The Olympic hockey competition is taking place at Paris’s Yves de Manoir Stadium, the very spot where the 1924 iteration of the Games was staged. This is the Chariots of Fire venue, where Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell’s golden efforts inspired an Oscar winning movie (and a Mr Bean sketch).
A century on, there is nothing left of the original architecture, all the old stands have long gone, two hockey pitches have replaced the running track. And if there was any of Abraham’s spirit lurking in the vicinity (Liddell’s was presumably otherwise engaged since competition was taking place on a Sunday and, as the movie made clear, he always refused to engage with sport on the Sabbath) it did not inspire Great Britain’s women’s team to victory in their opening group game. They lost 2-1 to Spain.
“You don’t lose – or win – an Olympic medal in the first game,” said Hollie Pearne-Webb, the team captain, after the defeat. “There’s a long way to go, we know that.”
It’s true, if anyone knows about the vicissitudes of Olympic competition, it is Pearne-Webb, the player who scored the winning penalty when the GB women took home gold from the Rio Games.
But for those watching from the freshly installed stadium stands, it was hard to see how this Great Britain side are going to navigate their way through to the latter stages as they have at the past two Olympics (in Tokyo they secured the bronze medal). Theirs was a performance full of spirit and determination, but lacking in anything approaching a killer instinct. They spent much of the match encamped in their opponent’s half, they had nine penalty corners, but they managed to deliver no more than a couple of shots on target. And this against a side who they have beaten on each of the four previous occasions they have met in the Games.
Things did not begin encouragingly. With the Parisian weather suddenly recognising that it is, in fact, the summer, the GB side found themselves soon a goal behind when Laura Barrios stabbed the ball into the net after a prolonged scramble in the penalty area. Propelled by a sizeable contingent of supporters, the British side quickly equalised when Giselle Ansley smacked home from a penalty corner.
But it soon became clear Spain were more fluid in their movement, their passing was more accurate, their dribbling more purposeful. For those who had watched a match between Spain and England two Sundays ago, seeing British passes going astray, seeing possession lost and the ball refusing to come under control produced a familiar sinking feeling. It could hardly be argued it was against the run of play when Lola Riera spanked home a penalty corner to give Spain the lead before half-time.
During the break, as the British team worked out how to convert their undoubted effort and spirit into quality possession, the crowd were treated to a delightful film projected on to the stadium screens. Still pictures taken at the 1924 Games were spun through the Artificial Intelligence filters so that it looked as if the century old weightlifters, swimmers, runners and tennis players were singing along to Highway to Hell by AC/DC. It was an oddly touching idea.
Though in truth it was what the screen was used for during the match action that had more bearing on proceedings – and will have surprised those used to the plodding processes of Premier League VAR deliberations. Every so often, one of the two on-pitch umpires could be heard via the public address system asking for advice from the video umpire.
“Can you check if something happened here?” was the inquiry when a British player fell off the ball. And on the screen came a video of the incident, which turned out to be nothing more than a wholly accidental collision.
“No misconduct there, continue,” came the voice of the video umpire over the stadium loudspeakers. And so action carried on with everyone properly informed, everyone satisfied, everyone aware. VAR working to the benefit of the viewing public: now there’s an idea.
Not that such transparency helped the GB players. They kept piling forwards, they kept winning penalty corners, for the last three minutes they substituted the goalkeeper Miriam Pritchard for an additional outfield player in the attempt to create a chance. But still they couldn’t find an equaliser.
“Looking back to Tokyo, it was very similar,” said Pearne-Webb. “We dominated the game against Germany and ended up losing. But we took the confidence from that game into the next one and we went on to take bronze. It’s the tiny details we have to improve.”
Any such improvement will have to be speedy. The next game is against Australia on Monday evening. The worry for the team is, while qualification is still possible in a group in which four of the six teams progress, another defeat would increase the likelihood of a quarter-final meeting with the undisputed world champions the Netherlands, a side who have won 96 per cent of their matches since Rio. And were GB to play like they did today against the Dutch, there is not much even the ghost of Harold Abrahams could do to help.
