Bhubaneswar: The US Women’s hockey team today arrived here to compete in the FIH (International Hockey Federation) Olympic Qualifiers Odisha to be held on November 1 and 2.
The US team is placed four places below India (ranked 9).
US could be a tricky opponent, having played against top teams in the FIH Pro League in 2019. They have always done well against India. India and USA had last clashed in the 2018 World Cup when India came back from a goal down to hold USA 1-1 and advance to the play-offs.
The winners of the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers Odisha will qualify for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
The winners will be determined as follows: teams will be ranked according to the number of points each has accumulated in both matches (for each match, 3 points are awarded to the winner, 1 point to each team in the event of a draw and 0 point to the loser). If there is equality among the two teams, then the teams will be ranked according to their respective goal difference.
If the equality remains, a shoot-out competition will be played to establish the winner. Therefore, the objective of both the Indian Men’s and Indian Women’s Hockey Teams will be to secure direct qualification for the Tokyo 2020 hockey tournaments – which will be staged in Japan’s capital city from 25 July to 7 August next year and involve 12 Men’s and 12 Women’s teams.
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