‘Playing in India … unique feeling, a dream; pure hory’: Chile’s hockey players gush about India and world cup experience

Chile, a team of semi-professionals, are playing in a hockey world cup for the first time in their hory and their accounts, enjoying every second of the experience. Ranked 22 in the world, they have a team comprising of university students and working professionals.
Ahead of the tournament, their captain Fernando Renz had said: “Our team has close to 10 students, few of us including me work back at home and the rest are full-time hockey players. Our players played club hockey in Europe last year and we are hoping that more of us can play there after World Cup. I am an accounts and business student. In Chile, I work for a beverage giant that sells beer, sodas, and energy drinks. I manage an account for them.”
They were a bit overwhelmed when they arrived in Odisha 10 days ahead of the tournament. It took five days for them to mentally settle down, the captain said.
“The feeling is really incredible. They welcomed us very well, from the moment we arrived at the airport, then at the hotel they welcomed us with flowers, flower necklaces, like a very specific ritual from here in India. It really is a unique feeling, a dream ” , Renz told El Mercurio. “It took us about five days to understand what we were up to and land it.”
“With the World Cup qualification it was a fact, we said ‘yeah, we’re horic’, but now living it here, being in India, in these stadiums, with these people, it really hit us. We realized what sport is like of the first level, especially in India. Now we have effectively landed everything that was this milestone of having qualified. Pure hory for Chile,” the captain Renz said.

They are staying in a villa hotel along with India, Netherlands, Malaysia, Spain, England and the players talked about the experience to the Chilean newspaper.
“We didn’t really know what to expect from this villa or from these facilities. It’s a villa with a common dining room – well, good food, more western food. We also have move with the other teams in the dining room; there is also a games room where there are Ping-pong (table tennis), two pool tables, so suddenly there are matches between the different teams , today there were actually a couple who played a game of ping-pong with the Indian team, two of the best players in the world (laughs). It ‘s very interesting to share, and also the coaches and some players know players from other teams so they also share the day to day, have some mates or share conversations”.