‘HOCKEY WAS ONCE POPULAR’
Rocha says it was played actively in the 1800s before Brazil became a football-mad nation
FOOTBALL is the No 1 sport in Brazil. But not many are aware that field hockey was popular in Brazil before football became a craze in that South American nation.
National coach Claudio Rocha said the sport was brought by the Europeans to his country about 100 years ago and was played among clubs as early as the 1800s.
“Hockey was popular before soccer, and was played actively in the 1800s, but it never stuck. We only played in the Rio Olympics, and the hockey federation only became affiliated with the International Hockey Federation in 2015.
“But still, we have 6,000 active hockey players. We also have five players plying their trade abroad,” said Rocha.
Two play in the Netherlands and one each in Spain, Australia and Britain.
The five will form the core for Brazil in the FIH Series Finals in Bukit Jalil on April 26-May 4.
Their sweeper only arrived on Friday while the other four overseas-based players are on their way to Kuala Lumpur.
“Our sweeper came straight to the field from KLIA (in Sepang) to
play against UiTM.
“The other four are arriving in batches. We last played as a team in November,” said Rocha.
UiTM gave Brazil a good fight and won 3-2, but against a jetlagged team.
“The time difference is 11 hours, so my players slept and ate more than they trained after arriving here. That’s why we came early as our federation are serious about qualifying for the Olympics.”
Brazil will also play warm-ups against the national Under-21, Wales and Canada before opening their Series Finals campaign against Malaysia on Friday.
“We are staying in the city centre. We love the food here even though it’s a little spicy,” said Rocha.
Friday’s match is expected to be a spicy affair as the hockey players from this football-mad nation are well-built, robust and skilful in the semi-circle, and furthermore, they don’t like losing.