‘Stickmen’ in must-win match against Chile

T&T’s junior men’s hockey team will need to win its final match against Chile tomorrow, to have any chance of qualifying for the FIH 10th Men’s Junior World Cup. The local stickmen suffered a 5-0 loss to Canada in their first of two second round main draw Pool E matches at the Pan American Junior (Under-21) Hockey Championship in Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico, yesterday. After an evenly matched first ten minutes at the Pan American Hockey Stadium, Canada took the lead in the 12th, when Keegan Pereira scored on his team’s second penalty-corner attempt. Ten minutes later, he doubled the lead with another penalty corner while Andrew Kanerva added a 30th-minute field goal for a 3-0 advantage at the half. Seven minutes into the second half, Gordon Johnston slammed home his team’s third penalty corner of the match for a 4-0 cushion while Kanerva added a 65th-minute field goal to put his team on the brink of qualification for the gold medal match.

The Canadians will play their final match in the three-team pool against Chile today from 3.45 pm while the latter faces T&T from 3.30 pm tomorrow.

 

Chile was second in Pool C after beating Barbados 6-1 and drawing with Venezuela 2-2, before going under to eventual group winner, USA, 0-2. In the other main draw second round Pool D match Argentina (Pool A winner) clobbered Pool B runner-up Mexico, 10-1 and faces Pool C winner, USA, in its final match tomorrow from 1.45 pm. Today, the Mexicans will have a chance to redeem themselves against USA. Also today, the T&T’s junior women will meet Uruguay in the second of two fifth to eighth place semifinals from 11.45 am. T&T ended in fourth spot in the six-team Pool B round-robin series with three points from five matches, the same as Paraguay and Jamaica. However, T&T ended with a better goal difference of minus-13 to Paraguay’s minus-19 and Jamaica’s minus-23. Chile won the group with maximum 15 points, three more than USA which also qualified for the main draw semifinals against Argentina and Canada, the top two teams in Pool A.