Croatia spank Trinidad and Tobago stickmen at Indoor World Cup

Trinidad and Tobago's men's hockey team fell to their fourth consecutive loss at the FIH Indoor World Cup in Porec, Croatia, when they were spanked 12-3 by hosts Croatia in their classification match at the Zatika Sport Centre on February 7.

Both teams finished at the bottom of their groups in the 12-team tourney, and their meeting presented the opportunity for the winning team to contest the ninth-placed match on February 9.

The "Calypso Stickmen" started the game positively enough, as Teague Marcano gave them the lead after just three minutes. TT's early goal was cancelled out by a fifth-minute penalty from Mario Mucic, and Croatia took their first lead when Lucas Bachmann netted in the seventh minute.

Marcano scored his second goal in the first quarter to bring TT back on level terms, but Croatia took a 3-2 lead into the second quarter as Bachmann scored his second in a four-goal performance.

The hosts turned up the heat in the second quarter to open up a commanding 6-2 lead as Bachmann, Mucic and Gregor Fujs scored as their team took control of the contest.

Things didn't improve for coach Raphael Govia's team in the third quarter, as Croatia stretched their lead to 10-2 with two more goals from Bachmann, one from Fujs and another from Ivan Soic.

Fujs and Mucic both grabbed their third goals in the final quarter as Croatia extended their advantage to 12-2 by the 37th minute. In the final minute of the clash, TT got a consolation item from Nicholas Siu Butt who grabbed his first goal of the competition.

With the heavy loss, TT will now hope to end their World Cup on a high when they meet Malaysia in the 11th-place playoff. Croatia will now tackle Argentina in the ninth-place playoff.

In TT's previous appearances at the Indoor World Cup, they placed 12th in Austria in 2007, then tenth in Germany in 2018.