Pakistan boys hockey team will face Ghana in the opening match of First Youth Olympic Games on August 17 at Seng Kang Hockey Stadium Singapore. The games will be held from August 14-26. Twelve hockey teams from around the world are participating in the event.
Six boy's and six girl's teams will play 36 matches in total to find the first two Youth Olympic Champions in Hockey. To be eligible for the hockey tournament of the YOG 2010, athletes must have been born between January 1 1993 and December 31, 1994.
The girls will start off on Monday (August 16) with the opening match between Netherlands and Ireland. The boys' tournament begins on Tuesday (August 17) with a match between Pakistan and Ghana. Australia (Oceania), Belgium (Europe), Chile (Pan America), Ghana (Africa), Pakistan (Asia), Singapore (Asia) participate in the boys' competition, while Argentina (Pan America), Ireland (Europe), Korea (Asia), Netherlands (Europe), New Zealand (Oceania) and South Africa (Africa) meet up in the girls' tournament.
Each of the six teams plays each other once in a round robin format to complete five preliminary round games. The top two teams at the end of the preliminary round matches play off in the gold medal match. The 3rd and 4th placed teams will compete for the bronze medal, while the 5th and 6th placed teams will meet in the 5th place playoff. The classification matches will be played on August 23 (girls) and August 24 (boys).
Seng Kang Hockey Stadium is the same place where the Singaporean part of Men's Junior World Cup took place in 2009. It's very hard to name a team as a favourite or a medal candidate because especially in youth tournaments surprises are always likely to happen.