For the second straight game, Jonathan Roberts (Stony Creek, Ont.) was a central figure in a shutout victory for Canada’s men’s indoor national team as they defeated Guyana (1-0-2) 6-0 Wednesday at the 2014 Indoor Pan American Cup in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Roberts scored his third and fourth goals of the tournament to lead Canada (2-0-0) to the victory, while veteran Ken Pereira (Unionville, Ont.) also scored two goals – his first of the tournament – and factored prominently on several others.
Canadian keeper Pardeep Koonar (Ottawa, Ont.) got his first start of the tournament and earned the clean sheet.
The offense started quickly for Canada as Pereira wasted no time demonstrating his attacking prowess, opening the nights scoring with a backhand shot passed goalkeeper Anthony Cole in the first minute.
“We got off to a good start which eased the tension off the guys,” says Pereira. “We knew Guyana were a quick counter-attacking team and they play with a lot of emotion so getting off to a good start put them behind the eight ball.”
Pereira almost set up the second goal of the game as he and Devohn Noronha Teixeira (Mississauga, Ont.) found themselves on a 2-on-0 but Teixeira’s shot went just wide.
Roberts got his first of the game after a beautiful individual effort by Scott Sandison (Mississauga, Ont.), who rushed up the floor, beat a Guyanan defender and then found Roberts waiting at the top of the circle.
Roberts followed that up with a goal on a penalty corner; he was set up by Pereira and his shot beat Cole. The score was 3-0 at the half.
Guyana had a chance to get on the board early in the second, but Koonar made a great toe save and on the counter attack, Teixeira beat Cole to make it 4-0 in the twenty-fifth minute.
Tyler Branco (Toronto, Ont.) and Pereira scored in the thirty-second and thirty-third minutes respectively and Canada earned its second straight win and second straight shutout and remains undefeated at the tournament.
For the full match sheet, click here.
Canada will play the United States on Thursday at 2:15pm PST/5:15pm EST. Watch the live stream here.
“Next game is against the US,” says Pereira. “We just finished playing them a month ago in a three game series where we played well but here they are a different team with a few new guys. They are undefeated and have already booked a spot in the finals so it will be a tough game.”
“There are no secrets between us because of our big rivalry and we are looking forward to a tough contest.”
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Written with files from Carla Johl
Photo by Blair Shier
