.
10-30: Clinton North Hunterdon (N.J.) at Flemington Hunterdon Central (N.J.), 5 p.m.
10-31: Tulsa Holland Hall (Okla.) at Oklahoma City Casady (Okla.), 3 p.m.

Today’s Game of the Day
Oak Park River Forest (Ill.) vs. Casady (Okla.) at Busch Sports Complex, 5:45 p.m. 
Day 1 of the Gateway Classic, the nation’s largest scholastic field hockey tournament, begins with a roaring interstate matchup featuring teams that are usually successful in the postseason. But neither the Scouts nor the Cyclones came away with a championship a year ago. This game will go a long way towards restoring early confidence.

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THE FEARLESS 5IVE

Connecticut
James Madison
Maryland
North Carolina
Wake Forest

A year ago, North Carolina had not only enough talent in its starting 11 to win an NCAA Tournament, but could have fielded a second team which wouldn’t have dropped off much in terms of athleticism and skills.

The team lost its two leading scorers — Rachel Dawson and Jesse Gey — to the Olympic team and to graduation. Fortunately for Tar Heel fans, Katelyn Falgowski returns for her sophomore season. Much will be expected of her, having played the last three years for the U.S. national team.  Look for freshman Taryn Gjurich to fit in right away at the forward line.

Challenging UNC in the always-powerful ACC will be the University of Maryland. The Terrapins carry the burden of last year’s national quarterfinal loss at home to Penn State, which was a doubly disappointing defeat. Not only was it the first time the Terrapins had not been in the national semifinals in five years, they lost the chance to win the championship at home.

But since then, the Black and Red have worked diligently to improve. The Terrapins will also be led by a sophomore with U.S. national team caps, Katie O’Donnell. Center back Susie Rowe will also return, as well as Nicole Muracco. One interesting wrinkle for this season is that high school All-American Meghan Dean will move from defense to offense.

Also in the ACC, keep a wary eye on Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons will be led by Michelle Kasold, an alternate to the 2008 Olympic team. Look also for a big year from senior defensive midfielder Liz Fries, back Lou-Trice Gamble, and goalkeeper Crystal Duffield. Heralded freshman Lauren Greenwald and Kaitlin Piosa should step in immediately.

Connecticut is a team which many regard as the biggest threat to ACC dominance this year. Seniors Lindsey Leck and Lauren Aird will lead the Huskies on offense, while a smothering defense in front of goalkeeper Andrea Mainiero will keep the team in many contests this season.

If there’s ever a team which will combine expectations and emotion into a volatile fuel this season, it’s James Madison. This is the final year of an immensely talented senior about whom much has been written. Slowly, the group has been meeting the expectations. It took overtime for JMU to succumb in the NCAA Round of 16 in 2006, and the Dukes came within a goal of upsetting eventual national champions North Carolina in the 2007 national quarterfinals.

This past offseason, Meghan Bain was struck by a car and received a major head injury, lacerations, and other major trauma to her body. Amazingly, less than four month after the March accident, the junior has been cleared to play field hockey with her cousins, the Walls triplets, who will all be seniors. Do not be surprised to see this life lesson be translated into motivation for a run at a national championship.

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Elsewhere in Division I: The 35 voters in the National Field Hockey Coaches’ Association preseason poll cast only one first-place vote outside of the Eastern time zone. The school: Iowa. Champions of the Big Ten post-season tournament, the Hawkeyes return 10 of 11 starters and will use their last two trips to the NCAA Tournament — both 1-0 losses in the first round — as motivation. Look for a big season from seniors Caroline Blaum, Caitlin McCurdy, and Lissa Munley, who were at rival high schools coming into college, but who have made splendid teammates.

It was notable that Penn State not only made it to the national final last year, but did so without a single foreign player in its lineup. The game that made the Nittany Lions’ season was a 1-0 win at Maryland in the national quarterfinals. But the player of that game — redshirt junior Britney Long — is not on the team this season, leaving more holes to fill for head coach Char Morett. Much will be demanded from sophomore goalkeeper Ali Meves this season.

Things could be very interesting at the University of Michigan if the nation’s top recruiting class settles in. All three newcomers — Bryn Bain, Jessica Allen, and Hannah Dawson — are from the same school, the powerhouse Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) outfit which has won nine straight state championships. Add them to scoring machine Kelly Fitzpatrick, senior captain Steph Hoyer, and sophomore Alicia Mayer, and this team could very well be in the running for a Final Four slot.

Another great freshman class is at Michigan State. One of the nation’s all-time leading scholastic scorers, Chantae Miller, already has the benefit of early enrollment and a stint with the team in spring hockey. State’s three leading scorers — Jeamie Deacon, Jantine Steinmetz, and Floor Rijpma — also return. This team should be fun to watch on penalty corners: if you have a chance to go see them, do it.

