T&T senior men’s indoor hockey team got off to a slow start and paid the price as Australia ran out comfortable 7-2 winners in their Group B opener at the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup at the Plava Resort Sports Centre in Porec, Croatia, Monday (February 3).
Going into the match without first-choice goalkeeper Ron Alexander, who was voted as the “Most Valuable Player’ at the Pan American Indoor Cup in Canada last March due to a right ankle injury, T&T was up against it from very early with the quick-passing Aussies taking a 1-0 lead in the third minute through Thomas Miotto before he added another in the fourth minute while James Knee fired in the third item in the ninth minute as they threatened to put the match to bed before the halftime whistle.
In the second quarter, Australia again got out of the blocks quickly and extended their lead to 4-0 when Ben Staines got his name on the scoresheet inside the first minute of the restart, after which a more settled Darren Cowie-led ‘Calypso Stickmen’ put up a much better display and created a few chances of their own through Mickell Pierre, Jordan Vieira, and England-based Teague Marcano, but somehow they failed to get on the scoreboard as T&T trailed 4-1 at the halftime interval.
Marcano finally got T&T on the board when he fired past Benjamin Rennie on his near post to the delight of his teammates in the 23rd minute, but his goal only seemed to spark the Oceania champions back into life with Aiden Dooley scoring a quick-fire hat trick in the 24th, 25th, and 26th minutes aided by some sloppy defence work and goalkeeping from T&T’s Karlos Stephens to push the score to 7-1 before Shaquille Daniel added a late second item for T&T.
Commenting on the result, T&T coach Raphael Govia said the final score didn’t reflect how T&T played.
He added, “If anyone watched the game, we all looked off the pace, but this was because of the superior ball movement by the team that we were facing.
‘Australia moved the ball very quickly, but we still created a lot of chances and managed to win five short corners to their one, but we were unable to capitalise on them.”
“We also had alot of shots on target, but at the same time we also had a lot of shots off target while their keepers made some good saves, but not to my liking because our finishing on the day should have been a lot better, and that’s something we need to work on going forward for the rest of the tournament.”
Looking ahead, Govia noted that no more training sessions are actually carded due to the tight nature of the tournament fixtures, and his team will need to be much better when they come up against Namibia on Wednesday from 4.30 am (TT time).
“We are going to do our best to make sure that our hockey fraternity stays interested in the team at this tournament by going for a positive result.”
He added, “It must be noted that every game we are playing catch-up here in Croatia, as even the court is five yards wider and longer either way in comparison to what we have been preparing on at the Woodbrook Youth Facility.”
Asked for an injury update on goalkeeper Alexander and Marcano, who was struck on the nose in the late stages of the clash with the world fourth-ranked Aussies.
Govia said, Alexanders’ injury at this time looks optimistic for his recovery nonetheless, and we are hoping he will be ready by Wednesday for our next match against 17th-ranked Namibia; if not, Stephens will continue in goal.”
With regards to Marcano, the T&T coach said, “Teague (Marcano) got a cut on his nose from a tackle, and it was not bad enough for him to require stitches, which we are thankful for, and he will be fine and ready for our next match on Wednesday.”
The T&T team is making its third Indoor World Cup appearance after first doing so in 2007 in Vienna, Austria, and 11 years later in Berlin, Germany.
In 2007, the T&T men’s team was beaten by Germany (9-2), Russia (9-2), Switzerland (6-1), Australia (5-1), and the Czech Republic (6-1) before losing 4-2 to South Africa in their 11th to 12th position playoff.
At their second appearance in 2018, T&T went under to the Czech Republic (7-2), Poland (11-5), Australia (7-6), and Germany (10-2), while they picked up their first-ever World Cup win, 6-4, over Kazakhstan in pool play. However, in the playoff for the ninth spot, T&T was edged out by Russia 3-2.
The “Calypso Stickmen” will face Belgium, ranked third in the world, on Thursday in their final pool match, at the end of which the top eight ranked teams from the three pools (the top two in each pool and the two best third-placed teams) will contest the quarterfinals ahead of the semifinals, finals, and other playoff spots.
GROUPS
Pool A: No 1 Austria, No 22 Croatia, No 9 Poland, No 8 South Africa
Pool B: No 12 Argentina, No 5 Germany, No 2 Iran, No 22 Malaysia
Pool C: No 4 Australia, No 3 Belgium, No 14 Namibia, No 17 T&T
T&T Team
Ron Alexander (goalkeeper), Karlos Stephens (goalkeeper), Arielle Bowen, Solomon Eccles, Shaquille Daniel, Lyndel Byer, Jordan Reynos, Jordan Vieira, Tarell Singh, Darren Cowie (captain), Mikel Pierre, Teague Marcano, Dylan Francis, Nicholas Siu Butt.
Technical staff: Raphael Govia (coach), Akim Toussaint (assistant coach), Keshen Johnson (manager), Akil Howard (trainer/physiotherapist), Nicholas Baldeosingh (videographer).
Monday’s (February 3) Results
Group A
South Africa 8 vs Croatia 6
Austria 6 vs Poland 2
Group B
Germany 12 vs Malaysia 4
Iran 5 vs Argentina 3
Group C
Belgium 7 (Phillippe Simar 7th, 10th, 13th, Mallory Magnant 3rd, Gaeten Dykmans 34th, Maximillian Langer 36th, Tanguy Zimmer 40th) vs Namibia 4 (Dakota Hansen 3rd, John-Paul Britz 4th, 8th, Liam Hermanus 14th)
Australia 7 (Aiden Dooley 24th, 25th, 26th, Thomas Miotto 3rd, 4th, James Knee 9th, Ben Staines 10th) vs T&T 2 (Teague Marcano 23rd, Shaquille Daniel 25th)
Tuesday’s (February 4) men’s schedule
Argentina vs Malaysia, 4.30 am
Germany vs Iran, 5.50 am
South Africa vs Austria 12 noon
Poland vs Croatia, 1.20 pm