Team USA 2020 FIH Women's Pro League Season Preview, Schedule, How to Watch
Jan 23, 2020
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 27: Danielle Grega of USA in action during the Women's FIH Field Hockey Pro League match between Great Britain and USA at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre on April 27, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Christopher Lee/Getty Images for FIH)
The United States Women's National Field Hockey Team begins play in the 2020 FIH Women's Pro League this weekend. It's the second season for both the Pro League as a whole and Team USA competing in it.
After a disappointing finish in the inaugural season of the league last year, the young American squad gained valuable experience in the FIH Olympic Qualifiers as well as at the Pan American Games, where they won a bronze medal, that could serve them well for a better all-around performance in this edition of the Pro League.
Below you can find everything you need to know about Team USA and the FIH Women's Pro League before the 2020 season begins, including what's new, the Americans' full schedule and world ranking, how to watch and stream every game, players to watch, team highlights and how the league works.
Team USA and the FIH Pro League: What's new in 2020
In short, a lot. The second season of the Pro League will look very different than the first, both on a league-wide scale as well as within the United States team.
Let's start with the Americans. Team USA announced Caroline Nelson-Nichols as its new head coach in December, about a month after former head coach Janneke Schopman was fired. A former defender, Nelson-Nichols played in 165 games for the USWNT from 2007 to 2014, including competing in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. She had been the head coach at Columbia University since 2015.
"As a player coming up in the ranks, I think you always think how great it would be to represent your country as an athlete," Nelson-Nichols told B/R Live. "I felt really passionate about coaching, and I've dived into the profession...I can't say that I ever scripted the journey the way that it's gone, although I'm incredibly excited about the way that it's gone, and I'm totally honored to be able to lead Team USA."
The offseason turnover was not limited to the American coaching staff. Three players with a total of 472 international appearances announced their retirements in the last two months, leaving an already young team without three of its most experienced players.
Team captain and striker Kathleen Sharkey retired on Jan. 23 after 176 appearances for the team, which included the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the 2019 Pan American Games, where she scored four goals and led Team USA to the bronze. Caitlin Van Sickle, a reliable veteran defender, retired on Dec. 16 after recording 148 caps during her Team USA career, which also included the 2016 Rio Olympics. Another member of that Olympic team, striker Jill Funk, retired on Jan. 8 also finishing with 148 caps. Funk helped Team USA win the gold medal at the 2017 FIH World League in South Africa, where she led the tournament in scoring.
Team USA will also have a new home field for Pro League games in 2020. The squad will play all of its home games at the University of North Carolina's Karen Shelton Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The change comes as a result of the outdoor stadium at Spooky Nook Sports in Lancaster, Pennsylvania failing to meet new FIH requirements for its venues and turf.
The pitch at Spooky Nook was also the subject of a petition filed by both the American men's and women's teams, which called it unusable and unsafe. That petition further criticized the teams' facilities, noting poor nutrition, medical care, uniforms and financial support. Still, the organization remains based in, and the women train at, Spooky Nook, where the domed indoor pitch remains in good condition.
However, in moving to Chapel Hill for games, the venue will be familiar territory for some of the team. Both Ashley Hoffman and Lauren Moyer played there so that familiarity should make the adjustment to a new home field for the 2020 season much smoother. You can learn more about Shelton Stadium here.
Speaking of home stadiums, easily the largest overall change from Year 1 to Year 2 in the FIH Pro League is the elimination of the home-and-home schedule design. In an effort to reduce travel during an Olympic Year, teams will no longer play every team at home once and on the road once. Instead, one team will host both games played between them, which will take place across the same weekend.
Team USA 2020 FIH Pro League Schedule, Team Rankings
The United States is one of nine teams competing in the Women's Pro League this season. Below are the teams in order of the most recent world rankings, which includes 75 total countries.
1. Netherlands 2. Australia 3. Argentina 4. Germany 5. Great Britain 6. New Zealand 10. China 12. Belgium 13. United States
While the home-and-home adjustment was made to the schedule, the number of games does not change. Team USA will still play eight home games and eight road games, beginning Jan. 26 and ending June 7. The Americans' full schedule is below (all times eastern).
United States vs. Netherlands
Sunday, Jan. 26, at 2 p.m. | This game will be worth double points to make up for the cancellation of the first game, originally scheduled for Friday, Jan. 24. That game was called off after Team USA manager and assistant coach Larry Amar died earlier in the week.
Argentina vs. United States
Friday, Feb. 7 and Saturday, Feb. 8, both at 4 p.m.
New Zealand vs. United States
Friday, Feb. 14 at 11 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 15 at 9 p.m.
United States vs. China
Friday, April 10 and Saturday, April 11, both at 2 p.m.
United States vs. Australia
Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3, both at 2 p.m.