Virginia is a team with just three seniors, but has an absolute boatload of talent on it. Lauren Elstein and Inge Kaars Sijpesteijn comprise one of the best attacking backfields Virginia may have had since the days of Lori Mastropietro. Attackers Paige Selenski, Michelle Vittese, Kaitlyn Hiltz, and Taylor Swezey are smooth, fluid players with enormous offensive potential. Look for defensive midfielders Rachel Jennings and Shelly Edmonds to play important roles.  

Dark horse: Albany. Former U.S. international Phil Sykes has quietly assembled the makings of what could be a pretty good program. The Danes received enough votes in the NFHCA preseason poll to rank them 19th, despite the fact that the program’s entire postseason resume consists of a 1997 ECAC Division II championship. However, the last couple of recruiting classes, including one that includes incoming freshman Megan Springmeyer, makes this team one to watch.

THE FEARLESS 5IVE

Bloomsburg
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Kutztown
Shippensburg
UMass-Lowell

Bloomsburg has won 11 NCAA Division II championships and is the odds-on favorite to make it an even dozen. Returning for head coach Jan Hutchinson is 2007 Player of the Year Jamie Vanartsdalen, who already has 80 goals to her credit. Alongside her is midfielder Chelsea Due, who is as good defensively as she is building the attack.

Challenging Bloom will be UMass-Lowell. The Riverhawks will welcome Kayla Littig, who had 35 goals a year ago in high school, to their front line. The team’s seven seniors will lend leadership to a team which is looking to get back to its 2005 championship form.

Kutztown, led by senior forward Kelley Healey, is a favorite to get into championship contention if Bloomsburg or Lowell falter. Healey is already the second leading scorer in school history.

Another team that could get into the postseason is Shippensburg. Leading scorer Kim Davies returns, along with fellow senior Danielle Haas and juniors Jamie Doughty and Laura Wylde.

But also looming is the team that beat Ship in last year’s PSAC semifinals, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Goalkeeper Lydia Dolly has been a stalwart for head coach Rutger Wiese, and Brittany Owens, who came up with key goals in last year’s postseason, will also return.

THE FEARLESS 5IVE

Bowdoin
The College of New Jersey
Lebanon Valley College
Salisbury
Ursinus

The world of NCAA Division III field hockey is full of stories about talented players who may have fallen through the Division I recruiting net, or transfers from scholarships schools, or players making choices to stay close to home.

Ursinus, the host of this year’s Final Four, may have lucked into one of the finer players in the Pennsylvania recruiting pool in Alyssa Thren. The graduate of Pennsburg Upper Perkiomen (Pa.) was a state finalist her junior year, and played for the powerful Mystx club team.

The Bears also return four of their five leading scorers from a year ago, including seniors Kait Sutherland and Jennie Moore. It will be very hard to deny Ursinus its second championship in three seasons.

One team that will certainly contend is defending champion Bowdoin. The Polar Bears caused a sensation when they won the gold plaque last year from the NCAA. Bowdoin has eight seniors, which makes them one of the more experienced teams in Division III.

Another team to keep an eye out for is Lebanon Valley College, which was Bowdoin’s penultimate opponent in the NCAA Tournament. Though the team does not have as many seniors, there is an extremely strong freshman class including attacking midfielder Sami Young, who prepped at nearby Hummelstown Lower Dauphin (Pa.).

Salisbury, despite losing eight seniors, retains its top three leading scorers: sophomores Lauren Correll and Bethany Belladino, and senior Danielle Twilley. These three were responsible for 51 of the team’s 85 goals last season. If the Gulls can play good defense, it’s no telling how high they will soar.

The College of New Jersey is going to be an interesting story in more ways than one. There is, of course, the rebuilding aspect. the Lions went 17-3 a year ago and went out of the NCAA Tournament at the quarterfinals, and for a team that sees a Final Four berth as a birthright, it had to be a setback.

But this year, the Lions face a new obstacle — its home pitch. Lions’ Stadium, for the first time since the facility opened, will not have a floor of short-ply AstroTurf. Instead, the facility was re-done with an artificial grass surface called Trophy Turf. It will be interesting to see how the new surface, in its first installation nationwide, will affect the field hockey team’s performance.

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Elsewhere in Division III: Expect Middlebury to make a strong push to get back into the Final Four.  The dynamic corner battery of Reid Berrien and Lacey Farrell have graduated, but junior Heather McCormack returns.

Another team to bear in mind is Messiah College, which not only returns second leading scorer Nikki Bailey, but has gotten transfer Julie Barton from Louisville University. She will lend immediate strength to the Falcons’ attacking midfield.

