One of the sports I had tickets for in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was field hockey but of course Covid_19 put paid to my plans to watch that. I can’t say that I had a real itch to see a live hockey match in the aftermath of the Olympic games but that changed this year as I became more and more interested in experiencing sports I’d never seen live before.

Whilst googling just about every Olympic sport a few months ago I came across this Somo Japan Cup tournament involving the Japanese men’s and women’s national hockey teams playing two games in two days against Canada and France respectively.

Whilst I have seen ice hockey in Tokyo before I had never seen the field version of it which us Brits just call hockey. Say the word hockey in North America though and they’ll just assume your talking about the game played on ice! Back when I was in high school, hockey was one of the sports that I got most involved in and played quite regularly with some success too.

This was in the aftermath of Great Britain’s men beating Germany in the Olympic Final in Seoul in 1988. It was expected that hockey would really take off after that gold medal victory and become something of a major sport in the UK. That never happened though and hockey only ever seemed to reappear on our TV screens when the Olympics or Commonwealth games rolled round every couple of years.

Getting to the hockey field in Shinagawa ward included a rare ride on the Tokyo Monorail which operates between Hamamatsucho and Haneda Airport. I disembarked after just two stops at Ōi Keibajō-mae station; the gateway to Oi Racecourse. The horse racing takes places on the west side of the station but my destination was located to the east in the not-so-snappily named Oi Wharf Central Seaside Park Sports Forest. I knew I was in the right place when I saw a hockey-related concrete art installation.

A very short distance beyond that was Oi Hockey Stadium (4-1-19 Yashio, Shinagawa-ku) which was much bigger than I was expecting. It has a capacity of 15,000 and was opened four years ago in anticipation of the following years Olympics.

Adult tickets were 1000 yen for the grass bank or 2500 yen for the stands. It was a boiling hot and humid afternoon, and as I’m unlikely to be a regular attendee, I opted for the latter. Food, drinks and a small amount of merchandise were on sale at the stadium, and there were also some hockey sticks on display too.

Amidst extreme temperatures, it was quite refreshing to take my place in the covered stand where some men in wigs were giving a taiko drum display whilst the occasional plane flew close overhead. Just ahead of the start the pitch was heavily watered and the spray coming off the astroturf was noticable in the first quarter when the ball was passed around.

Just ahead of the 3:30 pm start, the teams entered the field for the national anthems.

This was actually the second match of the day (Sunday 3rd September) as the Samurai Japan men’s team had lost 4-2 to Canada at lunchtime having beaten them 2-0 the Saturday. Meanwhile, Sakura Japan beat France 3-0 in the women’s match on the day one and their second matchup must’ve been the first time I’ve watched hockey since seeing it on TV in the 2002 Commonwealth Games! I may have seen a minute or two here and there in the Olympics since then but certainly nothing notable at all.

With such a long time away from hockey, it took me a while to get reaquainted with the rules assuming I even knew them in the first place which, despite playing the game in the past, I’m not sure I ever did!

Penalty corners are a staple of the game and the most common way of scoring, and one did lead to the only goal of the first half when a penalty stroke was awarded in the second quarter for some infringement by France that occurred on the back of a short corner. I’m still not sure what happened exactly despite seeing a couple of replays on the big screen.

The ten minute half time break included another demonstration of taiko drumming.

Sakura Japan are ranked tenth in the world whilst France are only 23rd  so I was expecting another win for the home team but the scores were levelled up early in the third quarter.

Japan regained the lead soon after though and that was how it remained as they later ran down the clock by keeping possession of the ball and taking it into the corner as is often done in football. Such negative tactics of not even trying to score certainly took me back to my own playing days on an afternoon when many memories of my own hockey experiences came flooding back as I watched the action unfold.

Who knows which teams I may have seen play had I actually been able to use my Olympic tickets. Whilst the atmosphere of seeing such a sport in the Olympics could never be beaten here, I was still very satisfied with seeing this international match.

Final Score: Sakura Japan 2-1 France

Click here to read ‘Live Ice Hockey In Tokyo’

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