Belgium vs. United States
Friday, May 15 at 12:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 17 at 8 a.m.
Great Britain vs. United States
Sunday, May 24 at 9 a.m. and Monday, May 25 at 8 a.m.
United States vs. Germany
Friday, June 5 at 6 p.m. and Sunday, June 7 at 2 p.m.
Team USA Players to Watch
In 2019, the United States women competed in the inaugural FIH Women's Pro League, Pan American Games and FIH Olympic Qualifiers, yielding extremely valuable international experience for a young team. And in 2020, the team will lean on its young core again, with those who broke out last season looking to take that next step in their development.
"Every player has really surpassed my expectations," Nelson-Nichols said. "Looking at each of these athletes that are continuing to grow and show a lot of potential for future success, I've been really happy that the entire team -- every individual in our group -- looks to be reinventing the player they want to be moving forward. With that, the strength of what we do is going to be in our whole collective group."
Nelson-Nichols built the roster after a trial at the beginning of the year and commended the returning players' ability to mesh with new additions. You can find the full roster here. She added that 2019 standouts like Erin Matson, Mackenzie Allessie and Margaux Paulino, who are all still in college, chose to focus on their academics during this semester and will have the opportunity to rejoin the squad in the future. Below are a few players who will be keys to success for the United States this Pro League season.
Danielle Grega
Grega was the leading scorer for the U.S. in the Pro League last season, scoring four goals from her midfield position. With only 28 career appearances for the team, that annual goal total could grow very quickly as she gets more time on the pitch.
Another midfielder with just 28 caps, Gonzales scored two goals in the league and added the winning penalty shot to seal one of the team's victories last season.
The pair of midfielders provided big sparks for the U.S. in 2019, with Moyer tallying three goals in the league and Magadan scoring twice in the nearly-epic comeback in Olympic qualifying. Both have played in more than 70 international games, giving the Americans reliability in the middle along with dynamic scoring quality.
With the roster turnover, defender Ali Froede becomes the player with the most international appearances on the team at 91. She'll lead the backline while Hoffman, a midfielder who will get her 69th cap once the Pro League begins again, will bring strong experience and presence to the midfield.
How to Watch Team USA in the 2020 FIH Women's Pro League
The Women's FIH Pro League returns in 2020 to B/R Live, where fans can watch every Team USA game live and stream full replays on-demand.
Subscribe to the B/R Live Pass to watch all of the action featuring the American squad this season. The pass is $9.99 per month and includes every FIH game as well as access to stream nearly all other sports content on B/R Live, including leagues like UEFA Champions League, National Lacrosse League, All Elite Wrestling and more.
Fans can also stream each Team USA match on an individual basis for $2.99, which includes access to both the live game and the full replay.
For more information on watching Team USA and to get the B/R Live Pass, go here. FIH Pro League matches are available to stream on B/R Live to fans in the United States and Canada.
How the FIH Women's Pro League Works
There are nine teams competing in the Women's FIH Pro League in 2020. Every team will play the other teams twice, with an equal number of home and away matches. Teams receive three points for a win in regulation and zero for a loss. If regulation ends in a tie, each team receives one point, and a penalty shootout decides the winner. That winning team earns one bonus point, giving it a total of two for the game.
The team with the most points at the end of the season wins the Pro League. With the Olympics later this summer, there will be no Grand Final this season to determine a winner. Last year, the final four teams at the end of the regular season reached the Grand Final—semifinals and a final—for the league title, eventually won by the Netherlands.
And with the Olympic field set for Tokyo 2020, the stakes for the Pro League revolve around ranking points. More match wins and higher finishes in the standings mean more ranking points and eventually better seedings for the large tournaments, like the World Cup in 2022 and Olympics in 2024.
Field Hockey Olympic Qualifiers: How to Watch Team USA, How It Works, Schedule
Oct 24, 2019
LIMA, PERU - AUGUST 09: Danielle Grega of United States competes for the ball with Denise Krimerman of Chile during Hockey Women bronze medal on Day 14 of Lima 2019 Pan American Games at Hockey Field of Complejo Deportivo Villa Maria del Triunfo on August 9, 2019 in Lima, Peru. (Photo by Daniel Apuy/Getty Images)
The 2020 Summer Olympics are less than a year away, setting up the final wave of qualifying for men's and women's field hockey. The FIH Olympic Qualifiers begin Friday, with 28 men's and women's teams playing for the final 14 spots in Tokyo.
The women of Team USA are one of those teams, and they will play two matches against host India in what is the last chance to clinch a berth in the Olympics. The winner on aggregate score after the two matches will qualify.
Below find everything you need to know about FIH Olympic Qualifiers for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, including the men's and women's teams playing, how the process works, the full match schedule and how to watch and stream the games.
