Guyana suffer loss to Argentina
GUYANA’S national male hockey team opened their 2010 Indoor Pan American hockey championships with a heartbreaking 0-2 loss to South American powerhouse Argentina in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, last Monday. Argentina drew first blood in the fourth minute when Gaston Luna broke down the left band and sent a powerful shot towards the goal which was saved by the Guyanese custodian Azad De Abreu, but unfortunately for Guyana, the ball rebounded right back to Luna who made no mistake with his second attempt.
Argentina were then awarded a penalty stroke in the ninth minute when one of their forwards was adjudged to be fouled in Guyana’s D by De Abreu.
The Argentine flick went wide left, much to the relief of the Guyanese bench who had their time to jump up when their teammates on the field responded immediately with a well worked free hit from the right hand side of the Argentine D resulting in a Robert Fernandes shot on goal.
Although the Argentine keeper made the save he surrendered a penalty corner trying to stifle Marvin Dannett’s attempt at the rebound but Shane Samuels’ powerful penalty stroke, which was a direct flick, was stopped from scoring by the face of one of the defenders.
This resulted in the Guyanese gaining a penalty flick which Dwayne Scott stepped up to take, but once again Guyana was denied the opportunity of levelling the score when the Argentine keeper pulled off another spectacular save.
Argentina then added insult to injury when Andres Fava converted a penalty corner in the 18th minute which sent his side two goals up before lemon time, during which they had several opportunities to add to their lead, but some resolute defence from the Guyanese turned back all their penalty corner attempts.
The second half started evenly before Guyana slowly took control of play and in the 32nd minute, they were rewarded with another penalty corner, which resulted in Leandro Leotta being given two minutes in the penalty box for receiving his second green card.
Despite numerous opportunities Guyana failed to take advantage of their numerical advantage on the field and was forced to pull their keeper with three minutes left in the game to try and force their way back into the game.
The play worked well for them, as they were awarded a penalty corner but this time it was Devin Munroe’s flick that sailed wide of the mark.
That was Guyana’s last real chance of the game, as they were left to think about what could have been as they left the court bitterly disappointed.
Their next match was against Canada yesterday, while they play Peru and Venezuela tomorrow, with the top two teams from the two Men’s pools advancing to the semifinal knockout stage.