Canadian men beat Bangladesh to reach Final of 4-Nations

June 27, 2009

On Saturday afternoon, the Canadian men’s national field hockey convincingly team beat Bangladesh 6-2 to reach the final of the 4-Nations Tournament in Elektrostal, Russia. The game, played in beautiful sunny weather, was exciting from start to finish and kept the crowd well entertained.

Photo:Yan Huckendubler

Play was even in the opening minutes. The first dangerous action came in the 10th minute with a long run by Gabbar Singh, who managed to slot the ball to Dave Jameson in the circle. Celebrating his 100th Cap in style, Jameson found the target with an impeccable reverse stick shot from a difficult angle.

Bangladesh became frustrated with the umpiring and received a number of cards, including a yellow, but remained dangerous even with ten players, earning two penalty-corners and missing an open net opportunity in the closing minutes of the period, reached with a meager advantage of one goal for Canada.

Play was even again at the beginning of the second period, with Bangladesh displaying a collective game rapidly improving throughout the competition. Scott Tupper increased the Canadian lead in the 43rd minute with a straight shot from the top of the circle, and then doubled his tally in the 48th minute on a penalty-stroke.

Bangladesh changed goal-keeper, but it didn’t prevent Canada from increasing their lead in the 51st minute by Gabbar Singh who picked up his own rebound after his initial attempt to lob the keeper was pushed back by a defender on the line.

Down four goals, Bangladesh reacted well and scored two penalty-corners (52nd and 60th). The play was flowing back and forth in entertaining manner. Canada finally managed to rebuild their four goal lead with two penalty-corners, first by Wayne Fernandes with a straight flick in the 64th minute, then by Scott Tupper in the 68th minute, concluding his hat-trick (with a field goal, a penalty-corner and a penalty-stroke).

In this game, Dave Jameson (Vancouver, BC) earned his 100th International Cap for Canada. Twice Pan American Games medalist (gold in 2007 and silver in 2003), Dave is not far behind his sister Stephanie, who earned her 100th Canadian Cap at the recent Pan American Cup in Bermuda. Dave played in the 2004 Olympic Qualifier in Spain, the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and the 2006 World Cup Qualifier in China.

When asked what he thought about this special game, Jameson said “Our plan was to maintain our structure, but we played too much our run & gun style. We need to keep that under control. We reached our objective to win by four goals. Scoring on my 100th Cap was indeed nice, and I certainly want to keep playing for the National Team! I have just graduated from UBC, so maybe now is a good time to have another experience of going to play hockey abroad for a while”

Goal-keeper Geoff Houghton, who earned his second international Cap, said “It helped me to make some saves early in the games. On the penalty-corners, I felt confident because we have a very strong defensive unit, with Mark Pearson very fast as first runner, plus Scott Tupper, Mark Erikson and Ben Martin”

In the other match of this 4-Nations tournament, an official FIH competition, South Africa defeated Russia (5-2). The tournament concludes tomorrow Sunday in Elektrostal, with host Russia and Bangladesh playing for third place, followed by South Africa and Canada squaring off for the Gold Medal.