A Review – Hockey at CAC Games

Guyana’s National Women’s Hockey team to the Central American and Caribbean Games in Vera Cruz, Mexico are back at their respective home bases – some here in Guyana and others in other countries.In five matches – Guyana won two, drew one and lost two – ending 6th in the tournament. The result means they failed to qualify for the 2015 Pan American Games next year.
Philip Fernandes is the President of the Guyana Hockey Board and doubled as coach for the ladies.
‘I’m pleased the women’s team was competitive in all their matches and that in itself is an achievement.’
But there were some factors against the ladies before they left these shores – the lack of an artificial surface and the opportunity to train together as a unit.
Guyana lost to the Dominican Republic in their opening match. They would eventually lose in the final on penalties.
“I do think that had an impact and that was unfortunate because the tactics specifically to make it a cohesive unit will take a little time and in fact by the time the first game, several of our overseas players I do not think performed well in that game. They took a little time to adjust into what we were doing in training all along. Coming out of that match I was a little bit disappointed, but it wasn’t a loss to an easy team, it was a loss to a tough team.
“We beat Bermuda, drew with Trinidad and Tobago. It was the first time we drew against Trinidad (&Tobago) as long back as I can remember and we’ve always lost to them, so that was an achievement in itself.”
“Three games down at that stage – one loss, one win and one draw in that order. The draw with T&T ruined Guyana’s chances of making the semifinals”, Fernandes continued.
“The semifinal was my goal. I was hoping to make the semifinal, which would have meant us playing in the top four. We failed to do that and then after that we beat Jamaica and lost to Barbados, which means we failed to come 5th.”
He believes there was not much of a separation on the level of play from the teams, particularly around the half way stage of the tournament.
“I think that the teams around the middle of the tournament like Barbados, Mexico, Guyana, and so on were close enough that the outcome may change if they played each other on several different days. You know if a team is like 15 percent better than the other team then you’d say that they consistently win but we were close enough that if we’d played again the outcome would have been different”.
The team’s fitness was never really called into question, but ideally Fernandes was hoping for a fitter unit.
“I think we definitely could have benefitted from a good fitness programme. We’ve used fitness trainers in the past but they cost money and so sometimes when you’re a little bit cash strapped, we need to go it on our own and our coaches themselves develop their own fitness programmes for the ladies.
“We weren’t trailing the pack, I think that our fitness in fact played out well in some of the matches because the final 10 minutes of both the Jamaica and Barbados matches we were in absolute domination of the matches and I think it had to do with their fitness failing and we continued going, but certainly we were not at peak fitness or as fit as the team could have been, that would always be a benefit if we could get it somewhere better.”
He has identified an area that needs more work in the future if the ladies are to become a dominant unit – the link between attacking, creating scoring opportunities and converting those chances into goals.
“We have managed to control our possession in defence going into midfield – the problem we have right now is that transition in the final third of the field when we’re attacking – the transition of getting the ball from the midfield area into the forwards and the forwards creating goal scoring opportunities- is where we’re failing.”
“I think it has to do with the individual ability of the strikers upfront and also the ability of the midfield to get the ball at the right place at the right time to give them an advantage. That is the area we want to focus on. If you can’t score you can’t win,” he said.
The ladies take a break for the season – training together as a unit. They however will be back in action this week for the Diamond Mineral Water International Hockey Festival.
Their major overseas engagement in 2015 – the PAHF Challenge in Peru subject to the availability of funds.

(By Leeron Brumell)

 

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All our printed editions are available online
emblem3
Subscribe to the Guyana Chronicle.
Sign up to receive news and updates.
We respect your privacy.