Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 08, 2011 Sports
– hosts fundraiser at Mojo’s tonight
In preparation for the PAHF Challenge to be held in Rio de Janeiro at the end of the month, the national ladies hockey team underwent a weekend training camp, from July 1 – 4 in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) where they made use of the artificial hockey pitch at the National Hockey Centre in Tacarigua.
While in T&T, the team held two intensive training sessions and played three matches against the Trinidadian national team who are also preparing for a four-nation tournament in Vancouver next week and the premier Regional tournament of the year, the Pan American Games.
Though, the Guyanese did not fare well in the three matches, Head Coach Philip Fernandes in an interview remained upbeat about his team’s preparations and its chances in Rio.
Fernandes summarised the training camp, team’s preparations to date and the focus for the upcoming final month of preparations in the following interview.
How would you summarise the weekend training camp in Trinidad?
It is always tough to have to go to Trinidad to train, but it is also a necessity as the artificial surface is so different from any playing area that we have in Guyana. Our objectives for the trip were to expose players to as many touches on the artificial surface as possible, improve our performance each day and to evaluate our squad in training and match conditions on the artificial pitch for final selection. We have been able to meet all of these and so I think it was a very valuable weekend.
How did the team perform against Trinidad?
We were beaten soundly by Trinidad in all three matches, 7-0, 4-0 and 6-1, but these matches need to be taken in perspective. We chose to go to Trinidad for this camp because it is the least expensive destination and we are working on a tight budget where the players themselves helped to fund the trip. Trinidad ladies just happen to be the current Central American and Caribbean champions and in the most recent CAC games were 4-0 better than second placed Mexico. They are ranked 4th among all 22 teams in the Americas, while Guyana has risen to 17th from last position in 2010.
This means that we knew going into those games they were a much better team and there was the likelihood of us being placed under pressure throughout the matches.
Given those conditions, our ladies performed better at each outing, which was our key objective for the matches. Every time we travel to play on this surface it is like starting all over again as players have to re-familiarise themselves with the pace of the ball onto the stick in particular and the different technical skills that are used. The first half of the very first match finished at 6-0 in favour of Trinidad with four of the goals coming in the opening 10 minutes as our girls continuously turned the ball over easily, struggling to make the adjustments. While we made some minor tactical adjustments at half time, there was a clear difference in performance as they begun to feel more comfortable and the entire second half saw only one more goal scored.
With Trinidad being in their final preparation mode for a 4-nation tournament in Vancouver, Canada in less than one week, the two teams approached the matches very differently. With exposure and selection being among our objectives, we decided to obviously expose some of our younger players, switch players up in different positions rather than stick with the combinations that were likely to produce the best result.
Given your team’s current form, what are your expectations in Rio?
Despite the poor score lines against Trinidad, I am still very optimistic about the PAHF Challenge in Rio. Our goal in Rio is to make the final. I anticipate our strongest challenges to come from Uruguay and Brazil. Uruguay is the top ranked team in the tournament with a Pan Am ranking of 11th and Brazil is ranked 12th. We have one month more in which to prepare and, although this will once again be on grass, I think we can lift our game by another 5% in that time. There are some clearly defined areas of weakness on which we can focus which were exposed when the team performed under pressure in Trinidad. The players are very dedicated to this effort and this will make all the difference in raising the quality of their performance.
What are some of the specific differences between our team and Trinidad?
Trinidad has the advantage of a greater number of players since they have at least 3 times as many players from which to choose a national team. They also have the benefit of including several overseas based players, some of whom are on University scholarships and their top player playing professionally in Belgium. As a result of these differences, our Guyanese
players lack the experience of the Trinidadians, especially against quality opposition. This particularly becomes evident when our team plays well for 10 or 12 minutes and then makes a basic error to concede an easy goal.
The obvious difference also is the playing surface which is very different to grass. While our players have to stop on grass to receive a bouncing ball, players on artificial pitches receive and execute all the different skills on the move. This is something that has to be trained and practiced and adds significantly to the quality of the team’s performance. We saw a marked improvement in this area among our players as the weekend progressed, but of course one weekend can never be enough.
What would Guyana need to do to catch up with Trinidad?
Over the past several years, Trinidad has been able to expose their players to a great deal of international competition. This has been made possible through a sports company established by their government which provides funding for sport development and their high performance programmes. For example, since we last played Trinidad one year ago at the CAC Games, I am aware that their team has competed in the Netherlands, India and the USA and are now on their way to compete in Vancouver prior to the Pan Am Games in Mexico later this year. Guyana of course has only managed one weekend in Trinidad.
In order to compete with the top nations in the region we firstly would need to have an artificial pitch in Guyana on which our players can better prepare. With such a facility it may then be possible for us to encourage national teams from other countries that have the funding to use Guyana as a training destination for competitive games. Teams travel all the time to compete in preparation for tournaments, but at the moment this is not possible for Guyana since we do not have an international facility.
In addition to this, we are hoping that the exposure that we provide our players by going to tournaments like the one in Rio where they can be seen by international coaches and officials, may produce some international opportunities. We have a lot of talent here in Guyana and in particular there are a few players on our current team who are as good as many that I have seen in the region. We currently have Chantelle Fernandes studying abroad and playing hockey and recently Alysa Xavier was invited for a brief training stint in the USA with one of the top goalkeeper coaches over there.
We hope that this perhaps may produce an opportunity for her and by extension, other girls as Guyana gets more recognition for being a source of quality players.
What is the plan now for the team leading up to the tournament in Rio?
We have just returned from a gruelling weekend, but I think the girls are excited because it is always encouraging to train on the artificial pitch and it brings them a step closer to competition in Rio. We will continue training at GCC and the National Gymnasium for the remainder of the month. GCC is necessary as it has the space for tactical training on a full sized pitch, while the gymnasium more closely matches the behaviour of the ball on an artificial pitch. There are several games planned as the team is currently competing in the second division league locally and match practice is critical at this time. In addition, there will continue to be a heavy physical training component as this is one area where we have all the necessary facilities to match the competition.
While the team has been largely funded by an Olympic Solidarity grant and have benefitted through some sponsorship from local companies, there still needs to be further fund-raising efforts. As a result, in addition to training, the team will be hosting a fund-raising party at the Mojos Night Club tonight with the hope of meeting the remaining financial requirements to compete in Rio.
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