T&T men's hockey team will be out to pull off a major upset when they come up against Ireland in the first quarterfinal of the FIH World Hockey League Men's Round Two qualifiers at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Centre, San Diego, California, from 12.30 pm today.
The Solomon Eccles-captain 30th ranked "Calypso Stickmen" will enter the match as underdogs after ending their four-team Pool B round-robin play bottom of the table without a point.
This follows a 3-0 loss to 14th ranked Canada in their final Pool B match on Tuesday, on the heels of losses to Russia (1-6) on Saturday, and USA (1-7), a day later.
For Canada, Mark Pearson opened the scoring in the 18th minute while Iain Smythe (53rd) and Matthew Sarmento (55th) added late items.
However, in the loss to the Canadians, the Glen "Fido" Francis-coached T&T squad which was boosted by the arrival of England-based Kwandwane Browne, had a much better showing defensively than in its previous two matches, and will need more of the same against the Irish as it has only scored twice, through youngsters, Shaquille Daniel and Tariq Marcano.
Irleand, meanwhile, ranked 15th in the world came into the qualifiers as one of the favourites and have so far more than justified that tag with a trio of high quality performances. A Mitch Darling hat-trick helped the Ireland "Green Machine" record an 8-0 win over 25th ranked on the opening day before victories over European rivals, 22nd ranked Austria (3-1) and 32nd ranked Italy (2-0) to ensured that they topped Pool A with a 100 per cent win record and nine points .
Ireland has scored the most goals in the tournament to date, 13 led by Darling (three) and Shane O'Donoghue and Alan Sothern, with two each and six other players with a goal each, making it a very threatening line-up against a T&T team which has conceded the most goals to date, 16.
In the other quarterfinals, Canada which ended second in Pool B with six points faces Pool A third placed finisher Italy from 2.45pm followed by Pool A runner-up Austria against USA, third in Pool B from 5 pm, and Pool B winners, Russia versus fourth placed Pool A team, Chile, at 7.15 pm
Following today's match, the winners will advance to Saturday's main draw semifinal while the losers meet in fifth to eighth playoffs. The finals and other playoff matches are carded for Sunday at the end of which the top three teams will qualify to the Hockey World League semi-finals (Round Three), where coveted berths at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games are up for grabs.
Malaysia, Poland and Japan all qualified for the HWL Semi-Finals thanks to top three finishes at the event in Singapore (SIN) earlier this year while the remaining qualifiers involving host South Africa, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, France and Switzerland takes place in Cape Town from Saturday until March 15.
Tuesday's results
Pool A:
Ireland 2 (Eugene Magee 5th, Shane O'Donoghue 52nd) vs Italy 0
Austria 5 (Michael Korper 14th, 38th, Alexander Bele 26th, Dominic Uher 29th, Robert Bele 30th) vs Chile 1 (Nicolas Renz 6th)
Pool B:
Canada 3 (Mark Pearson 18th, Iain Smythe 53rd, Matthew Sarmento 55th) vs T&T 0
Russia 4 (Denis Shchipachev 22nd, 24th, Anton Kornilov 8th, Pavel Golubev 27th) vs USA 2 (Christian Linney 37th, Alex Cunningham 42nd)
Final round robin standings
Pool A:
Teams P W D L F A Pts
Ireland 3 3 0 0 13 1 9
Austria 3 2 0 1 9 5 6
Italy 3 1 0 2 3 6 3
Chile 3 0 0 3 2 15 0
Pool B:
Russia 3 3 0 0 12 4 9
Canada 3 2 0 1 9 4 6
USA 3 1 0 2 11 10 3
T&T 3 0 0 3 2 16 0
Today's quarterfinals:
Ireland vs T&T, 12.30pm
Canada vs Italy, 2.45pm
Austria vs USA, 5pm
Russia vs Chile, 7.15pm