A Top 5 of Champions Trophy Moments

Here is a Top 5 of videos connected with the Champions Trophy. The women's tournament starts in Rosario on 28th January 2012.

1. Although I didn't see it at the time, I duck every time for the drag flick straight on. This probably gives you an idea of what it is like to be Beth Storry in goal...



2. It is always a great honour to speak with the best player in the world: Luciana Aymar was amazing in Nottingham. Here is some great action from Nottingham mixed with a stirring interview...



And here is a link to some of her other goals...



3. A round-up of England's progress to the bronze medal at the Nottingham tournament in 2010. Featuring plenty of the top England players...



4. A royal visit to the Nottingham Champions Trophy tournament on the last day, July 2010, made for a very special close to the competition.



5. This is by my Dutch friend, Eva and it brings back a few memories of the time spent in Nottingham during July 2010.

England's Hockey World Cup 2010

Katie Long on England's World Cup Bronze

Ex-Las Leonas star - Ayelén Stepnik

A special treat for English and Spanish readers, ahead of the final between Argentina and Netherlands.

Ex-Las Leonas star Ayelén Stepnik, Olympic silver and bronze medal winner and was part of the Argentina team that won the World Cup in 2002.

She is now the president of Mas Hockey, the official charity of the Hockey World Cup, here in Rosario and they help young people take up the sport and support players trying to make the Las Leonas.

Ayelén Stepnik on Mas Hockey in Spanish



Ayelén Stepnik on Retirement from Playing Hockey (In Spanish)

And there will be a little more from Ayelén about how the tournament has gone for Argentina over the next few days.

Chloe Rogers after England's defeat to the Netherlands

I really couldn't watch as Chloe took the last penalty flick...

England Played Great

That says it all really, no penalty corners and only a couple of shots on the Argentina goal, but it is close at the top.

Strong defence and Helen Richardson was amazing, she kept Luciana Aymar in-check and the write-up in the Buenos Aires Herald (A national English language newspaper) said England managed to control Aymar without the fouls that she has been getting in previous matches.

Below: Crista Cullen, had one of England's best shot at goal, just slightly wide and she was very upbeat after the game.

Argentina, didn't get many chances sometime like 4 penalty corners and maybe 2 or 3 open play chances.

Here is my BBC TV interview with England Head Coach, Danny Kerry after the match.

Below: Captain, Kate Walsh was presented with some flowers at the start of the match for 250 (Combined England/GB) international caps. Well done Kate, who has been playing for England and GB since 1999.

So, we have the World and Olympic champions, the Netherlands next, they'll be a rest day on Wednesday for everyone before the crossover games on Thursday.

Tonight, Australia take on Germany in what promises to be the decider for second spot in the other pool - I'm rooting for the Ozzies.

England Make It

A fab day yesterday, thanks to a draw between Korea and Spain we're through to the semi-finals! Kate Walsh was very happy and so too are the team. We can now go into the Argentina game with nothing to lose except play hockey.

Above: Kate Walsh smiles, but this shot was taken before the Korea game finished.

I got to interview Helen Richardson for BBC TV, click here to watch.

So a busy day, with another interview for BBC Radio Leicester with Hannah MacLeod.

In the evening I went to the football, missing a brilliant Luciana Aymar goal. Newell's Old Boys drew 1-1 against Independiente. There was a small riot in the second half with lines of riot police battering fans in the far stand! I think there was something like 35,000 people watching this first division match in the stadium, and the singing was loud and tuneful!

Above: The crowd at the football match - crazy!

England v Korea Update

Is back on for 1130 local time - 1530 BST, I think it isn't rain quite so hard this morning, but we now have a Super Friday of 6 back-to-back matches.

Below: Another group of young hockey players and they gave me a special bandanna they had made up for the Hockey World Cup, that'll go nicely with my Lionel Messi top!

Messi is another local hero as he is from Rosario, and his parents run a restaurant in the city. When I got out of the taxi back to the hotel a group of Las Leonas fans was walking up, and I forgot I had the bandanna on so they all started shouting 'Vamos, vamos Las Leonas'.

Above: Candy and Chloe Rogers at the team hotel. Candy helped the England/GB teams out on previous trips to Argentina, for example in Salta last year, and in Cordoba.

She is very well connected, as me and Candy stood in the lobby waiting for Chloe to come down, a gentleman came up to her and started talking, he then turned and smiled and asked me my name and shook my hand. 

I said: "Who was that?" (after he had left)

Candy: "Oh, the vice-president of Argentina - Julio Cobos"

How mad is that, and looking at pictures on the internet it was him! Apparently she had done some work with him and he recognised her.

