Canada men finished pool play at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara with a 100 per cent win record following their third their third victory of the competition.
A 10-0 win against Barbados confirmed that they topped Pool A, setting up a Semi Final meeting with Chile, runners up in Pool B. The second semi final will be contested between Argentina and Chile, with a place in the final and a shot at qualification for the London 2012 Olympic Games at stake.
Canada asserted itself early in the match and took a three goal lead over Barbados in the first 10 minutes of play! Adam Froese opened the scoring in the 3rd minute, celebrating in style his 50th international cap for Canada (as did goal-keeper David Carter), then Keegan Pereira and Matthew Guest put the contest out of reach of Barbados before it had really started.
Matthew Guest doubled his tally in the 16 minute and Scott Tupper added two penalty-corners to reach half-time with a comfortable 6-0 lead, which could have been heavier without a number of excellent saves from the goal-keeper from Barbados.
Scott Tupper completed his hat-trick of penalty corners in the 46th minute, then Mark Pearson and Rob Short added goals before Matthew Guest also scored in the 62nd minute for his second hat-trick of the competition.
"We beat Barbados today, and in doing so secured first place in our pool - so we're obviously happy about that," says Head Coach Robin D'Abreo. "Our game plan against Barbados was to stick to what we normally do as a team... play to our capability and still play a team game - and that was certainly reflected in the scoreline today. I'm excited about the performance and looking forward to the next game."
"The game felt good - we felt confident going into it," says Scott Tupper. "We didn't give up any penalty corners and we put the ball in the net. We're looking forward to the semi-finals... we're going to get a couple of days' rest and be ready to go on Thursday."
"The boys played well today," says Adam Froese. "We got a couple of goals in early, which brought the confidence level up and allowed us to work on tactics for future games. We've got the semi-finals now and hopefully the finals after - we hope to bring the same strong performance to those... I scored my first official goal for Team Canada today and it feels great."
The results for the tournament thus far can be found below. All official tournament information including detailed reports, results, tables, match sheets, scorers lists and photos can be found on the website of the Pan American Hockey Federation by clicking the following link: http://www.panamhockey.org/en/competitions
Source material - Field Hockey Canada Media Release.
Results
Wednesday 19th October 2011
09:00 Women's Group A Game 1 Argentina v Trinidad & Tobago 11-0 (6-0)
11:00 Women's Group A Game 2 Canada v Barbados 10-0 (6-0)
14:00 Women's Group B Game 3 United States v Mexico 5-0 (3-0)
16:00 Women's Group B Game 4 Chile v Cuba 6-0 (3-0)
Thursday 20th October 2011
09:00 Men’s Group A Game 1 Canada v Trinidad & Tobago 7-2 (4-2)
11:00 Men's Group A Game 2 Chile v Barbados 9-1 (4-0)
14:00 Men's Group B Game 3 Argentina v Mexico 8-0 (3-0)
16:00 Men's Group B Game 4 USA v Cuba 2-4 (1-1)
Friday 21st October 2011
09:00 Women's Group B Game 5 Mexico v Cuba 1-3 (0-2)
11:00 Women's Group B Game 6 Chile v USA 1-2 (2-4)
14:00 Women's Group A Game 7 Trinidan & Tobago v Barbados 2-4 (1-3)
16:00 Women's Group A Game 8 Canada v Argentina 3-7 (3-4)
Saturday 22nd October 2011
09:00 Men's Pool B Game 5 Mexico v Cuba 1-2 (0-0)
11:00 Men's Pool B Game 6 USA v Argentina 0-2 (0-1)
14:00 Men's Pool A Game 7 Trinidad & Tobago v Barbados 11-1 (5-1)
16:00 Men's Pool A Game 8 Chile v Canada 0-4 (0-1)
Sunday 23rd October 2011
09:00 Women's Pool A Game 9 Argentina v Barbados 19-0 (10-0)
11:00 Women's Pool A Game 10 Trinidad & Tobago v Canada 1-2 (1-0)
14:00 Women's Pool B Game 11 USA v Cuba 9-0 (6-0)
16:00 Women's Pool B Game 12 Mexico v Chile 0-1 (0-0)
Monday 24th October 2011
09:00 Men's Pool A Game 9 Canada v Barbados 10-0 (6-0)
11:00 Men's Pool A Game 10 Trinidad & Tobago v Chile 1-3 (0-1)
14:00 Men's Pool B Game 11 Argentina v Cuba 10-1 (4-1)
16:00 Men's Pool B Game 12 Mexico v USA 3-2 (3-2)
Fixtures
Wednesday 26th October 2011
09:00 Women's 5-8 Match 13 Barbados v Mexico
11:00 Women's Semi Final Match 14 Argentina v Chile
15:00 Women's Semi Final Match 15 USA v Canada
17:30 Women's 5-8 Match 15 Cuba v Trinidad & Tobago
Thursday 27th October 2011
09:00 Men's 5-8 Match 13 Trinidad & Tobago v USA
11:00 Men's Semi Final Match 14 Canada v Cuba
15:00 Men's Semi Final Match 15 Argentina v Chile
17:30 Men's 5-8 Match 15 Mexico v Barbados
Friday 28th October 2011
09:00 Women's 7-8 Match 17
11:30 Women's 5-6 Match 18
15:00 Women's 3-4 Match 19
17:30 Women's Final Match 20
Saturday 29th October 2011
09:00 Men's 7-8 Match 17
11:30 Men's 5-6 Match 18
15:00 Men's 3-4 Match 19
17:30 Men's Final Match 20
All times are local (GMT -5)
Hockey at Guadalajara 2011
Who: The Men and women of Argentina, USA, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Cuba, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago.
Where: The Pan American Hockey Stadium, Revolución Sports Complex, 3232 Pablo Neruda Avenue, Providencia Zone, Guadalajara, Jalisco, México. (Capacity: 1870)
When: 19th - 29th October 2011
The Prize: The men’s and women’s Gold medalists will secure a place at the London 2012 Olympics.
The FIH website will be posting regular updates of the hockey action from Guadalajara. More information about the 2011 Pan American Games can be found at the official event website: www.guadalajara2011.org.mx
