For the third consecutive Games, Alyson Annan will be coaching the women’s hockey final. In Rio 2016, she lost with the Dutch team to Great Britain, in Tokyo 2020 the Australian won gold with the Netherlands; and now she will face her former team with China in Paris 2024. Who could have imagined that three years ago? ‘Wow, that’s something.’
Hand in hand, with tears in their eyes, the Chinese players skip and cheer along the stands towards the locker rooms. A handful of Chinese hockey fans shout something to their heroes. They raise their hands in the air. A cheer follows. Oh, how happy the Chinese hockey players are after the semi-final against Belgium won in shoot-outs.
Taeke Taekema, the Dutch assistant to Chinese national coach Annan, watches the joy from a distance with a satisfied look on his face. ‘Of course, we coach in a different way than Chinese coaches do. So maybe that has something to do with how they express themselves. But of course this is also great for them. After the quarter finals (win over Australia, ed.) the relief was already great, everyone on the field was crying. It is no different now. They have also been working towards this for so long. They don’t know what to do because of their joy. That is just beautiful. This is pure sporting experience.’
While the disappointed Belgians, next to the cheering Chinese, blow the retreat through the side door in the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium, Taekema and Annan take the time to speak to the press. The interviews are mainly in English, also with the Chinese media who have brought their own interpreter. But the international media, who are fond of good stories, are also present en masse.
Chinese fairy tale
The story of the Chinese hockey team is increasingly starting to take on the form of a fairy tale. After the silver medal in Beijing 2008, women’s hockey in the communist country amounted to little to nothing for years. The team played on the fringes, with constantly changing selections that were sometimes composed of players from one province of the immense country. At least, that was the information that gradually filtered out of the closed stronghold. After the failed Tokyo 2020 Games, where the Chinese team did not even reach the quarter finals, things had to change, the Chinese policymakers felt.
Annan celebrates with the emotional Chinese players. Photo: Willem Vernes
They immediately seized their chance when Annan fell out of favor with the Dutch hockey association, where support for her methods had disappeared within the women’s team. Annan developed an ambitious plan that should lead to success at these Games in Paris. She put together an experienced staff, including Taekema and her Australian mentor Ric Charlesworth, with whom she enjoyed success as a player. The Chinese hockey association opened the purse strings for a campaign of more than two years, which gave Annan the opportunity to play and train anywhere in the world.
A tough period, Annan admits after winning the semi-final. ‘We have done an awful lot. Fortunately, it is only one match. I am exhausted. It was really long. I have hardly been home in the Netherlands in the past two years. Every now and then the family came to visit me. The fact that we are now going to play the final is unbelievable. This is what we did it all for.’
Deep inside of international hockey
Annan propelled China from the depths of international hockey to the final at the highest level in just a few years. The speed at which this happened surprises her too. ‘When you start, you say it out loud and you want to believe it. But I didn’t think we would be this far in this time, that we would be able to perform over such a long period. And at this level. Don’t forget that these girls have never played a quarter-final, let alone a semi-final or final at this level. Everything is new to them.’
Annan and Taekema, on the other hand, both have a wealth of experience at the Olympic Games. Annan won gold as a player at the Games of 1996 and 2000, and as coach of the Dutch Women’s Team she won silver in Rio and gold in Tokyo. Taekema played for the Dutch Team at the Games in 2004 (losing finalist) and 2008. Transferring that experience is still a challenge, says the former penalty corner specialist. ‘We always need an interpreter. I speak a few words of Chinese, Alyson a lot more, but a meeting is done via an interpreter. So if we have a four-minute break between a quarter, that’s actually half for us.’
Taeke Taekema and Alyson Annan celebrate. Photo: Willem Vernes
The advantage is that Annan has her players at her disposal a lot. Taekema: ‘They are all full-time professionals and work with the national team for about 48 weeks a year.’ Besides technical and tactical training, Annan has also put the players to work in the gym. The frail girls of yesteryear have all become strong women who can flatten and hit remarkably hard. A mental switch has also been made, Taekema explains: ‘The Chinese are naturally used to quickly taking the underdog position. We have impressed upon them that they can do certain things very well, better than other countries. There is real quality in the team. It is not for nothing that you are in the Olympic final.’
Spicy poster
In that final, the Netherlands was the opponent, a spicy poster through Annan’s past at Nederlandse link . ‘If you had told me that three years ago, I wouldn’t have believed you, of course’, Annan admits. She lets a moment of silence fall. ‘Gosh, that’s something.’
Maria Verschoor scores the Netherlands’ third goal against China. Photo: Willem Vernes
The gold medal match will be the second time in this Olympic tournament that the two teams will meet. In the group stage, the Netherlands won 3-0 . ‘But for the first time in our history, apart from the score, all our statistics were better than the Netherlands’, Annan knows. ‘A year ago we played against the Netherlands. Then they had more than thirty circle penetrations and we had four. You can see that we have made progress. So yes, we believe in it. We have nothing to lose, we are already on the podium. That is already a victory.’
By Hockey.nl