Special Dutch Treat

The Netherlands played very well against New Zealand, 7-3 the final result. It was very cold and Minke Smeets turned up to the after game press conference wearing flip-flops! I naturally asked her if it was too cold to be wearing them. 

Below: Just two great pictures

Above: A picture tells the tale of India 3-6 Australia

I also spoke some Hindi to Surinder Kaur of India, and she understood what I was asking. Just basic stuff like 'how are you?'

Rain and Scoring First

It rained very heavily today in Rosario, I spent the morning going to buy waterproof clothes and umbrellas.

This caused a lot of mud around the stadium today, below TV trucks at the World Cup on a sunny day!

I am now able to say to people: 'come and stand under my umbrella, 'bella, 'bella, 'ella' according to Candy, an Argentine person here in the press centre!

We also decided that the chant during Argentina's 1-0 win over Korea, (although that was a clear penalty flick on the stroke of half time) is a little bit like 'Vamos, vamos Lady Gaga' roughly translated 'Go, go Lady Gaga'! I think they mean 'Go, go Las Leonas!' The reason being the Spanish for 'Argentina' sounds like Lady Gaga -  'Argen -taga'

Above: Leicester's Hannah MacLeod, got the goal early and it proved to be the thing that separated the teams.

The England match was a nervous affair, apart from the first minute - that was great. China dominated the second half and Beth Storry pulled off some amazing saves, do hunt down the footage on the internet and watch her performance - really excellent.



Remember: 'How do you make Lady Gaga cry?'

Answer: 'Pok-er-face'

BBC Radio Leicester 31/08/10

Check out the start of the England v China game live on BBC Radio Leicester during their Drivetime programme. It is about 1 hour 28 minutes into the programme on the BBC iplayer.

And England won!!!! Great performance by Beth Storry in the England goal, I shall be uploading an interview with Beth at some point tonight.

The Crowd and the First Day

Amazing opening day, people everywhere and it wasn't even a sell out! As always Las Leonas main star was Luciana Aymar...

Luciana is known as 'Lucha', also there was another banner (below) that was signed by her friends and family...

And I caught a brief sighting of the player before the start of Argentina v South Africa, as you can see in the short film.


The crowd were amazing, so colourful and loud! One thing I liked, but I'm not sure how the players reacted to this, was something that happened on penalty corners.

At the end with a wire mesh to protect people, young supporters would all rush to be behind the goal and take pictures with cameras. Some had flashes, it was quite a surprising thing to watch.

But remember the Las Leonas are a massive inspiration to young school girls in Argentina.

Travelling to Argentina

Below: One of the Haathees from around London recently, this one lives at Heathrow airport. 'Haathee' is Hindi for elephant and these fellas helped to raise some money to protect the real Asian elephants.

Above: A street scene from Buenos Aires, showing a massive advert for Adidas - note it isn't the new Las Leonas kit sadly, but still very cool.

Just to prove I am actually here!

The flight from Heathrow was delayed by some 7 hours, so that wasn't too good, but it did mean I got to do plenty of reading! 2 hours late leaving Heathrow, diverted to another airport because of fog at San Paulo and a 3 hour wait on the runway at Campinas in Brazil. The crew had to change over there and then a long wait in the stack to get into San Paulo.

Anyhow, arrived in Buenos Aires and so far everything has been very good, food excellent, people very friendly. The barman at the hotel is very impressed with my picture with Luciana Aymar! Taxi driver was a bit nuts, kept pointing out all the different football clubs Maradona played for, and asking me about Liverpool team news (He was a big Liverpool fan) - keep your eyes on the road son, as traffic came at us from both directions.

The final roundabout before the hotel he grabbed at the crucifix dangling from the rear view mirror and made the sign of the cross. I wasn't hopeful we'd make it across...  Still the Lord works in mysterious ways, especially at roundabouts. 

And of course everybody knows the Las Leonas, there is a great photo spread in the sports newspaper from the opening ceremony in Rosario with dancing and the teams - Chloe mentioned it was great on a text message she sent me.

It does look good in the newspaper, on to Rosario tomorrow on the bus.

Preview of the Women's World Cup in Argentina

Argentina Coach - Carlos Retegui on Hockey's World Cup in Rosario

Chloe Rogers on Hockey's World Cup

Alex Danson on the Hockey World Cup 2010

The World Cup in Argentina is coming up at the end of August, and Luciana tells us why we should all go!

Luciana Aymar on the World Cup and the Champions Trophy 2010

My second inappropiate question to Luciana Aymar! And well very fun, she was good enough to do a longer interview and talk about the World Cup in Roasario in Argentina in a few months time.