With a comfortable win over the host Americans, things got off to a perfect start for the Canadian Men’s National Field Hockey Team at World League Round 2 Chula Vista, California. And with the way game two against the Russians began, it seemed Canada was set destined to go undefeated through two games and take a stronghold on first in its group.
But despite having the lead for the majority of the game, the match against Russia didn’t quite end as Canada had hoped. The Russians quickly scored twice late to win 2-1 and hand Canada its first loss of the tournament.
“It’s already been high and lows,” says Canadian forward Matthew Sarmento, who scored twice in the Canada’s opening match against the U.S. “We knew the U.S. would come out strong obviously being home turf for them. We went down early but we stuck to the game plan.”
Against the Russians the following day, Canada took a 1-0 lead relatively early and held the lead until the forty-second minute. But the Russians pressed and Canada eventually surrendered two quick goals and were not able come back.
Despite the loss, there were some encouraging signs for the Canadians.
“We showed a lot of that same enthusiasm and positive energy through most of the game,” Sarmento adds. “So definitely, we can take positives from that.”
Lessons learned also come from the way the game finished, with Canada not being to climb back into the game with time running out.
“We kind of strayed away from our game plan. We had a lead and we let it go and we couldn’t find a way to get it back,” says Sarmento.
Canada believes it let one slip out of their hands against Russia, which is ranked 19th in the world, comapred to Canada’s 14th.
But the tournament goes on, and with one more group stage match – against Trinidad and Tobago (world no. 30) on Wednesday morning – before the playoff round begins, there’s no time to dwell on the past, only learn from it.
“That’s the thing about tournament hockey,” says Sarmento. “It’s not how you win its just the fact that you win. We’re not where we want to be obviously but we still have room to improve.”
