..advance to Pan Am semifinals
Akim Toussaint scored two first-half goals as T&T “Calypso Stickmen” whipped Chile 5-1 for their second straight win in Pool B play at the fourth Pan American Cup, Brampton, Toronto, Canada, yesterday to seal a semifinal spot.
After a nervous opening by T&T during which goalkeeper Andrey Rocke had to make two early saves, the Calypso Stickmen went ahead wit a goal by Akim Toussaint in the 12th minute through a penalty-corner conversion and two minutes later, Mickell Pierre doubled the lead with a close range finish.
Seven minutes from the half, Toussaint capped off a cleverly worked penalty corner play to put T&T 3-0 ahead.
Eleven minutes into the second-half, Dwain Quan Chan extended T&T’s lead to 4-0 and within a minute substitute Wayne Legerton added a fifth item before Jan Berczely pulled a goal back for Chile in the 59th minute. With the win which avenged a 4-0 loss to the Chileans at the FIH World League Round Two, which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil earlier this year, T&T improved to maximum six points from two matches, two ahead of host Canada, which squandered a 2-0 lead in a 2-2 draw with Chile on Sunday night.
Speaking after the match, Toussaint said the team was delighted with the win as they entered the match with a game plan and stuck to it.
Today is a rest day in the tournament and when matches resume tomorrow, the 30th world ranked T&T with a best ever finish of fourth in 2004 also in Canada, will need only a draw against Canada to top the group and avoid Pan Am powerhouse Argentina, in the semifinals.
A win for Canada will relegate T&T, 5-2 winners over Brazil on Sunday, to second spot in the group. In yesterday’s other match, USA slammed Uruguay 12-0 for its first win in Pool A play after two matches, the same as Mexico while Argentina leads the group with maximum six points.
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.
If, however, they win in Brampton, the runner-up would not benefit from an automatic World Cup berth.
Results:
Sunday: Pool B:
Chile 2 (Sven Richter 54th, Jose Zirpel 56th) vs Canada 2 (Matthew Guest 21st, Matthew Sormento 27th)
Yesterday:
Pool A: USA 12 (Christian Linney 3rd, 4th, 18th, 36th, 40th, Pat Harris 37th, 47th, 59th, 63rd, Kevin Barber 24th, 27th, Parmeet Singh 43rd) vs Uruguay 0
Pool B: T&T 5 (Akim Toussaint 12th, 28th, Mickell Pierre 14th, Dwain Quan Chan 46th, Wayne Legerton 47th) vs Chile 1 (Jan Berczely 59th).
Tomorrow’s matches: Pool A: Mexico vs USA, 11 am; Argentina vs Uruguay, 5 pm
Pool B: Brazil vs Chile, 9 am; Canada vs T&T, 7 pm