T&T senior hockeywomen will be eager to rebound from their 16-0 drubbing against USA on Wednesday when they come up against Peru in their second Group B match, a must-win fixture in the Pan American Cup at the Prince of Wales Country Club, La Reina, Santiago, Chile from 1 pm on Friday (January 21).
The Pan Am Cup is a qualifier for the 2022 Women's FIH Hockey World Cup which will be the 15th edition of the Women's FIH Hockey World Cup, and will be held in Terrassa, Spain and Amstelveen, the Netherlands from July 1-17, 2022.
With USA and Canada, who crushed Peru 14-0 in their opener expected to battle it out for the automatic semifinal spot as group winners, the fight is on between the Anthony Marcano-coached T&T women and Peru to finish third and earn the final spot available to the cross-over quarterfinals behind the second-placed group finishers.
Today's meeting between the 48th-ranked “Calypso Stickwomen” and the 34th-ranked Peru will be the third in recent times with both teams splitting their duels at the Pan American Women Challenge, the qualifier for this competition, last September in Lima, Peru.
When both teams met in the round-robin stage of the four-team qualifying event, T&T got a last gasp goal from Brianna Govia to earn a 1-0 win.
However, the Peruvians had the last laugh and exacted revenge in the final, 2-0 setting the stage for an interesting match-up this time around.
For today's encounter coach Marcano and his 18-member squad will start as slight favourites though with the inclusion of seven more experienced players in the team who were not part of the team in Lima. Inclusive of Long Island University quartet of Felicia King, and the Olton sisters, Kaitlyn, Samantha and Saarah as well as USA-based Tamia Roach, and Australian-based Kimberly Young.
On the other hand, the Peruvians have only travelled with 15 players, one of whom was not part of the contingent for their last meeting with T&T.
In today's other matches, 15th-ranked USA and 13th-ranked Canada lock horns from 3.15 pm in Group B while in the lone Group A match, third-ranked Argentina buoyed by its 6-0 defeat of Uruguay faces Chile, ranked 18th from 5.30 pm.
On Sunday's (January 23) final day of round-robin, the local women play Canada from 1 pm while USA plays Peru from 3.15 pm, and in Pool A, Chile meets Uruguay from 5.30 pm.
At the end of the round-robin pool play, the top team from each pool will advance directly to the main draw semifinals on January 27 while the second and third-placed teams in each pool meet in cross-over quarterfinals two days earlier to determine the two remaining semifinal qualifiers.
Both finalists and the third-place finishers in the Pan American competition which ends on January 29 will earn places at the 16-team FIH World Cup.
This is the fourth time the T&T women are appearing in the competition after making their debut in 2004 in Barbados when they ended eighth.
T&T then qualified in 2009 and placed fourth in Bermuda, and four years later they ended seventh in Argentina.
Remaining schedule:
January 21:
Peru vs T&T, 1 pm
USA vs Canada, 3.15 pm
Chile vs Argentina, 5.30 pm
January 23:
Canada vs T&T, 2 pm
Peru vs USA, 4.15 pm
Uruguay vs Chile, 5.30 pm
January 25:
Cross-Over quarterfinals
2nd Pool A vs 3rd Pool B, 3 pm
2nd Pool B vs 3rd Pool A, 5.30 pm
January 27:
5th to 6th playoff, 12.30 pm
Semifinals: 3 pm & 5.30 pm
January 30:
Third place and Final playoffs, 3 pm & 5.30 pm
