The Guyana ladies endured a tough debut match at their first ever Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) Cup being staged in Mendoza, Argentina, going down to Canada 0-8.
On a freezing cold evening, with temperatures hovering around 0oc and strong gusts of winds, the Guyanese ladies braved the unfamiliar conditions to face the tough opposition of Canada at the newly opened Mendocino hockey stadium in Mendoza.
The Canadians, ranked 23rd in the world, would have been confident in knowing that in a recent warmup 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 some composure and suffered an opening goal when Canadian 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 would continue 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 organised 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 for Guyana, the team took away a lot of positives from the match. Fernandes indicated that the last time Guyana played against Canada in an international competition was in the 2012 World League where Canada won 10-0.
In the other pool, the U.S. A. defeated Mexico 6-0, while Chile and Uruguay played to a nil-all draw.
