Hockey: Greece is the word

By DAVID LEGGAT

Talk to New Zealand captain Suzie Muirhead about the prospects of nailing a place in the Olympic Games tournament and the word "if" does not come into the conversation.

The quest for a spot at Athens starts today when the Black Sticks begin their final push in the qualifying series against Britain at Lloyd Elsmore Park. Five of the 10 teams will progress. New Zealand, on paper, are ranked fifth among the 10. There is no denying it will be a difficult assignment, but for the recently-married skipper - New Zealand's most-capped woman international - the vibes are all running in the right direction.

"You have to be," said the Wellington midfielder.

"The girls are pretty determined to get there.

"In general we're feeling pretty positive and we need to maintain that resolve and give it every ounce of effort, no matter what path we have to take to get there."

That is a reference to the tournament format, whereby a top-two finish in pool play guarantees a ticket to Athens. Finish third or fourth and the route is through the crossover playoff system, which is guaranteed to get the calmest nerves jangling.

"That's the hard thing, not to pin all your hopes on winning your first three games but to know we have to perform consistently throughout the tournament, and be prepared to take a different path if we have to."

Muirhead - Suzie Pearce until her marriage to Hurricanes physiotherapist Glenn Muirhead this year - is one of four survivors from the Sydney Olympics four years ago. The others are goalkeeper Helen Clarke, defender Di Weavers and midfielder Caryn Paewai.

Her memories of that experience - "huge crowds, lots happening, an exciting place to be" - have whetted her appetite. New Zealand finished sixth in Sydney, ending on a grim note, a 7-1 tonking from the strong Argentine side. Still, a notable improvement on New Zealand's two previous trips to the Games, when they finished bottom in 1984 and 1992.

"I feel we did most of the work but couldn't finish the job," Muirhead remembers. "We had some bad luck but also there were things to learn in terms of how we reacted to that."

This time, the big names, Anna Lawrence and Mandy Smith, are gone and the squad has a mix of youth and seasoned campaigners, ranging from Pearce with her record 186 caps down to uncapped Manawatu midfielder Emily Naylor.

Although Muirhead acknowledges there is a leadership role to play, she believes the entire 18-strong squad need to pull their weight.

"Everyone can take some leadership. The senior players have got to lead the way and certainly they set the scene and culture.

"Part of that is through our actions and own performances, leading by example on the field. If you do that, the younger players tend to follow."

Muirhead, who made her debut in New Zealand's 2-2 draw with Canada in the 1993 World Cup qualifying tournament in Philadelphia, does not believe the rankings should play a significant part in pre-tournament speculation on who should, in theory, qualify. Her argument is backed by leadup form from other countries in Auckland over the past few days.

She cites the Ukraine - world No. 15 and New Zealand's third opponents, next Monday - who beat the No. 10 the United States, 3-1. Germany, No. 8, drew 2-2 with No. 11 Japan, while the Irish, No. 14, tipped over Japan 1-0.

"The rankings don't mean a hell of a lot. Any team can beat any team. Every game is going to be hard and I don't think you can write anyone off, and we've certainly got to be ready for the Ukraine and Ireland.

"Their win over Japan sends a good message to the girls. We can't just expect these games are going to be in the bag."

Having beaten the Japanese 3-1 in a home series last month, the Black Sticks lost two of their three preparatory games in Auckland, 2-0 to the US and 4-1 to Korea, which sandwiched a 3-3 draw with Spain.

Physically, Muirhead feels the team are ready - "we had five weeks in Christchurch, then a week at home, so it's been a long wait. People are pretty keen to get started."

The only advantage in having another warmup game would be from the mental perspective of not going into the tournament with a loss as their final point of reference.

"It would only be an advantage in people's heads. As far as confidence in the game we're going to play we don't need more time to develop that."

She cited the loss to Korea as evidence of the team's progress.

"We had more goal shots, more penalty corners, more circle penetrations and less defensive free hits in our half.

"The last two times we played them six months ago the stats were the other way round. Now we've turned them round, so we're reasonably confident of where we're at.

"There are a couple of areas we needed to tidy up, more aggression in the circle and defending fast breaks. In this tournament we do need to get results. We need to have the performance and usually one follows the other."

Muirhead, 28, maintains she has not thought beyond Athens, but it's fair to assume the 2008 Olympics programme is not at the top of her priority list right now. So all her hockey eggs are in this basket. No wonder the notion of missing a trip to Greece does not figure in her projections for the next 10 days.