Bhubaneswar, Jan 29: After spending a week or so in Goa recuperating from the exertion following the Olympic Qualifiers, the United States women's hockey team landed at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here on Monday to begin their campaign in the FIH Hockey Pro League 2023/24.

Having secured a spot at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the recently concluded FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers Ranchi 2024, the United States are now focused on securing a FIH Hockey World Cup 2026 spot through the FIH Hockey Pro League 2023/24.

The FIH Hockey Pro League 2023/24 (Women) is scheduled to take place at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar from February 3-9, before moving to the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela, where the league will continue from February 12 to 16.

Five national teams -– India, China, the United States of America, the Netherlands, and Australia – will participate in the India leg of the FIH Pro League 2023/24, facing each other once in Bhubaneswar and once in Rourkela.

The United States will face the Netherlands in the opening game of the FIH Hockey Pro League 2023/24 on February 3. Their second game will be against Australia on February 6, followed by a clash with China on February 7. They will then face India in the last match of the Bhubaneshwar leg on February 9.

Their previous encounter with the Indian women’s hockey team was in the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers Ranchi 2024 which the United States won by 1-0.

Capitalising on the early momentum they triumphed against Italy and New Zealand to top Pool B. A 2-1 victory against Japan in the semifinal guaranteed their qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Their only loss came in the final where they lost 0-2 to Germany.

Shedding light on the way forward for the team, captain Amanda Gollini said, ”We are looking forward to getting back into it, obviously coming off the Olympic Qualifiers, we got the result that we wanted. Now we’ve set some new goals to prepare for the year ahead.

"The one thing we want to continue from the last tournament is taking it one game at a time, that helped us succeed and I think that’s something we are looking forward to repeating in the FIH Pro League,” she said.

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“The Pro League is very important in the lead-up to the Paris 2024 Olympics, it presents us with a wonderful opportunity to prepare for the Olympics. But it is imperative that we trust the process, take it one game at a time, and not get ahead of ourselves,” she elaborated. (IANS)

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