Also, don’t count out two-time defending ECAC Mid-Atlantic champion Montclair State, which has some immensely talented players such as senior tri-captain Jen Gallo and sophomore senation Deana Hagel. The Red Hawks are a team to watch.

It’s been said that that the Olympics are truly a globally shared experience.

But with events being splayed out on the Internet for on-demand viewing, this is more the case than ever before.

Almost every event, round, heat, contest, bout, race, game, match, and attempt were available in the United States over the NBC Olympics web site. For those in the American field hockey community who used to only get videotapes smuggled from England to watch extended-form highlights of key matches on the BBC, this was an extraordinary improvement.

Games like these provide a priceless resource for coaches, players, and administrators seeking to improve the game. I believe that everyone who is physically able to do so should figure out how to take these videos, record them by use of a DVD recorder or gadgets like the Apple TV, and use them to get better.

Now, I don’t know how long these games are going to remain on the Web. NBC has bought out the World Championship Sports Network and is merging those assets into the digital NBC Universal channel to create something called Universal Sports. It’s already scheduled to be the broadcast host of the Paralympics, which start next month.

Thing is, the Universal Sports site doesn’t have “field hockey” listed when you are asked to select a sport. I guess NBC’s commitment to the game is, if anything, nebulous.

After all, you still can’t find a link to the U.S.-Argentina game.

With the United States’ performance in this Olympics, there is only one question remaining: “What is going to happen leading up to London 2012?”

I believe one of the first bits of drama to occur is whether other countries will try to pry technical director Terry Walsh and head coach Lee Bodimeade away from the U.S. program. It’s a hazard in the world of what are now globalized pools of head coaches. When you think about who’s coaching our American teams, an Australian is coaching the women’s field hockey team, a Swede is coaching the women’s soccer team, a Romanian is coaching the women’s gymnastics team, and a woman born in China is the head women’s volleyball coach.

But given the move of the U.S. field hockey training center to California (a much shorter flight home to Australia, by the way), I have a feeling Walsh and Bodimeade will be around a while, even though there is likely to be a frenzy in the part of Hockey Australia to get one or both men to help the Hockeyroos out of their medal drought.

As for the player roster, I project a big change in the post-collegiate crop. Many have already said Beijing is their last Olympics, and others are set to get married and start careers and families.

The 2008 senior women’s national team is the first team formed in an Olympic year to have every single member a veteran of the National Futures Program. The next group will have had the benefits of multiple high-performance playing experiences, not the least of which is the Futures Development International Camps/Olympic Development Select program, which has already developed players like 19-year-old Olympian Katelyn Falgowski.

Falgowski, fellow All-American Katie O’Donnell, and a group of dynamic, exciting young players such as Kelsey Kolojejchick, Michelle Kasold, Paige Selenski, Chantae Miller, Kelsey Lloyd, Kathleen Sharkey, Tara Puffenberger, Laura Suchoski, Michelle Cesan, Meghan Dawson, Jennifer Long, and three sets of sisters named Walls (Ashley, Lauren, and Melissa), Reinprecht (Julia, Katie, Sarah), and Jennings (Rachel, Tara, and Erin), are products of this enhanced U.S. developmental system.  A number of these players will take their first steps towards London next summer when the United States hosts the women’s Junior World Cup in Boston.

As this group and other newcomers gradually populate the senior women’s national team, future national teams for the United States are going to be of the caliber that no opponent wants to face.

Today, we’re going to give a little unsolicited advice to FIH as to how the Olympic field hockey tournament was run.  Things didn’t turn out badly overall, but there were a few things that made you shake your head — and that goes far beyond the questionable umpiring we touched on yesterday:

1) Qualification for the Olympics and all FIH world tournaments must be made fair and beyond reproach. The ability of Australia’s women to use world ranking to get into the Olympic tournament after losing the Oceania Cup to New Zealand — which didn’t even qualify for the 2006 World Cup — seems incredibly unfair. These kinds of scenarios bring up questions of match-fixing of the Oceania Cup women’s finals, and with it, the entire Olympic qualification process.

2) Security issues need to be addressed like they are in other sports. The allegations made by Spain regarding the drug MDMA being put into the ventilation of their Azerbaijani hotel room during their qualification tournament goes far, far beyond the kinds of things that the U.S. men’s soccer team has to endure during World Cup qualifying. Indeed, what if the substance was ricin, nerve gas, or other germ warfare agents left over from the Soviet era? That’s flat-out terrorism or even murder.

3) Pool play in the Olympics needs to be re-thought.  Didn’t you find it a bit suspicious that after the United States tied Argentina in goal differential after Matchday 4, that the Albicelestes went on a four-goal binge against Germany, the defending Olympic champions?  I believe that FIH needs to adopt FIFA’s edict and play pool matches — especially final pool matches — simultaneously so that there is not any sort of scoreboard-watching or the appearance of match-fixing.

