The quintet of vice-captain Dwain Quan Chan, Kwandwane Browne, Wayne Legerton, Kiel Murray and Dillet Gilkes were all on target as this country’s senior men’s hockeymen spanked Brazil 5-2 to make a winning start to Pool B play at the fourth Pan American Cup, Brampton, Toronto, Canada, yesterday.
The local squad skippered by Darren Cowie was originally carded to meet Chile in its opener on Saturday, however due to travel delays, the T&T Hockey Board made a request for a change in fixture to the Pan American Hockey Board, which was agreed too.
The change in fixtures now sees T&T playing Chile on Monday along with the Uruguay and USA match after the South Americans were delayed due to severe storms which resulted in their plane being struck by lightning.
Despite their late arrival in Canada, the “Calypso Stickmen” adjusted well to the spanking new surface quickly and went ahead against the South Americans as early as the third minute through Quan Chan from field goal play before 35-year-old Browne, made it 2-0 in the 29th, in his 288th international match, having played in all Pan American competitions since 1999.
On the resumption, T&T ranked 30th in the world continued to dominate, but some sloppy defensive work at the other end allowed Brazil to pull a goal back via Bruno Paes in the 45th minute.
However, that was as close as the Brazilians came as Legerton rifled home a third from penalty-corner play in the 54th followed by a solo effort from Murray in the 59th for a 4-1 cushion and Gilkes, with a close range rebound four minutes from the final whistle to complete T&T’s scoring. Brazil ended the match on a high though, with a last minute penalty-corner conversion from Stephane Vehrle-Smith.
With the win, T&T moved to top spot in the pool ahead of Canada, which defeated the Brazilians 3-1 on Saturday.
Speaking after the match, Browne said the team was extremely pleased to get the win under their belt especially seeing how tough the Brazilians played against Canada on Saturday.
He added, “The early goal by Dwain was key to helping us settle our nerves and now we have some confidence to take into our next match.”
Today, T&T will play Chile from 5pm followed by Canada tomorrow at 7pm to end round-robin group play. When the tournament began on Saturday, top ranked team Argentina took advantage of a young and inexperienced Mexican team with a 13-2 triumph led by five goals from Facundo Gallioni while it also crushed USA 8-0 yesterday for a 2-0 record and maximum six points while Mexico edged Uruguay, 2-1. At the end of the pool round-robin series, the top two teams will advance to the cross-over semifinals while third and fourth go to semifinals for fifth to eighth spot ahead of the final playoffs for bronze and gold. The winner of the tournament qualifies for next year’s Men’s World Cup in The Hague, Holland while the top six teams qualify for the 2017 Men’s Pan American Cup.
Teams placed seventh and eight will play in the 2015 Men’s Pan American Challenge. Argentina, ranked tenth in the world has already qualified for the World Cup after their superb performance at the recent FIH World League semifinal in Johor, Malaysia, where they finished second to Germany, but ahead of England and Korea.
Tournament results:
Saturday:
Pool A: Argentina 13 (Facundo Gallioni 3rd, 4th, 4th, 56th, 59th, Matias Paredes 1st, 33rd, Guido Barreiros 21st, 68th, Lucas Vila 22nd, Guillermo Schickendantz 33rd, own-goal 50th, Leandro Tolini 67th) vs Mexico 2 (Argenis Garcia 52nd, Oscar Rosales 59th)
Pool B:
Canada 3 (David Jameson 30th, Matthew Sormento 49th, Keegan Pereira 55th) vs Brazil 1 (Ernst Rost 43rd)
Yesterday:
Pool A: Mexico 2 (Guillermo Pedraza 56th, Alex Valdes 62nd) vs Uruguay 1 (Maximilano Tixe 64th)
Argentina 8 (Guillermo Schickendantz 17th, 50th, Facundo Gallioni 5th, Lucas Vila 9th, Matias Paredes 30th, Juan Martin Lopez 42nd, Matias Rey 56th, Pedro Ibarra 65th) vs USA 0
Pool B: T&T 5 (Dwain Quan Chan 3rd, Kwandwane Browne 29th, Wayne Legerton 54th, Kiel Murray 59th, Dillet Gilkes 66th) vs Brazil 2 (Bruno Paes 45th, Stephane Vehrle-Smith 70th)
Chile vs Canada (late match)
Today:
Pool A: USA vs Uruguaym, 3 pm
Pool B: Chile vs T&T, 5 pm
Wednesday:
Pool A: Mexico vs USA, 11am; Argentina vs Uruguay, 5 pm
Pool B: Brazil vs Chile, 9 am; Canada vs T&T, 7 pm
Thursday:
5th—8th semifinals
1st—4th semifinals
Saturday:
final playoffs: