University of North Carolina Athletics
Heels In Holland: Chapter 4
June 4, 2014 | Field Hockey
By Emma Bozek
June 3
The day began business as usual - with breakfast. Fortunately for all parties involved, Caroline and I woke up for our 7 a.m. alarm and marched like zombies out of bed for some fresh coffee and homemade croissants. (There is a good chance that we were awoken by the smell of the croissants from our second floor hotel room but this fact is not verified). After consuming way too much bread, our team gathered into our meeting room, which was a small, sectioned-off corner of the hotel lobby to discuss and present some tactical points we had analyzed on video just the night before. Our team was very attentive during the discussion, earning brownie points from Coach, and we soon were on our way to the pitch for an early morning practice session.
Practice was light but tactical. We tried to implement all of the points we had talked about in our meeting and were somewhat successful. I only say somewhat because we had to stop play just about every five seconds to adjust, move people around, and debate on tactics, so aside from the common interruptions, practice went fabulously.
After practice came lunch. As usual, our team was on its own to find lunch around town. Many people split up between sushi restaurants, pancakes houses, or some simply stayed in the hotel to eat a sandwich they had made from breakfast (a.k.a. me). And yes, that does mean the Dutch commonly serve lunchmeat for breakfast - not a huge fan. Regardless, lunch was followed by another departure, this time to the World Cup Hockey arena.
When we arrived at the venue we all headed over the field to watch New Zealand compete against the Republic of South Africa. Unfortunately for South African fans, the team trailed 4-0 with just minutes left in the game, forcing most of our team to leave and find food instead. We were really just waiting for five o'clock to roll around and the highlight of our day to begin. Today was the day USA would take on rival Argentina.
When the time finally came to watch our fellow teammates, friends and even some college rivals, our team was packed into the middle of the stadium and cheering as loud and as proud as the American stereotype allowed for. It was great to see fellow Tar Heels representing their country in red, white and blue. As the national anthem played, our team sang and heads turned. Probably because of how horribly off-pitch we were, but still ...
When the game finally began, it proved to be a nail-biter. The USA made everyone proud and tied Argentina, the second-best team in the world! After the game ended, we all got to meet up with the USA girls, including my roommate and teammate, Emily Wold. The day couldn't have ended any better with tons of chatter and even more laughter shared between past and present Tar Heels. After that we packed up camp and headed back to the Ibis hotel for some much-needed sleep, or lack therefore of. Jetlag is real.
GO HEELS GO AMERICA :)
