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 Rio
de Janeiro : A large audience was on hand to support the
finalists, Argentina in their traditional light blue and Canada in
red. The two teams were quickly in action, with the first chance for
Argentina on a penalty-corner by Jorge Lombi, expertly saved by Paul
Wettlaufer.
Argentina had all the pressure but the Canadian defense was tightly
knit and well marshaled by Rob Short. Finally in the 19th minute,
Rodrigo Vila found some space in the crowded circle and hammered a
shot from close range that left no chance to Mike Mahood.
Tempers were flaring on the field and the umpires had to stop the game
a few times to cool down the protagonists. The Canadians created some
dangerous situations around the Argentinean circle and forced two
penalty-corners but could not capitalize. Canada maintained their
pressure for the end of the half and forced two more penalty-corners
but Argentina absorbed the pressure, although they were clearly
stretched at times, having to commit fouls to break down the plays
(and earning a yellow card in the process).
The game opened up in the second half, with Argentina missing a diving
deflection after a swift counter-attack the whole length of the field.
With score remaining at 1-0, Argentina seemed to take control of the
game but conceded an unforced penalty-corner, giving the chance to
Wayne Fernandes to tie the game in the 47th minute. Argentina was
suddenly less dominant, their plays seriously hampered by the
aggressive Canadian style, and they had to rely on manufacturing fouls
to force penalty-corners. On one of them, top scorer of the
competition Jorge Lombi gave back the lead to Argentina.
Canada was not down yet and, with the minutes ticking down and the
Argentineans fans already singing in the stands, Connor Grimes
penetrated the circle and unleashed a cracker that stunned Manual
Vivaldi in the Argentinean goal, forcing overtime with “Golden Goal in
effect”!
The two teams were cautious during the overtime, worried to commit
“the” mistake that could decide the game. Argentina had a
penalty-corner in the second overtime but Lombi was not on the pitch
and the opportunity was wasted, pushing the game into a dramatic
penalty-stroke competition. In should be noted that, in this extremely
tense situation and with every ball counting, the Argentina had the
fair-play to give back a ball to Canada after an injury to their
Captain Rob Short.
In the penalty-strokes competition, a Canadian miss was immediately
redeemed by a save by Mike Mahood and the two teams finished the first
series of strokes still deadlocked. In the “sudden death portion”,
Jorge Lombi’s attempt was saved by Mahood, leaving Wayne Fernandes
with the possibility to finish the contest. He didn’t falter and
slotted the ball spectacularly in the roof of the net, sending the
Canadians not only on the top step of the Pan American podium but also
to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Final Score: (Final) Argentina – Canada: 2 - 2 (ps: 4-5)
(3-4) Chile – Trinidad & Tobago: 5 - 3
The play was equally shared at the beginning of the first half, with
both teams testing each other. No clear chances were creaed, but the
Chilean attacks were penetrating deeper in T&T territory. Finally
Sebastian Kapsch opened the scoring in the 18th minute with a splendid
field goal, and didn’t miss the opportunity to add a second one a few
minutes later on a giveaway by the defense.
Trinidad & Tobago looked rather flat in this half and Kwan Browne was
not as dominant as he had been earlier in the tournament. They
nevertheless managed to pull back a goal on a broken penalty-corner
that didn’t seem to go anywhere until Dwain Quan Chan pounced on the
ball.
Chile re-established their two goal lead on another penalty-corner
before half-time (3-1) but T&T found back their legs and inspiration
early after the break to score field goal by Quan Chan again and by
Akim Toussaint. With 6 excellent goals, the game was certainly
entertaining for the crowd, and the tied score added to the suspense
and emotion of the moment. The whole game was nevertheless played in
excellent spirit and no card needed to be given.
After Thomas Kannegiesser put back Chile in the lead from an excellent
combination in the circle, T&T gave everything they had in the last
ten minutes, pushed by the Trinidadian drums in the stands, but they
could not engineer another come-back. Sebastian Kapsch put the cherry
on the cake for Chile with a last second goal, completing a personal
hat-trick (his first goals of the competitions!).
The win gave Chile the Bronze Medal, a step up from the last two Pan
American Games when they finished 4th behind Cuba.
(5-6) Cuba – Netherlands Antilles: 3 - 1
Although played for a low rank, this game was very important as only
the winner would be invited to an Olympic Qualifier tournament in
early 2008 (teams ranked 2 to 5 at these Pan American Games).
The Netherlands Antilles started faster than usual and proved that
they could play an attractive attacking game. The game was going back
and forth with fairly equal opportunities, until the 24th minute when
Gijs Hardeman received the ball in the circle with some room and left
no chance to the Cuban keeper.
Cuba looked a tad deflated after the goal and was not really
threatening until halftime (0-1), but started the second period at
full blast, staging an all-out siege of the Netherlands Antilles
defense. The Dutch Antilles had to dig deep in their experience to
weather the Cuban fury but the fort was holding strong and the Cubans
were always finding an opponent or a stick to spoil their endeavors
before they became really dangerous.
Nevertheless, although most of the plays were deep in the Dutch
Antilles defensive zone, the score was still in their favor with ten
minutes to go and, ironically, they had the best chance of the
beginning of this period after a swift counter-attack.
With ten minutes to go, it became obvious that the Netherlands
Antilles players were running out of steam and, after defending
successfully a series of Cuban penalty-corners, they could not prevent
Yoandi Blanco to score from the edge of the circle. The Netherlands
Antilles had a last chance on a penalty corner and on the ensuing
play, but the Cubans were running wild and Roberto Lemus scored two
superb goals after solitary runs through the depleted defense.
It should be noted that Canadian umpire Sumesh Putra ended his
international career in this game, after officiating 125 games.
(7-8) USA – Brazil: 13 - 0
The USA did not appear in the mood to simply cruise in this game,
possibly to make up for their disappointing final standings in this
competition. They relentlessly attacked the Brazilian goals, scoring 9
goals in the first half without much opposition.
Brazil resisted better in the second half after substituting their
goalkeeper, playing indeed good hockey at times to show that the sport
has a future in their country. They kept the Americans at bay for
fifteen minutes, but were overwhelmed in the final stages and had to
concede 4 more goals, with the USA going through the whole range of
their penalty-corner combinations. Pat Harris scored 5 goals in this
game to climb in second position in the goal-scorer standings.
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