FIH Olympic Qualifiers: Teams
Twelve women's teams and 12 men's teams will make up the field hockey tournament at the 2020 Games. Five teams in each division have already qualified. Those teams are:
Women's: Japan, Argentina, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa
Men's: Japan, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, South Africa
That leaves seven spots available on each side, to be contested by the following 14 women's and men's teams:
Women's: United States, India, Australia, Russia, China, Belgium, Spain, Korea, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Chile, Ireland, Canada
Men's: Spain, France, Netherlands, Pakistan, Canada, Ireland, India, Russia, New Zealand, Korea, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Malaysia
Qualifying for the field hockey tournament in the Olympics is a process that has taken place since the start of 2019 that involves the results of the FIH Pro League and Series Finals, continental championships and FIH world rankings.
Japan automatically receives a spot as the host nation. The top four finishers in the Pro League automatically qualify, as do the five total top finishers in the FIH Series Finals. Teams that won their continental championships, like Argentina's men and women winning gold medals at the Pan American Games, also automatically qualified.
In some cases, a continental champion and a top FIH finisher was the same team, creating an open slot. As a result, that's how we enter the FIH Olympic Qualifiers with seven Olympic spots on the line. The teams competing for those places are the 14 highest-ranked teams remaining in the latest FIH world rankings, which were released in September.
Once those rankings came out, FIH held a draw to determine the match pairings for the final Olympic Qualifiers. The qualifiers will be two matches played on back-to-back days at the same venue. The country with the higher ranking will host both matches.
The overall winner of the two matches, based on aggregate score, will qualify for the Tokyo Games. Here are more details on the qualifying draw.
Full Schedule (all times Eastern)
Women
No. 9 India vs. No. 13 United States | Friday, Nov. 1 at 8:30 a.m. Watch here, and Saturday, Nov. 2 at 8:30 a.m. Watch here.
To learn more about Team USA's preparation for these matches, go here
No. 2 Australia vs. No. 19 Russia | Friday, Oct. 25 at 3 a.m. and Saturday, Oct. 26 at 7 a.m.
No. 10 China vs. No. 12 Belgium | Friday, Oct. 25 and Saturday, Oct. 26, both at 6 a.m.
No. 7 Spain vs. No. 11 Korea | Friday, Oct. 25 and Saturday, Oct. 26, both at 2 p.m.
No. 4 Germany vs. No. 17 Italy | Saturday, Nov. 2 at 11 a.m. and Sunday, Nov. 3 at 8:30 a.m.
No. 5 Great Britain vs. No. 18 Chile | Saturday, Nov. 2 at 9 a.m. and Sunday, Nov. 3 at 7 a.m.
No. 8 Ireland vs. No. 15 Canada | Saturday, Nov. 2 at 2:50 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 3 at 2 p.m.
Men
No. 8 Spain vs. No. 12 France | Friday, Oct. 25 and Saturday, Oct. 26, both at 12 p.m.
No. 3 Netherlands vs. No. 17 Pakistan | Saturday, Oct. 26 and Sunday, Oct. 27, both at 10 a.m.
No. 10 Canada vs. No. 13 Ireland | Saturday, Oct. 26 and Sunday, Oct. 27, both at 5 p.m.
No. 5 India vs. No. 22 Russia | Friday, Nov. 1 and Saturday, Nov. 2, both at 10:30 a.m.
No. 9 New Zealand vs. No. 16 Korea | Friday, Nov. 1 and Saturday, Nov. 2, both at 10 p.m.
No. 6 Germany vs. No. 20 Austria | Saturday, Nov. 2 at 1:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 3 at 10:30 a.m.
No. 7 Great Britain vs. No. 11 Malaysia | Saturday, Nov. 2 at 12:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 3 at 10 a.m.
How to watch, streaming information
Both Team USA women's matches and most of the remaining FIH Olympic Qualifiers will stream live on B/R Live. The links above will take you directly to each Team USA game.
Fans can stream individual matches for $2.99 each or subscribe to the B/R Live Monthly Pass to watch every FIH Olympic Qualifier on B/R Live for $9.99 total.
For the full women's FIH Olympic Qualifiers schedule and to watch those matches, go here. For the full men's FIH Olympic Qualifiers schedule and to watch those matches, go here.
Youthful Team USA Field Hockey Squad Learning on the Fly in New FIH Pro League
Apr 12, 2019
In the opening game of a new league, playing far away from home against one of the best players and teams in the world, a teenager stole the show.
Forward Mackenzie Allessie corralled a rebound, calmly made a move in front of goal and put the ball in the back of the net, lifting Team USA ahead of Argentina in the teams' debut in the new FIH Women's Pro League.
"So exciting," the 18-year-old told B/R Live of that first goal. "I mean it was just a dream come true."
