USA Field Hockey gains vital experience in FIH World Cup tournament: commentary
USA Field Hockey ended pool play with a 1-1-1 record. Photo: USA Field Hockey
For USA Field Hockey, the intermission between pool play and the crossover stage at the 2026 FIH World Cup is more than a pause in the schedule — it is a measuring point.
The United Eagles wrapped Pool B play Wednesday with a 3-1 loss to Germany, finishing the group stage 1-1-1 with 4 points. They now move into the crossover round, where they will compete for a ninth through 16th place finish.
The U.S. resumes play Saturday, Aug. 22, at 8:30 a.m. against a familiar opponent: New Zealand.
This team is still climbing — still chipping away at its FIH World Outdoor Ranking, still trying to turn flashes of promise into sustained results on the global stage.
Now ranked No. 10, the U.S. has shown it can stand in with the world’s best, holding No. 2 Argentina to a 1-1 draw before falling 3-1 to No. 6 Germany in a match decided in part by two penalty strokes.
To understand where the program is now, it helps to look back. The United States last appeared at a women’s World Cup in 2018 in London, where it finished 14th.
What followed was not a minor reset. Coming after the 2016 Rio Olympic cycle and the 2018 World Cup, the program entered a period of major transition — one that reshaped the staff, the roster pipeline, and the expectations around the U.S. women’s national team.
One thread makes the current World Cup matchup especially notable: Janneke Schopman, who coached the U.S. during the 2018 World Cup cycle, is now leading Germany — the same side that just beat the United States in its final pool-play game. Schopman, a Dutch athlete, departed the U.S. program in late 2019.
After Schopman’s exit, Caroline Nelson-Nichols — a two-time Olympian and former Columbia University head coach — stepped in as interim head coach, guiding the program through an unusually difficult stretch from January to August 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted nearly every corner of the sports world.
The next phase came in 2021, when Anthony Farry took over as head coach. His tenure was brief, but important: he led the 2021–22 squad through another stage of rebuilding before stepping down in early 2022.
USWNT head coach David Passmore is pictured on the right. Photo: USA Field Hockey
Then entered David Passmore.
Passmore’s arrival gave the program a clearer direction at a pivotal moment. The challenge was no longer simply to recover from transition, but to build something durable: a team capable of competing with urgency, absorbing pressure, and turning incremental progress into international results.
They are protecting the ball instead of throwing it away. They are executing on long balls on the ground and in the air. They are anticipating in the circle offensively and defensively with speed unseen in recent international matches.
They are, in essence, playing international hockey.
That is why this World Cup stretch matters. Even in defeat, the United States is gathering evidence — of growth, of gaps, and of the work still ahead.
Up next:
Saturday, Aug. 22: USA vs New Zealand, 8:30 a.m.
Monday, Aug. 24: Ireland vs USA, 8 a.m.
How to watch:
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