Hockey | With little experience and lesser expectations, Taiwan seeks to make the most of Asia Cup

Taiwan has arrived at the Asia Cup with one of the youngest and least experienced sides. Every player in the squad had played less than 20 matches before the start of the tournament and, along with its 20-year-old captain Chun-Yu Chang, were born post-2000. Not surprisingly, the team’s expectations are low.

“The kids are all very young, most of them are students — in universities or even high school. They go to Taipei City University. They are very proud of playing in the Asia Cup, and they are here because they want to promote their sport back home and get better to play high-level competition,” chief coach Yun-Chang Wang said, speaking through their team manager who also doubles up as the interpreter.

Like their bigger neighbour China, which sources most of its players from the Inner Mongolia region, Taiwan’s hockey players are all from the Nantou and Taitung counties, the second and third-largest counties of the country.

While not exactly crowd-funded, the team here has been largely sponsored by local businesses and their institutions. Asked about the hockey system back home, Yun-Chang Wang explained, “They train in school and university, then the Taiwan Hockey Association picks the players to join the national team, and then they train together under the same coach.

“The flight fare is taken care of by the federation, remaining expenses for the team here have been sourced through donations from corporates, local associations and even their schools.”