4) The perception of the Champions’ Trophy as an exclusive country club needs to change.  The way FIH points rankings are these days, entry into the top six of world rankings is almost like university tenure: once you’re in, it’s hard to be forced out. That’s because the Champions’ Challenge is the only other FIH points-paying tournament in years there is not an Olympics or FIH World Cup. It’s not very fair.

5) FIH officialdom needs to get its entire house in order.  Let me get this straight. An umpire doesn’t see a Korean goalkeeper smash an Irish player in the head, another umpire is allowed to call a ball, clearly in play, out of bounds … and FIH makes the news because it sanctions the New Zealand men’s team for wearing the wrong color underwear?

This year’s women’s Olympic team may have been the best that USA Field Hockey has assembled.  There was veteran leadership from captain Kate Barber and forwards Angie Loy and Keli Smith, along with young stars such as Katelyn Falgowski, Rachel Dawson, Jesse Gey, and Dana Sensenig, all of whom could form the core for a number of future Olympic teams.

The team was extremely strong up the middle and built from the goal out, with keeper Amy Tran, central defenders Kelly Doton and Dawson, and halfbacks Kayla Bashore and Lauren Powley playing extremely strong and inspiring hockey throughout the Games.

This was a team which could have medaled, and was perhaps two executed penalty corners away from having a chance to do so; the American team had numerous chances on Matchday 5 against Great Britain, a 70th-minute corner against Argentina in the opener, and had good chances against the Japanese two days afterward.

And therein lies a problem: the U.S. finished the tournament converting just six out of 34 penalty corners, a shade under 18 percent. Although the United States has had fabulous corner strikers over the last 25 years — Beth Anders, Tracey Fuchs, Barb Marois, Kelly Dostal, Kelly Doton — one thing that the Americans have rarely had is a drag-flicker. Not just a person who can skim the ball thigh-high over a poster’s stick, but someone like Maartje Pauman, the wonderful Dutch specialist. While watching Holland’s games on broadband, I saw her roofing drag flicks as casually as Rick Barry shooting free throws.

Now, drag-flicking is something not often found in the women’s game. Indeed, at the Milton Keynes Olympic Qualifier of 2000, journalists were astounded with the ability of U.S. attacking midfielder Kris Fillat to drag-flick a goal — a feat almost Phelps-esque for the time.

The lack of a current American drag-flick threat was not the only factor that lent an air predictability to the United States system of play.  Certain players were given certain duties no matter how well or poorly their particular skill was executed throughout.  If the U.S. possessed the ball on the left side inside 40 yards from goal, all free hits were taken by Lauren Crandall.  If the U.S. possessed the ball deep in the back, almost every free hit or long pass was struck by Doton.  There ended up being a lack of variety in the attack.

The American team was also somewhat guilty of some youthful impatience.  A number of times, the United States gave up promising free-hit opportunities by taking free hits too quickly.  Though a number of winning coaches in the United States drill the need to take a free hit quickly before the defense has a chance to get set, the problem in international play is that the offense needs a chance to get set as well.

A different facet of that lack of patience was seen in the final match against Great Britain. Frustration was building amongst the American corner attack unit in trying to continuously smash the ball past the Britons’ logged goalkeeper Beth Storry. On more than one occasion, the Americans had clear possession of corner shot rebounds in the circle and could have simply undercut the ball into the netting (the shot being the second attempt off the penalty corner), but the shooters kept on trying to target the 18-inch goal board.

But what was also glaring throughout the tournament was the umpiring.  Fouls that were called in the first three matches were let go in the fourth and fifth games.  The Americans did their best to adjust to the arbitrary arbitrators, but never seemed entirely comfortable with the consistency of their decisions. Sometimes, the Americans would backpedal on whistles, assuming that calls went against them.

Then again, this scenario sums up the tournament for the United States. It seems as though the Applebees gained respect from just about everyone at the Olympic Games — except for those wearing whistles and black kilts.

USA LEADING SCORERS
Angie Loy 3-3 — 9
Keli Smith 3-1 — 7
Kate Barber 1-4 — 6
Kelly Doton 0-4 — 4
Kayla Bashore 1-0 — 2
Carrie Lingo 1-0 — 2
Dana Sensenig 1-0 — 2
Tiffany Snow 1-0 — 2
Lauren Crandall 0-1 — 1
Rachel Dawson 0-1 — 1

USA GOALKEEPING
Amy Tran, 29 saves on 40 opposing shots (.725 SV%, 1.78 GAA)

USA MAN-UP
1-for-5, total time 26 minutes

USA MAN-DOWN
3-for-3, total time 18 minutes

USA CORNER OFFENSE
6-for-34, 17.6 percent

USA CORNER DEFENSE
27-for-34, 79.5 percent