Guyana stickwomen suffer second loss

Sep 24, 2013 Sports

Guyana’s stickwomen despite a more spirited performance suffered their second consecutive loss when they were edged 1-0 by Caribbean counterpart Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday, at the fourth Pan Am Cup in Mendoza, Argentina.
The Guyanese who had lost 8-0 to Canada in their opening game was unfortunate not to share the points with the Trinidadians due to an own goal that came in the 4th minute of play which gave the Trinis three valuable points and places them third in Pool A behind Argentina and Canada.

The Guyana national hockey team seen shortly before the start of their opening game against Canada at the Pan Am Cup in Argentina.

Trinidad and Tobago managed to rebound after suffering a 12-0 defeat to the hands of the Argentines in their opening clash.
Meanwhile, in a report on the Guyanese opening fixture it stated that the Guyana ladies competition endured a tough debut match. On a freezing cold evening, with temperatures hovering around 0 cc and strong gusts of winds, the Guyanese ladies braved the unfamiliar conditions to face the tough opposition of Canada here at the newly opened Mendocino Hockey Stadium. The Canadians ranked 23rd in the world would have been confident in knowing that in a recent warm up tour to Canada, the 58th ranked Guyanese had difficulty managing their Provincial teams.
Canada piled the pressure onto the Guyanese deep defense from the opening whistle making it difficult for Guyana to outlet the ball comfortably from the back. The strategy worked for Canada as the Guyanese struggled to find composure and suffered an opening goal when striker Hannah Haughn scored her team’s first goal with a powerful reverse stick strike five minutes into the match.
With the pressure producing several counterattacks for Canada, Guyanese sweeper Ulrica Sutherland and goalkeeper Alysa Xavier were called upon several times to rescue the team with some brilliant individual tackles and goalkeeping respectively.
Canada continued the pressure as the half wore on by scoring three more field goals through a tip in from Thea Culley, a kind rebound finish by Abigail Raye and a swift strike by Jessica Barnett.
Guyana looked a more organized unit in the second half, but still had difficulty penetrating a cohesive and well-rehearsed Canadian defense. Midfielders Marzana Fiedtkou and Leigh Sandison were steady in the midfield, but the Canadians were able to reduce their passing options and smother Guyana’s attacks quickly. While the field goal opportunities for the Canadians in the second half did not come quite as easily, they still managed to score four more goals in the second half with two being field goals and two by way of penalty corners. Thea Culley managed to put her name on the score sheet once more in the second half haul while teammates Caashia Carrington, Brienne Stairs and Stephanie Norlander completed the list of scorers with one each.
According to Coach Philip Fernandes, while the result was disappointing, the team took away a lot of positives from the match. Fernandes indicated that the last time Guyana played against Canada in International competition was in the 2012 World League where Canada won 10 – 0. The coach indicated that the team was incrementally better against opposition who has better facilities and resources which in itself is a success. He went on to mention that while he was hoping for a closer score line, it was unrealistic to reverse such a great disparity in one year under the given conditions of the two countries.
In the other pool, the USA defeated Mexico by 6-0, while Chile and Uruguay played to a 0-0 draw.