Being underdogs sits well with Canadian men at 2016 Junior World Cup
PHOTO: Canada’s Amrit Sidhu (left) in a Junior World Cup test match vs. Malaysia on December 6, 2016 in Lucknow, India (By Yan Huckendubler)
As the youngest team in the tournament, Canada’s men go into Thursday’s Junior World Cup in India as underdogs. And they wouldn’t have it any other way.
In fact, having their backs against the wall sits well with the Canadians, who have a team made up of players that thrive in that type of environment.
“We lost about a year of buildup with the shorter Junior World Cup time,” says Under-21 Head Coach Inderpal Sehmbi. “So we took a bit of an approach of looking at some of the other elements like our athletes’ character, connection, and confidence.”
That focus has proven to be useful in recent competition. Under Sehmbi’s guidance, the Canadians have had success in recent international tournaments.
A silver medal in Hockey 5’s at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China put the Canadian juniors on the map, and gave many on the team an introduction to international hockey like no other.
Follow that up with a silver medal and Junior World Cup qualification in the pressure-packed arena that was playing at home in Toronto last May at the Junior Men’s Pan American Championship, and Canada’s Under-21 men seem primed to take yet another step at the Junior World Cup.
“You see those things as success but I think there is a lot of adversity in those,” Sehmbi adds. “That Olympics, these guys weren’t used to winning games. And they got into a situation where they were winning games, they had to come from behind in two games and really trust the process and trust coaching staff and trust each other.
“And then at the Pan Ams, same thing. We lost our first two games and people thought we were dead and buried. And to go out and win the next three games and qualify for a World Cup with a really, really young team, I think the success came from their ability to handle adversity and I think that’s probably our best asset.”
But despite those successes under trying circumstances, Sehmbi knows Canada faces its toughest test yet at the Junior World Cup, which is why he and the Canadian coaching staff has primed Canada to play a style of hockey that can ideally withstand any opponent.
“Our goal is to play our best game every single game,” he explains. “You can catch teams that play – their bandwidth of quality may not be that high. They could be beat the fifth ranked team in the world but on their worst day, they can lose to the twentieth. Our goal is to play a consistent game.”
And while the goal in India is to stay competitive in every game, and hopefully end up on the better side of the result each game, the philosophy behind Canada’s participation at the World Cup goes deeper.
“Getting here is our podium,” Sehmbi adds. “That doesn’t mean that we’re here to just place, that means that we’re here to perform. And we’re going to make every Canadian proud of who we’re are by the way we play. We’re going to play a Canadian brand of hockey, a new brand of hockey, and play our best game.”
Canada opens the 2016 Junior World Cup against host India on Thursday (7:00pm local time; 5:30am Pacific, 8:30am Eastern).
Click here for Canada’s full schedule and results. Follow Field Hockey Canada on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for the latest on the Canadian junior men in India.