It was that moment, as well as the remainder of that first game, that has encapsulated the Americans' journey in this league between national teams. Team USA scored again to go up 2-0 before world No. 4-ranked Argentina scored twice in the fourth quarter and won in a shootout.
Ranked 12th in the world, the U.S. has loads of young talent on its roster, but the other nations have the talent and the experience that knows exactly how to get a result when needed. Delfina Merino, the Argentine captain who scored the late equalizer, has more international appearances than most of Team USA combined.
The FIH Pro League, which has both a women's and men's division, is unique in a sport that has been defined internationally by tournament play.
The women's league features nine of the top 13 teams in the world and takes place over six months from January to June. Every team plays each other home and away for a total of 16 games, and the top four teams in the standings advance to the Grand Final playoffs, which crowns a league champion.
The biggest payoff, however, is those top four teams all earn direct placement into qualifying events for the 2020 Olympic Games in Beijing.
"It's really valuable that we're playing consistent, international matches over the course of six months," said U.S. captain Kathleen Sharkey, whose 156 caps are by far the most on the team but still more than 100 behind Argentina's Merino. "It's hard to replicate that intensity in just a test match. ... We're growing and improving with each of these games since we are learning so much, so I think we're just trying to play to our potential each game."
After Wednesday's 2-1 loss at Belgium, Team USA returns to the pitch in the Netherlands on Sunday (10 a.m. ET, watch on B/R Live).
These teams have played in the league once already, a 5-0 masterclass in February delivered by the top-ranked team in the world. After all, the coach of the American squad is Janneke Schopman, who won an Olympic gold medal and world championship as a Dutch player.
Aside from that game, Team USA has been in its other six games, which included a shootout win over Belgium. As the Americans chase their first regulation win, there's a balancing act between wanting results now and finding positives to give the young players confidence moving forward.
"We do have young girls, but they're so skilled and so athletic and they can take on anyone in international hockey," Sharkey said. "So I think just making sure that they actually believe that and they're showing that on the field."
To fully understand just how youthful this team is, a glimpse at their collective birthdates will do the trick: All but one player on the Team USA roster were born in the 1990s.
The exception is Allessie, who was born in 2001. Danielle Grega, the team's leading scorer in FIH Women's Pro League play with three goals, is 22 years old and has eight caps. Midfield standout Erin Matson just turned 19 and already has 48 caps. Striker Margaux Paolino, who has broken out in her 15 appearances, is 21.
"I like the speed of the game (internationally)," Matson said.
"I would say different just intensitywise," Paolino added. "Competitiveness is definitely a little higher."
It's an even bigger jump for Allessie, who will play collegiately at Ohio State but has literally gone from high school competition to playing against the best players in the world. The Pennsylvania native and her teammates have studied their competitors on film in order to continue to develop their games.
"So much different, so much faster," the midfielder said. "But honestly the team's so great. They're like a family to me already. They're great role models. I can look up to every single one of them and trust them, and they are really supportive."
Their drive and youth is evident everywhere. After the 5-4 shootout win against Belgium in March (after the teams tied 1-1 in regulation), Matson and Paolino reviewed their penalty shots (Paolino scored, Matson did not) and then jumped into trash talk about March Madness.
Both play significant minutes at the international level while also starring at prominent college programs. A score update revealed Matson's North Carolina Tar Heels were down by 15 points, which drew a laugh from Paolino, who had plenty of confidence her Duke Blue Devils would win later that night (they did, barely).
"Like we know we're kidding...kind of," Matson said about their rivalry discussions.
"But there's some competitiveness deep down," Paolino confirmed.
It's that juxtaposition—young and inexperienced at this level, but competitive about everything—that points to such a bright outlook for Team USA.
Another key to that future is the home facility where the team plays and trains.
Spooky Nook Sports in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is the largest indoor sports complex in the United States and serves as the U.S. women's national team's home base in a deal that runs through 2022. The 700,000-square-foot facility features multiple turf practice fields and courts, weight training and fitness rooms, a hotel and restaurant, a domed practice pitch and a 2,000-capacity outdoor stadium.
Spooky Nook sits in the middle of the nation's field hockey hotbed, evidenced by the fact that 11 of the 25 players on the U.S. roster are from the Keystone State. On a cold weekend at the end of March, two near-sellout crowds watched Team USA's shootout victory over Belgium on Friday and a 3-1 loss to Great Britain on Sunday in the team's first two league games at the complex. The players noted the energy they felt throughout the matches. FIH specifically wanted every game of its season to be played at a country's home stadium for that reason exactly.
"Especially the atmosphere and the energy, it's so exciting to come to a pitch and facility like this where everyone's supporting and there's so much going on," said Paolino, who's from Villanova, Pennsylvania. "It just makes it 10 times more exciting."
