…forced to play for bronze medal

THE country’s national women’s hockey team on Friday suffered their only loss of the Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) challenge series to table toppers Mexico in Bermuda.
Guyana, playing a must-win game against the top-ranked power- house could not adjust to the speed and experience of the Mexicans as they lost 4-nil.
The loss pushed Guyana down the leader board to third with Paraguay going ahead of them on goal difference.

Guyana had to beat Mexico or draw to reach the final where they would meet Mexico again for the gold medal.
However, because Paraguay went down 3-0 to Mexico and secured a 2-0 win against Bermuda, they moved ahead due to a superior goal difference to Guyana, with both teams taking only one win in the competition.
Guyana’s lone win was against Brazil, 1-0, with draws against Paraguay and Bermuda, while Paraguay beat Bermuda 2-0 , lost to Mexico 3-0 and drew with Brazil.
Guyana will now battle for third place against Bermuda or Brazil.

Head coach of the women’s team, Phillip Fernandes, told the Guyana Chronicle that Mexico lived up to their billing as the favourites
‘They have beaten everyone so far in the competition and finished the pool round unbeaten; it showed that Mexico was definitely the superior team, but our team performed well. We particularly defended well and we held the score even for quite a while and even while the first goal [was] scored, it was a bit of an unfortunate goal and then we held for a long gap towards the end. As our team tired, Mexico was able to find some inroads through penalties, corners and so on.’
He said despite the loss, he is heartened with the fight and grit of the players giving [sic] the circumstances of their preparation, they adjusted nicely to be high [sic] competitive in Bermuda.

“Games like this is where it shows that Guyana will always struggle to compete internationalyl without a proper artificial surface; the skills that Mexico were superior in were, all the artificial surface skills. Other than that, Guyana matched them for athleticism, understanding, we matched them for a lot of things but the basic skills of handling the ball on the artificial surface was a differentiating factor and unfortunately, that has knocked us out of the final.”
He said they will now regroup and be ready for their bronze-medal match-up.

The top two teams Mexico and Paraguay will qualify for the PAHF Cup scheduled for Uruguay in 2025 and the Hockey World Cup next year.
The Guyana team is sponsored by One Communication and the challenge concludes today with the final.