BHUBANESWAR: Whenever Tom Genestet finds time, he heads to various vineyards around France to learn about wine-making. He wants to enter the world of viticulture — study of vineyard production — sometime in future. For now, he is content with owning a wine bar (Ballon Rouge) in Paris.
Pieter van Straaten is a student of music. Music production to be precise. When he has time, he starts producing his own stuff, usually Electronic Dance Music (EDM). He has been picking up the genre in Haarlem, a city outside Amsterdam. Maximilien Branicki spends his mornings and afternoons in Belgium, the country of his birth. He is studying to become a gymnastics teacher in a local college. If his evenings are free, he hops over to Lille, a 90-minute drive across the border into France, to play the sport.
Jean-Baptiste Forgues is a doctor at a private hospital. But he hasn’t made a single buck over the last six months as he has decided to willingly skip work for a greater good. On Monday night, Genestet, van Straaten, Branicki, Forgues and 14 others came together to realise that greater good. France, the worst-ranked team at the World Cup, advanced to the quarters.
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2018 has been a year of upsets in hockey, Ireland reaching the women’s World Cup final being a particular highlight. But it would be foolish to club the men’s French team in the same bracket. Because this campaign wasn’t built overnight. It was carefully constructed over six months.
One of the hallmarks of the World No 20 team is pace on the counter. They rely on a solid defensive structure but once they win the ball, their ability to overload and create space down the wings has caught the eye. How did they develop this? Coach Jeroen Delmee’s response makes jaws drop. “I took examples from the FIFA World Cup,” he says. “We worked on counterattacks when we won the ball... what’s the dynamic for players around the ball. The Belgian team had high standards of ounterattacking, switching from defence to attack.
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“(We saw) how they created space for one another. I knew similar patterns could be used in hockey. We didn’t want to copy their style, but we looked at how they created space and the lines they used to attack.” That philosophy of breaking at pace was very much in play against Argentina. After burgling the ball deep in their half, they broke in numbers and overloaded the attacking third down the flanks.
“It’s based on details,” Delmee added.
“A lot of coaches look at what’s happening with the ball. I look at what’s happening without it. I look at how teams react to a pass we play, I try to think of ways to put them in situations where they have to take decisions which they don’t like to...Like how do we defend the baseline against Lucas Vila. How do they prepare for free-hits from 25 yards. I get into details for every opposition player.”
This is where Aymeric Bergamo comes in. The stand-in manager has been creating detailed dossiers of opponents so that the Blues know exactly which player has what weakness. “Xavier (de Greve, assistance coach) and I work on general tactics and we also have Aymeric who works on the opponents.”
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Genestet is breathless but he also cannot stop smiling. He admits a place in the last eight is the best thing to have happened to these players because they have given their heart and soul. “It’s a dream,” he says. “We have all had to set aside time off from work to prepare. We earn zero money but we want to do this. So you can imagine how important this journey has been for us.”
Others in the squad complete their day job before going to train. Van Straaten takes his day job to where hockey sticks are kept. “I combine music and sport. Music comes from the mind and heart and sport is passion and energetic. EDM puts me in the mood for hockey,” he says.
Victor Charlet, leader of one of the unlikeliest band of men to have reached this stage, wears the look of a proud father. “It’s strange that we have players with different backgrounds. We are ready (for Australia). When you reach the quarters, you are thinking about the semis because you have to win just one match.”