US Field Hockey News

U.S. Men Turn Focus to Fifth Place

SANTO DOMINGO – The U.S. Field Hockey men’s national team entered the XIV Pan American Games with the hopes of contending for a medal. But after a criteria-based heartbreaker dropped the team into the lower tier classification games, the U.S. men will now turn their focus to a fifth place finish.

“Most of the time you want to raise the bar, but sometimes you have to lower the bar on your goals,” said U.S. coach Shiv Jagday on his team’s new mission. “Our original goal was to finish in the top four. Now our goal is to finish in the top five.”

As the third-seeded team in Pool A, the U.S. (1-1-1) begins its new quest against Pool B’s 4^th-seeded Barbados (0-3), at 3:00 p.m., Saturday at the Parque del Este Hockey Stadium. The winner will meet the winner of the Trinidad & Tobago/Dominican Republic game on Tuesday, Aug. 12.

A 0-0 draw with Chile in the first game of the tournament set the stage for a scoring race between the two teams in an attempt to earn a spot in the tournament semifinals. With scoring differential looming as the expected tie-breaking criterion, the U.S. dropped a 4-0 decision to eventual pool champion Argentina, while Chile lost to Argentina by a 1-0 margin. When Chile blasted the Dominican Republic by a 25-0 count, the U.S. needed a 28-goal effort against the Dominicans to secure its spot in the semifinals.

After going scoreless in the first 10 minutes of action against the host country, the U.S. finally rallied to post 23 goals before time expired on the U.S. and its medal hopes.

“We definitely deserved better than that,” said the USA’s Shawn Hindy after the team’s 5^th-8^th ranking was sealed. “But right now we have to prove that we are at least the fifth place (team).”

But for a team with an average age of slightly more than 22 years, there may be many more chances to prove itself.

“This team has come a long way,” adds Jagday. “They are playing very unique hockey in this tournament. This is attacking hockey, flowing hockey played with grace and creativity.  I’m a great believer in that, and if they keep playing like this, there is no question in the results. Sooner or later, they’ll come.”

For a team on a revised mission, those results could come as soon as Saturday.