Calypso Stickmen finish 12th at Indoor Hockey World Cup

Trinidad and Tobago men's hockey team had a disappointing end to their campaign at the FIH Indoor World Cup in Porec, Croatia on February 9 when they fell to a 6-4 loss in their 11th-place playoff with Malaysia at the Zatika Sport Centre.

The loss was TT's fifth straight in the tournament and saw them finishing bottom of the pack in the 12-team competition.

Speaking to Newsday via WhatsApp after the loss, coach Raphael Govia said the "Calypso Stickmen" showed positive signs again. However, he said they were undone by a combination of mistakes and wasteful play in the final third.

"This is a World Cup. We know we were off the pace a bit from the onset of this campaign," Govia said. "We paid the price for the mistakes we made today and we continue to have the problem of converting our chances, so that will always keep us in quicksand."

TT had the perfect start to the contest in their quest to grab 11th spot overall, as Mickell Pierre opened the scoring in the seventh minute, with captain Darren Cowie scoring from a tight angle in the tenth minute to give Govia's charges a 2-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Malaysia rallied back in the second quarter, though, with Ashran Hamsani scoring a quick double in the 14th minute to level the scores at 2-2. In the 17th minute, Malaysia got their first lead when Khaliq Hamirin fired past Ron Alexander to notch his first of two goals.

"Again, when we rested players, we got goals against us in that period. Those things are a bit out of our control because people have to rest because of the pace out there and the quick ball movement of some of these teams."

On the stroke of halftime, TT levelled the game at 3-3 as Teague Marcano scored from close range after Jordan Vieira played a pass across the face of the goal. TT then regained the lead shortly after the resumption when Vieira got on the scoresheet in the 21st minute.

Vieira's goal would be the last in TT's campaign, and the teams went into the final quarter tied at 4-4 after a goal from Najmi Jazlan.

In the final quarter, Malaysia pulled away as goals from Hamirin in the 33rd and Farizdul Mohd in the 37th minute took them to an 11th-placed finish.

Govia said his team are the 12th best in the world, but more must be done to ensure they and future teams can give the country the best possible representation.

"All things considered, we have had limited hockey in TT and limited indoor preparation. Some of our players had to go to Guyana in November to try and get an indoor tournament going," Govia said.

He said some players in the TT squad featured in last month's Ventures Invitational Indoor Hockey tournament to fine-tune for the Indoor World Cup, while others opted not to participate as they feared risking injury ahead of the global tournament.

The team left for Croatia on January 28, before playing a practice match versus South Africa on January 31. They were beaten 8-4 by South Africa, before falling to Australia (2-7), Namibia (3-6) and Belgium (2-7) in their pool C matches.

After finishing bottom of pool C, TT were beaten 12-3 by hosts Croatia in their classification match on February 7.

Govia said the results weren't a true reflection of his team's capabilities.

"I believe if we're sending out any squad or national team to represent TT, they should get as much preparation as possible given to them to get results in any tournament they participate in.

"To me, you want your athlete to perform at their best. If you assess the situation, we weren't given the best opportunities to perform at this World Cup..."

The team will leave Croatia on February 10 and are expected to arrive in Trinidad on the night of February 11.