Field Hockey Canada > Post-game comments: Canada vs Argentina - August 8/16

Comments from Canadian coach Anthony Farry, veteran forward Iain Smythe, and captain Scott Tupper following Canada’s 3-1 loss to Argentina Monday at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.

Coach Anthony Farry sums things up:

“They put us under a lot of pressure, they’re a world-class team and I think one of the concerns for us was that we didn’t have our full contingent on the pitch with two yellow cards and we are playing two guys down and you can’t expect to do too much when you are two guys down at this level of hockey so it made it really hard and it sucked up a lot of energy and it is hard to generate that needed energy that late in the game.”

Farry on the compete level of the Canadians:

“Every game for us is hard so and we don’t expect it any different, we love the battle and you could see here today how hard the guys fight. They were under a lot of pressure and they were able to repel a lot of attacks and gave ourselves a chance in the end and we expect it will be no different against Holland tomorrow. We get limited chances and we have to take our chances and we do.”

Veteran forward Iain Smythe on defending 11 Argentina corners and his role as lead runner:

“I’ve definitely been stung a few times with his rather aggressive, accelerated drag flick that he has. But I think you just have to show no fear and that’s kind of the job of the No.1 runner. You want to get hit, you want that ball to hit you. Preferably on the stick, so that it’s not a re-award (another penalty corner).”

Captain Scott Tupper on facing top teams early in the tournament:

“We know it is an uphill battle against some of these teams that are ranked at the top of the world, and it’s going to take our best performance to take something from it. But we do recognize that if you look at the rankings and the way the pool lines up, the teams that we truly need to get points from are at the back half of the pool so we know we have big games coming up and the next three we have to take something from them in order to move on.”

Tupper on staying positive moving forward:

“We are really proud of our ability to qualify for tournaments like this and we are out here to show that we can compete. Regardless of whether you’re a small country or large nation, if you put it together on a day you have a chance of getting a result. We are hoping we can show that in the next few days here.”