Canadian Men Battle To A 1 – 1 Draw With England
October 7, 2010
The Canadian men’s field hockey team had a strong performance to hold England to a 1-1 draw, in front of a boisterous audience enjoying the exciting match. England is ranked fourth in the World and second in these Commonwealth Games.
Canada started cautiously and England nearly opened the scoring early on a ball mishandled by the defense, but Mark PEARSON soon forced a penalty-corner after a long solitary run. The ball went in goal, triggering a huge roar from the crowd, but it was denied by the umpire.
Canada sustained the pressure on the English goal for a while. After some hard work by Iain SMYTHE in the corner to prevent an English defender from clearing the ball, a free hit quickly taken from the right found the same player in the circle; he managed to deflect it in goal in the middle of a flurry of sticks to open the scoring in the 13th minute.
Canada kept the pressure on an English team possibly not expecting such intensity from a young Canadian team, renewed substantially since the recent World Cup. England earned the first penalty-corner of the game in the 33rd minute, but it was shot wide and half-time was reached with the narrow one-goal margin for a Canadian squad playing well and displaying excellent individual skills, much to the pleasure of the local crowd of connoisseurs.
England went all out at the beginning of second half, and Anthony KINDLER in the Canadian goal was promptly called into action with a swift glove save on a deflection from close range. England soon benefited from another penalty-corner, but shot it wide again, adding to the growing frustration of the English players, specially with young goalkeeper Anthony KINDLER standing tall in goal for his first major international competition and multiplying the decisive saves on some hard shots and a series of penalty-corners.
England finally equalized in the 50th minute, setting the stage for a torrid end of game, with most of the play in the Canadian defensive zone. Jess WATSON saved the 5th English penalty-corner on the line and Canada cleared with authority the next one, drawing an appreciative roar from the crowd.
With Rob SHORT often dropping down from midfield to stabilize the defense, Canada held tight. All their efforts were nearly annihilated by another dubious umpiring call with a few minutes left in the match (which would certainly have been overturned if video-umpiring was available at this competition), but the last shot was again superbly saved by KINDLER and the Canadian boys were soon doing a lap of honour to a standing ovation from the appreciative capacity crowd.
The Canadian men’s team plays their next game on Saturday against Trinidad & Tobago.
For more information on the Canadian field hockey teams at the 2010 Commonwealth in Delhi, please contact Yan Huckendubler, Press Attaché, at +91 78-3850-3722.
Canada vs. England: 1-1 (1-0)
CAN 13mn Iain SMYTHE (FG) 1:0
ENG 50mn (FG) 1:1
Canada: Philip WRIGHT, Scott TUPPER, Jesse WATSON, Richard HILDRETH, Hudson STEWART, Ken PEREIRA [C], David JAMESON,
Rob SHORT, Mark PEARSON, Keegan PEREIRA, Iain SMYTHE, Gabbar SINGH, Matthew GUEST, Adam FROESE, Antoni KINDLER(GK) –
DNP: David CARTER (GK)
