The national junior men’s team will go into action on Tuesday from 2 pm also against USA at the Junior Pan American Hockey Championship in Santiago, Chile as they look to secure a spot at the World Cup to be played in South Africa, later this year.
But, the T&T junior men will be doing so minus six players after they tested positive for the COVID-19 virus and were not allowed to travel to South America, leaving the Darren Cowie-coached squad down to 14 players.
The six players include Shawn Phillip, Ethan Reynos, Roshane Hamilton, Tyrese Benjamin, Caleb Guissepi and one of the two reserve players in Matthew Perreira.
The squad is being led by talented England-based Teague Marcano of English Hockey League Championship Division club, Hampstead & Westminster who arrived in Chile on Saturday and also features the Singh brothers of Paragon Tarell and Tariq, Ghardel Elcock, David Coker, and forwards Aidan Marcano and Justin Beharry.
The Americans come into the match in a must-win situation after they flicked off their campaign with a 2-0 loss to Argentina on Monday in the pool opener via a Martin Fernandez fourth minute goal and in the 48th by Bruno Stellato.
And a win for T&T today will assure Cowie’s men of a top two finish ahead of their meeting with Argentina on Wednesday from 3 pm.
In Pool A, Chile leads with maximum six points after wins over Brazil (2-0) and Canada (3-1).
Mexico is second in the pool ahead of Canada on goal-difference after Mexico whipped Brazil 6-1, and Canada defeated the Mexicans 3-1.
On Tuesday, in the two other matches Canada plays Brazil from 10 am and Mexico comes up against Chile at 4 pm.
The problems encountered by the participating teams are not limited to the T&T teams as the Argentina and USA have also been affected.
The Argentine teams travelled to Chile on one flight, however one member of the team tested positive and there entire contingent was sent back home and was replaced with two new teams as well as coaching staffs.
The USA men arrived in Chile 76 hours after testing in their country, four hours outside of the testing time frame and they were sent home to retest and return while three USA junior women players stayed home because they tested positive.
Results:
August 21:
Canada 3 vs Mexico 1
Chile 2 vs Brazil 0
Aug 22:
Mexico 6 vs Brazil 1
Chile 3 vs Canada 1
Aug 23:
Argentina 2 vs USA 0
Remaining schedule:
Aug 24:
Canada vs Brazil, 10 am
T&T vs USA, 2 pm
Mexico vs Chile, 4 pm
August 25:
Argentina vs T&T, 3 pm
August 27:
Seventh Playoff: Third Pool A vs Fourth Pool B, 10 am
Semifinal:
First Pool A vs 2nd Pool B, 2 pm
First Pool B vs 2nd Pool A, 4 pm
August 28:
Fifth Playoff: Winner of 7th place vs Third Pool B, 8 am
Third Playoff: Loser of semifinals, 2 pm
Final: Winners of semifinals, 4 pm