TT beaten twice in Indoor Hockey World Cup

TRINIDAD AND Tobago suffered a rough initiation as the 2018 FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup began yesterday at the Max-Schmeling-Halle, Berlin, Germany.

The TT outfit, under the guidance of coach Raphael Govia, suffered a 7-2 whipping by Czech Republic in their opening Pool A fixture yesterday morning (TT time).

And the TT team allowed a 3-0 lead to slip as they crashed to a 11-5 beating from Poland in their latter encounter.

In their first fixture of the day, Jakub Kyndl (third and ninth minutes) and David Vacek (fourth and 28th) scored twice, as the Czech Republic held a 4-0 lead at the half-time interval. Lukas Plochy (sixth), Tomas Prochazka (14th) and Martin Seeman (16th) were the other goal-getters for the Czechs, while Shaquille Daniel (36th) and Kristien Emmanuel (40th) responded for the TT outfit.

In the clash between TT and Poland, TT had an early advantage with items from captain Solomon Eccles (eighth) and Mickell Pierre (ninth and 14th). But Poland replied with strikes from Krystian Makowski (19th) and Michal Kasprzyk (20th) to trim the deficit to 3-2 at the half-time break.

Kasprzyk netted the equaliser in the 22nd but Aidan de Gannes put TT 4-3 up in the 23rd. Artur Mikula levelled the scores seconds later and Tomasz Gorny scored twice – both in the 24th.

Jordan Vieira scored TT’s fifth in the 25th but the Poles changed gears, with five unanswered goals, from Philipp Weide (28th and 37th), Mikula (32nd and 39th) and Mateusz Poltaszewski (40th).

Today, the Trinidad and Tobago squad will meet Australia at 10.05 am and Kazakhstan at 5.05 pm. And the national team will complete their preliminary round stage when they face Germany tomorrow at 6.50 am (all TT times).

Pool B will comprise Austria, Belgium, Iran, Russia, South Africa and Switzerland.

Other Results -

Pool A - GERMANY (15) vs KAZAKHSTAN (0); AUSTRALIA (5) vs POLAND (3); CZECH REPUBLIC (9) vs KAZAKHSTAN (3); GERMANY (7) vs AUSTRALIA (1).

Pool B - RUSSIA (5) vs SOUTH AFRICA (0); IRAN (5) vs SWITZERLAND (1); AUSTRIA (7) vs BELGIUM (2); SWITZERLAND (3) vs RUSSIA (1); AUSTRIA (6) vs SOUTH AFRICA (3); BELGIUM (3) vs IRAN (3).