T&T senior national men’s hockey team will go into Thursday’s final set of round-robin matches in the five-team Indoor Pan American Hockey Cup in Alberta, Canada needing one win from their matches against winless Guyana and table-topper Argentina to cement a top-four finish and a place in the semifinals.
This after T&T went under to 2008 competition winner USA 3-4 at the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex & Chief Jim Starlight Centre, they remain on three points after two matches, three points behind the Americans and Argentina.
The Americans who defeated Guyana 5-3 on Tuesday night went ahead against the ‘Calypso Stickmen’ as early as the third minute with Mickell Pierre getting the Raphael Govia-coached T&T, 7-3 winners over Canada in their opener, on even terms.
The teams remained locked at 1-1 until Koehl Comiskey regained the lead for USA in 22nd, and six minutes later Adam Miller made it 3-1, but within a blink of an eye, Pierre got his second of the contest, and fourth in two matches to pull his team within one goal again.
However, USA’s Jack Weitzman then netted to extend his team’s lead to 4-2, but with five minutes remaining Tariq Marcano netted his second goal of the tournament to pull T&T within one goal yet again at 3-4.
“Today (Wednesday), we played to plan but it took us a while to get going our attacks weren’t as potent as yesterday nor our penalty corners, a couple defensive errors was also telling, we will again recoup tonight and prepare for a double header tomorrow (Thursday),” said Govia.
Tournament champions in 2017, T&T pressed forward in search of the equaliser, but it never came as the USA held on for the win to join Argentina on six points each ahead of their meeting last night.
On Tuesday night, the USA outclassed Guyana 5-3 led by a hat-trick from Ajai Dhadwal for their first win of the tournament while Argentina followed up their 9-5 defeat of Guyana by trouncing Canada 8-0 with Joaquin Gonzalez also netting a hat-trick for the South Americans.
In last night’s other match, winless duo, host Canada, winners of four of the first six editions of the competition (2002, 2005, 2010, 2014), came up against Guyana.
Thursday, the T&T men who are hoping to qualify for a third FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup appearance after participating in Vienna, Austria in 2007 and Berlin, Germany in 2018 will start the final day of round-robin versus Guyana at 3.45 pm, while the USA plays Canada from 7 pm, followed by T&T against Argentina from 8.15 pm to conclude the round-robin series.
At the end of the round-robin phase, the playoffs will begin on Friday with the top team playing the fourth-placed team while the second and third face off in the other semifinals, ahead of the bronze medal and gold medal matches.
The two finalists will also qualify for the World Cup after it was revealed by the FIH that teams’ qualification quotas were awarded following the FIH Indoor Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 for the top six teams whereby an additional spot was given to their respective continental federations, and not to a specific team.
The teams that will fill these additional quotas will also come from the Continental Championships 1 Austria (EuroHockey); 2 Netherlands ((EuroHockey); 3 Iran (AHF); 4 USA (PAHF); 5 Belgium (EuroHockey) and 6 South Africa (AfHF).
Therefore, Europe was awarded three additional quotas, to be filled by the second, third, and fourth-placed teams in the EuroHockey Men’s Indoor Championship 2024 while Africa, Asia, and Pan America were awarded one additional quota each to be filled by the second-placed teams in their respective Continental.
At the 2017 Indoor Pan American Cup in Georgetown, Guyana, T&T, coached by Govia, thrashed Argentina 7-0 in the final to qualify for the 2018 FIH Indoor World Cup.
However, the ‘Calypso Stickmen’ withdrew from the 2021 edition which was held in the USA with Argentina beating the host 4-2 in the decider of the three-team tournament which also featured Canada.
Results
Wednesday (March 20)
Session One:
USA 4 (Christian De Angelis 3rd, Koehl Comiskey 22nd, Adam Miller 28th, Jack Weitzman 32nd) vs T&T 3 (Mickell Pierre 11th, 28th, Tariq Marcano 35th)
Tuesday (March 19):
Session Two:
Argentina 8 (Joaquin Gonzalez 3rd, 15th, 16th pen, Juan Eleicegui 13th, 37th, Facundo Navarro 12th, Gaston Rodriguez 33rd, Alfredo Sosa 37th) vs Canada 0
USA 5 (Ajai Dhadwal 3rd, 30th, 34th, Jeroen Dijkem 15th, Jack Weitzman 23rd) vs Guyana 3 (Aroydy Branford 35th, 38th, Shaquon Favorite 29th)
Latest Standings
Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*GD*Pts
Argentina*2*2*0*0*17*5*12*6
USA*2*2*0*0*9*6*3*6
T&T*2*1*0*1*10*7*3*3
Guyana*2*0*0*2*8*14*-6*0
Canada*2*0*0*2*3*15*-12*0
Remaining round-robin matches:
Today (Thursday, March 21):
Guyana vs T&T, 3.45 pm
USA vs Canada, 7 pm
T&T vs Argentina, 8.15 pm