The women's teams from Barbados and Peru qualified for the finals of the four Nation tournament played in the Deodoro Hockey Center in Rio de Janeiro. Chile and Brazil were the teams that classified on the men's side.
Barbados pulled off a new 3-1 victory today against Paraguay. The game was fairly even in terms of level of play, but the warriors from Barbados finally managed to navigate their way into the finals undefeated. In the first half of the game the teams did not gain any advantage despite obtaining chances with short corners and direct shots on goal. This showed that the goalies of both teams would become the main protagonists of the game. Just two minutes into the third quarter a major penalty was committed by the Paraguayan defender. This gave Barbados the opportunity of a penalty shot to change the scoreboard and the shot was converted by the experienced Caribbean player Cher King, #15. The balance began to tip in favor of Barbados, which broadened the lead at minute 38 at the hands of Shani Best, who managed to break Paraguayan defense in a play that began with a side change. Paraguay would not give in and would seek a new strategy for overcoming the defense of their rival. A series of short corners increased their possibilities of narrowing the lead, but their shots were ineffective. Melanie Armonia took charge of increasing the hopes for Paraguay after converting an error by Elena Spiridonoff. Her surging attack once again left the defense open so that Vanessa Chewitt could penetrate on the right and send off a powerful shot on the second post and crown their entry to the finals 3-1.
The sun was out once again in Rio de Janeiro and the game between Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago would begin at 11 a.m. in the second Deodoro field. The Caribbean team would come out looking for the win from the outset and would achieve conversions at minutes 8 and 12 by Cowie and Toussaint. In spite of this, Mexico would not give in and Daniel Rangel would give them an aura of hope after narrowing the lead at 8 minutes. The partial score to close the second quarter was 2-1 in favor of the Caribbean team.
During the second half the heat was invading the field and the teams would employ all of their physical strength to maintain the pace of the game. Mexico failed to maintain their concentration in the second half and their rivals would take advantage of this weakness to score two goals, less than one minute apart, by players James and Cowie. Once again, Mexico would narrow the lead with Arvallo, but errors in the Mexican defense gave a new advantage to Trinidad, who would score once again. The last quarter became a physical game, with penalties that the referees would punish with yellow cards, one for each team. Three goals were converted in this last instance, all for Trinidad and Tobago, who will be tested again tomorrow against Mexico for third and fourth place. The final score was 9-2 in favor of Trinidad and Tobago.
The protagonists of the second game played in the main stadium were the Bronze and Gold medal winners of the Pan American Challenge, Peru and Brazil, respectively. Brazil needed to win this game or at least tie with a minimum of one conversion to move into the finals, and Peru needed the win to move on. A fairly physical start forced the referees to hand out two green cards in the first quarter. The first was for Helen Betolaza after a penalty that was considered intentional and gave Peru the chance to convert a penalty shot executed by Marianella Alvarez at minute 13. The rest of the game was a fight for possession of the ball between the 25 yards of each team. Brazil would get many opportunities from both coordinated plays and short corners, mostly performed by Betolaza, but without any success. Another green card in the last quarter for Mayara Fedrizzi gave Peru the possibility to further broaden the lead, but the goalie, Andrea Gomes from Brazil, was able to block the shot easily. The final minutes were focused on another fight for possession of the ball but no fluid play was achieved. The clock ran out and Peru took the 1-0 victory and moved on to tomorrow's finals against Barbados.
What to many seemed like an obvious final in Deodoro between the teams from Chile and Brazil was a historic upset for Brazil, who for the first time in the history of Brazilian field hockey managed to achieve a victory over Chile. The teams led by Diego Amoroso and Claudio Rocha played a game that was on the edge in every way. During the first half of the game there were three green cards for the Chilean team, who were definitely looking to study the potential of their possible rival in the final game on Saturday the 28th. Brazil needed to win to ensure their entry after the Trinidad and Tobago victory hours earlier. In the second quarter Brazil had possession and after a center by Lucas Paixão, Chris McPherson opened the scoreboard with a deflection right into the net, leaving the partial score at 1-0 in their favor. The third quarter was a fight for possession, where Chile's third line would have trouble connecting with the forwards, and there would be a series of short corners with no success. Toward the end of the game Brazil delivered a merciless attack and Paixão took charge of scoring for Brazil and ending the game 2-0. Two yellow cards for Borges and Esparza at minute 55 for agressive play and a series of short corners for Chile brought no success, ending the game and setting up another final between both teams.
