Source: www.guardian.co.tt
By: Nigel Simon
This country’s senior men’s team suffered a second loss to host Canada 4-2 when the Four-Nation Classic hosted by Field Hockey Canada in celebration of its 20th anniversary continued at Wright Field, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, on Tuesday night. Playing without captain Darren Cowie and Aidan De Gannes, who returned home due to personal commitments, T&T, 4-3 winners over Chile a day earlier, was put under early pressure by the hosts. After coming close to opening the scoring in the sixth minute, Canada finally made its early dominance count when Scott Tupper scored from a penalty corner in the 11th minute to make amends for his earlier miss.
Eight minutes before the interval, Canada’s Dave Jameson, playing his 150th international, doubled his team’s advantage from field goal play which it took into the break. On the resumption, Canada continued to take the game to T&T and within five minutes it extended its lead to 3-0 when a powerful shot from Gabbar Singh provided a rebound for Philip Wright to score from close range and three minutes later, Iain Smythe netted his second goal of the tournament to give Canada a comfortable lead.
The ‘Calypso Stickmen’ who are using the matches as part of their preparations for the Pan American Games scheduled for Mexico in October, struck back within seconds from a scramble in front of Canadian keeper Antoni Kindler. It was the first goal that Canada conceded during the tournament after previously registering similar 2-0 wins over T&T and Chile. An invigorated T&T team continued to take the the game to Canada and were awarded a penalty stroke in the 57th minute which Atiba Whittington converted past Kindler to bring the visitors within two goals.
However, Canada tightened up its defence and didn’t allow any further opportunities for T&T to secure a 4-2 triumph. Last night, T&T men came up against Chile while today, the national women’s team will seek its first win in four matches when it faces Canada. Yesterday, the local women faced Chile for the second time, having suffered an 11-0 bashing in their first meeting. Canada also swamped the T&T women 6-0 while the latter was edged out 1-0 by Canada ‘A’ in its other match played to date.
Remaining fixtures
Today:
Canada vs Chile (men) - 5 pm
Japan vs Chile (women) - 7 pm
Canada vs T&T (women) - 9 pm
Tomorrow:
Canada vs T&T (men) - 9 pm
Saturday:
Japan vs T&T (women) - 2 pm
Canada vs Chile (women) - 4 pm
Chile vs T&T (men) - 6.30pm
Sunday:
Third place playoff (women): 2 pm
Canada vs Chile (men) - 4.30 pm
Gold medal match (women) - 7 pm.