After a big 5-1 win over South Africa in its first match of the Youth Olympics, the Canadian Men’s Under-18 hockey fives team dropped a close tilt to Spain 6-3 Monday morning in China.
Heading into the match, the Canadians knew they would need to be at their best, facing a Spanish team with good speed and skill.
The match was tightly contested, with Spain holding a small lead for most of the game.
The first goal of play came in the fifth minute as Joan Fortuny Tarres beat Canadian keeper Liam Manning. Five minutes later, the Spanish added to their lead on a goal from Castej de Gonzalez.
Canada responded in the twelfth minute as Vikram Sandhu scored the first of his two goals of the game.
After Spain regained a two goal lead, Sandhu added his second tally in the thirteith minute to bring the scoreline to 3-2 in favour of the Spaniards.
Any momentum the Canadians had at that point was quickly halted as tt didn’t take long for Spain to respond.
Two goals in three minutes established the first three-goal lead of the match and despite pushback from Canada on a goal from Balraj Panesar in the thirty-sixth minute, the deficit was too large to overcome.
For the match report, click here. For Canada’s complete schedule and results, click here.
Canada will take the lessons learned from this high-scoring match versus Spain into their third game of the tournament against Bangladesh on Tuesday.
