Canada Falls to Great Britain in First Match of Tour

The game opened up very balanced with controlled possession by both teams with Great Britain and Canada testing each other out in the first of a two match series.  

In the 8^th minute GB entered the Canada 23m area and hit a hard ball into Canada’s defensive D. To the surprise of the Canadians a GB player dove across the turf and managed to get his stick on the ball and deflect the ball under Toni Kindler.

Canada was able to restore some balance to the game with both teams working hard to find a path to each of their respective D’s. In the 19^th minute England was able to get its first and only short corner of the half, which was successfully defended by Canada.

A minute later, Great Britain was able to execute a second strong hit into the Canadian “D” and created the same result as their first goal -an excellent deflection past the Canadian Keeper.

This goal unfortunately opened the floodgates and Great Britain was able to score again at the 25^th, 27^th and 30^th minute of the half. To Great Britain’s credit, they outperformed the Canadians as we struggled to find our structure and composure as a team.  

The teams finished the first half with GreatBritain up by five goals.

To both the coach and athlete’s credit, a new team showed up in the second half. As much as Great Britain had a five goal cushion, the Canadian’s played as if it was a new game.  

By the 15^th minute of the second half Canada earned its second short corner with the Great Britain Keeper easily handling the drag flick that came right up the middle.  

By the 27^th minute of the second half Great Britain started to gain some momentum and had earned their second short corner of the half. The defensive corner crew of Scott Tupper, Rob Short, Jesse Watson, Mark Pearson and Toni Kindler rose to the occasion and thwarted both chances in good form. However, during the course of the second corner the ball was shot on goal with Toni Kindler making contact with the ball with clear intent to deflect the pass to the outside post. Unfortunately the ball came in contact with Jesse Watsons arm preventing the ball from leaving the playing surface. The corner umpire interpreted the contact as a use of the Canadian’s body to prevent a goal and awarded a stroke. After considerable appeal and reinforcing, the ball was moving away from the goal and the decision remained. GB was successful in its execution of the stroke putting the Canadians down by 6 goals. The remaining portion of the game fell back into a tactical back and forth affair with neither team creating any further significant scoring opportunities. 

DNP: Dave Carter, Devohn Texeira, Kevin Laidman