Two teams were victorious and four others managed to add one point in this 4 Nation Tournament.
The first encounter was between the men's teams of Chile and Mexico. The team led by Diego Amoroso achieved a wide victory over Mexico 6-1. Martin Rodriguez was in charge of opening the scoreboard at 13 minutes. Mexico tried to get out of the defensive area but Chile was overwhelming with their forwards and they effectively recovered disputed balls in the center of the playing field.
At the end of the second quarter Chile would go to the locker room with a comfortable 3-0 lead with goals scored by Enos William and José Pedro Maldonado.
In the third quarter Mexico drew back completely into the defensive field but even so, the pack of Chilean forwards attacked relentlessly. Another goal for Chile put the game at 4-0.
The last quarter surprised spectators when Mexico woke up looking for gaps in center field led by Antonio Pedroza, who at 48' after breaking through the Chilean area, made a 90-degree pass enabling Luis Trillas Garcia to score the only goal for Mexico in the game. Four minutes later, José Pedro Maldonado received an aerial pass that he converted into a goal after hitting a ball that was unstoppable for the Mexican goalie, Hernandez. A final goal would arrive for the Chileans at the hands of Vicente Goni at minute 56 to end the game 6-1.
At 1 p.m. (-2GTM) the encounter between Peru and Paraguay began. Peru was coming off third place at the Panam Challenge played a few weeks ago in Chiclayo, Peru and Paraguay returned to add international minutes on the field after their last performance in the ODESUR games in Santiago de Chile in 2014. It was a very even game in the first quarter for both teams, who could not find an edge in the 60 minutes played.
Peru earned three short corners during the game and a forceful arrival against goalie Barbosa, who was finally able to make the save and leave the scoreboard at zero for Paraguay.
The last two quarters were practically for the team led by Guillermo Gutierrez, which managed to break Peru's defense on multiple occasions with attacks led by their captain Elena Spiridinoff, but without success. The final whistle signaled the end of the women's game and Paraguay and Peru added one point to add to the table after the 0-0 tie.
The third game of the day was played between the men's teams of Trinidad and Tobago and the local team, Brazil, which won the championship in the last Pan American Challenge in Peru.
It was a very close game between both teams, which in their eagerness to open the scoreboard, turned it into a more physical game. This resulted in two cards at 9 minutes (green) and at 15 minutes (yellow) for the team from Trinidad. It wasn't until the end of the second quarter, with two minutes to go, when the Brazilians opened the scoreboard leaving the tentative score at 1-0 in their favor after a short corner goal by Matheus Borges.
The second half would balance out the game for Trinidad and Tobago. Brazil began attacking with nine players in the Trinidad field and the removal of an opposing defender gave Trinidad and Tobago the possibility of a counter attack. This was received by Markus James, who caught an aerial ball and managed to elude the Brazilian defender and score on the second post of the net, leaving the game tied 1-1 at 35 minutes. The temperature of the game began to rise once again and referees handed out yellow cards at minutes 38 and 50 for the players Fabian Rickenbach and Paulo Batista.
The final ten minutes were attacks and counter attacks with no success for Brazil or Trinidad and Tobago. Finally, the game ended at 1-1 and marked the end of the first day in the Aquece Rio River Test Event for men's field hockey.
The final game of the day would be played by the women's teams from Brazil and Barbados. Both teams had met in the finals of the Pan American Challenge where the winner, Brazil, defeated Barbados 3-1. Today, the situation would be somewhat different for the locals, since they had three important injuries for this tournament and their opponent, Barbados, arrived with a solid and consolidated team.
Even so, the first two quarters were pretty even for both teams, which came out studying each other on the playing field without managing to open the scoreboard. There were two green cards for Chewitt and Brathwaite of Barbados in this period due to imprecise steals at minutes 17 and 18. Before the end of the second quarter, the team led by Ignacio Lopez would gain a very important opportunity to open the scoreboard with a short corner, but the goalie for Barbados, Sheena Nickolls, stopped the shot in a firm and secure manner from the second post. The teams would go to halftime tied 0-0.
The second half would be favorable for Barbados, who closed the third quarter by opening the scoreboard with Jada Prescod at minute 44 after an assisted play. Brazil would go into a more defensive game and their opponents would continue to try to widen the gap, but their goalie and Captain, Andrea Gomes, managed to stop them. Finally Barbados managed a new conquest with Keysha Boyce in minute 59. Brazil would not let down their guard and would have its chance to come back with just seconds to go in the game at the hands of Alexia Santanna. The game would come to an end with a 2-1 victory for Barbados.
Tomorrow will be the second day of the Aquece Rio Test event starting at 12:30 p.m. (-2GTM) at the Deodoro Hockey Center in Rio de Janeiro. We'll be waiting for you!
