The Akim Toussaint-led T&T senior men's hockey squad put up a valiant effort before going under to USA 4-3 in their Pool B curtain-raiser of the Pan American Cup at the Prince of Wales Country Club, La Reina, Santiago, Chile, on Thursday.
Going into the clash against the 24th world-ranked Americans, the Darren Cowie-coached “Calypso Stickmen” ranked 37th in the world, were considered heavy underdogs due to their underwhelming preparations for the tournament which culminated with more than half of the team only arriving in South America on Tuesday night, with the last group arriving on Wednesday.
Despite those setbacks, T&T managed to hold the USA at bay for most of the opening 15 minute quarter.
However, in the 12th minute, the USA eventually took the lead via a field goal from Kei Kaeppeler, but that was shortlived as Jordan Vieira drew T&T level on the stroke of the first quarter interval with a field goal of his own.
The second period proved to be an even tighter affair than the first as both teams failed to add to their tally and went into the half-time break still locked at 1-all.
The Americans eventually restored their one-goal advantage 12 minutes into the third period thanks to Vincent Heller but the spirited T&T men then hit back with two goals within the space of a minute, firstly via a penalty-stroke from Tariq Marcano followed by Joel Daniel to take a shock 3-2 lead.
However, the USA caught T&T napping from the restart with Kaeppeler taking advantage of a penalty-corner set play to pull his team level at 3-3 going into the final 15-minute quarter.
With six minutes left on the clock, Kaeppeler fired in the decisive item for the USA from the penalty spot and despite the valiant efforts of the T&T men, the score ended 4-3 in favour of the Americans.
Speaking after the match, T&T's Teague Marcano said his teammates could be proud of the effort they put in.
Earlier in the opening Pool B match, Canada trounced Mexico 11-1 led by a Gordon Johnston hat-trick to lead the four-team pool on goal difference.
Last night in the lone Pool A match, three-time winners Argentina defeated Brazil, 10-0, while matches will resume tomorrow (on Saturday) with T&T facing Mexico from 1 pm followed by USA and Canada at 4.15 pm and Chile against Argentina at 5.30 pm.
The men's round-robin phase of the competition will conclude on Monday (January 24) with T&T facing Canada from 1 pm followed by the USA versus Mexico, and Argentina doing battle with Mexico.
At the end of round-robin play, the top team from each pool will advance to the main draw semifinals on January 28, while the second and third-placed teams will meet in cross-over quarterfinals to determine the other semifinal qualifiers, two days earlier.
The two semifinal winners will then secure the two Pan American spots to the 2023 FIH Odisha World Cup in India.
January 20 results:
Canada 11 (Gordon Johnston 17th, 33rd, 48th pen, Fin Boothroyd 11th, 19th, Keegan Pereira 22nd, Oliver Scholfield 26th, James Kirkpatrick 40th, Matthew Sarmento 40th, Floris Van Son 44th, Brendan Guraliuk 55th vs Mexico 1 (Jorge Aguilar 52nd)
USA 4 (Kei Kaeppeler 12th, 45th, 54th pen,
Vincent Heller 42nd) vs T&T 3 (Jordan Vieira 15th, Tariq Marcano 44th pen, Joel Daniel 45th).
Argentina 10 (Maico Casella 4th, 24th, 29th, 43rd, Jose Tolini 9th, Lucas Martinez 20th, Nicolas della Torre 26th, Tomas Domene 28th, Santiago Tarazona 35th, Agustin Bugallo 30th) vs Brazil 0.
Remaining schedule:
Saturday (January 22):
Mexico vs T&T, 2 pm
USA vs Canada, 4.15 pm
Chile vs Argentina, 5.30 pm
Monday (January 24):
Canada vs T&T, 2 pm
Mexico vs USA, 4.15 pm
Brazil vs Chile, 5.30 pm
Wednesday (January 26):
Cross-Over quarterfinals:
2nd Pool A vs 3rd Pool B, 3 pm
2nd Pool B vs 3rd Pool A, 5.30 pm
January 28:
5th to 6th playoff, 12.30 pm
Semifinals: 3 pm & 5.30 pm
January 30:
Third place and Final playoffs, 1.30 pm & 4 pm