Kookaburras ready to laugh all the way to another gold

Australia's men's team may be looking to hold all the sport's major titles by winning gold at the London Olympics, but coach Ric Charlesworth was far from content as his team headed to the Games.

He's complained about the pitch that will be used for the tournament and slammed what he believed is an unfair match schedule.

And he insists reigning Olympic champion Germany could well defend its title after beating the Kookaburras in a warm-up competition.

"If I did the odds now, I wouldn't have us as the favorites, I'd probably have Germany," Charlesworth said.

"At our best, we've got skilful, speedy, flexible players and a way of playing which allows us to get penetration but we're going to be competing against teams that have got antidotes to that."

In multiple world player of the year Jamie Dwyer, Australia has a potential man of the tournament, but Charlesworth is concerned the relatively recently laid blue-and-pink artificial pitch in the Olympic Park won't have been played on sufficiently before the Games.

"The pitch is an issue," he said. "The ball bobbles a fair bit. It doesn't reward skill."

Meanwhile, Australia won an appeal over being handed three early morning starts in its group matches.

Charlesworth was furious when the draw gave his team three 8:30 am games, which he said would require players to wake up at 5:00 am in a major disruption to their daily tournament routine.

At the same time, Germany avoided the early time slot altogether in the opposite group.

Hockey Australia fired in an official protest and the Federation of International Hockey said it has rescheduled Australia vs Pakistan on Aug 7 from 8:30 am to 10:45 am.

South Korea against the Netherlands will be switched to the earlier start.

New Zealand appears to be timing its bid for Games glory in style after winning the prestigious Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia with a 1-0 victory over Argentina.

The Black Sticks haven't won men's Olympic field hickey gold since 1976 and, although ranked seventh in the world to Australia's first, could pose a threat.

"It is great to have won our first Sultan Azlan Shah Cup," said New Zealand coach Shane McLeod. "But we still have a fair bit of work to do before the Games start."

Eight-time champion India returns to Olympic Games hockey, having failed to qualify for Beijing four years ago, although, given the last of its gold medals came back in 1980, it is not expected to be on the podium in London.

In the women's tournament, Argentina will hope to crown the brilliant career of seven time world player of the year Luciana Aymar, 'the Maradona of hockey', with a first Olympic gold.

"On the pitch she is magical and extra-terrestrial," said Argentina coach Carlos Retegui of Aymar.

Defending champion the Netherlands has been impressive in recent warm-up events but Great Britain's women are being tipped to do well in front of their own fans after only narrowly losing the Champions Trophy final to host Argentina in Rosario in February.

"We saw them in the Champions Trophy, where they were the best team there, and that is the level we expect we will see in London," said Hockeyroos coach Adam Commens.

The British men, ranked four in the world, are also medal contenders although it will be asking a lot to match the gold medal won by the 1988 side in Seoul.

Their opening match against Argentina takes place against the backdrop of the 30th anniversary of the war the countries fought over the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic.

(China Daily 07/22/2012 page8)