Rob Short Looks Back On 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games
October 15, 2010
The New Zealand vs Canada match was a classic. A true battle which ended in a tie 1-1 which was enough for New Zealand but not enough for us. Today walking to the breakfast hall our team got caught walking behind the New Zealanders on route to their semi-final match, barely a word was spoke over this mornings somber breakfast hour. Many of you watched the game at home so I won’t bore you will all the details. For those who didn’t get a chance to see it, we were up 1-0 (goal from Gabbar in the 1st half) until the 67th minute when we gave up a corner goal which was scored by Hayden Shaw, their penatly corner specialist. We needed a win to make the medal rounds and nothing but a win. The most painful part of it is that we all know we should have iced that game as we had enough chances to do so in the last 5 minutes but we made some critical errors. I will say New Zealand made a good move moments before the goal to pull the goalie and overload our left-side which led to an immediate goal. I was up until 4 AM that evening just reliving the last 5 minutes, most of it is a blur and while I can’t really remember exactly what happened, reliving alternative options those minutes seems so clear as to what I/we would do if we could do it all again. Canada has never made a semi finals in a major games for Men’s Field Hockey. It was a big opportunity missed.
It is not all doom and gloom. While it is hard to focus on the negative at this point, it is important, and apparent, that we are a team going somewhere. Our performances in the New Zealand and England game can only give us confidence which will help us on our road to London 2012. We can battle the teams at the top of the world rankings. We are all very excited to get going with Pan Am prep. Thanks to everyone for their support during these games! We are down but not broken, more to come in Mexico!
Rob Short (Men’s National Team Member)
