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2008 Junior Pan American Championship
Under-21 World Cup Qualifier
October 17-26, 2008
Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago |
BLOG ENTRIES:
| Sunday October 26: |
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Sunday October 25: Bronze Medal Match v Canada
The team followed a roller coaster ride of emotions throughout the tournament; the high's of the Trinidad pool victory closely followed by the lows of the Chile semi-final disappointment. Reality indicated that a bronze medal contest seemed a fair result for our efforts, but how would our story end?
Canada had arguably been on a greater roller coaster ride; defeat to Mexico, victory under pressure against Chile and a pressure packed victory versus Brazil where 5 goals or more were required to make the semi-final. Canada clearly believed they could contest against Argentina in the semi's as they were reasonably competitive for large periods of the contest. However, at what expense from a physiological point of view?
Psychologically, the feeling amongst the Coaching staff was that we could benefit from the semi-final results only if we could regenerate some energy amongst our own players. Canada would undoubtedly have thoughts of them beating Chile in the pool and us being thrashed against our only combined tournament opposition - great!
Our semi-final defeat against Chile was the result of our inability to recover effectively from our draining contest with Trinidad combined with an exceptionally sharp and motivated Chile team, certainly the most tuned in that I have ever seen them. However, we had a significant period of time with which to prepare for our bronze medal match and to regenerate our players following the defeat against Chile.
Ben "Mario" Maruquin played a pivotal role in this process. Papa Bear prepared an iMovie of the tour to the theme of "How do you want this story to end?". The players embraced the message and indeed this became a rally cry for the match versus Canada, prior to the match, at half-time, full-time, extra-time half-time, prior to strokes and beyond.
The team preparation for our all important match followed as per our usual tournament routine. As a group we felt that we had a good handle on our tactics and the manner in which we would compete. Simplicity at the core of all concepts; except of course the extremely difficult task of belting out the National Anthem in key and tune prior to the start of the match.
As it turned out our story would end with a happy ending, Kevin Barber booking the all important qualification place to the Junior World Cup fittingly on his 18th birthday.
Everyone enjoyed the medal ceremony, the bus ride home and our farewell dinner at our local restaurant, "the Narm". Everybody did not enjoy the 4AM wake up call and the long travel day that followed. However, the weight of the medals that hung around many of the players necks alleviated much of the struggle.
A special thanks to the traveling supporters and all those that followed along from back home. We appreciate your support throughout our trip. Finally, well done to the lads, as was mentioned extremely vociferously many times on the last evening (and what proved to act as my wake up call on the final morning) , "We're going to the World Cup".
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| Friday October 24: |
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Our day today centered around rest and recuperation, after two late and
hectic nights it was much needed. After the usual breakfast of cereal,
bacon and eggs we caught up on some extra sleep and thankfully rested for
several more hours. After this lackadaisical morning we walked up the hill
to the Hilton hotel for an upscale lunch, it seemed the longing for
American food drove almost everyone to order the burger, except of course
KB who got the smoked salmon sandwich. We then left for practice which was
light and enjoyable, we swapped the traditional warm up for a fun game of
handball/ultimate Frisbee. After practice we ventured to the Normandie
which was as usual pretty good. Now we are going to have an early night in
preparation for tomorrows big game. Written by: Lee Boy. Edited by: D3
and Silky
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| Thursday October 23: |
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The day started off like normal, a morning jog and stretch followed by breakfast. In order to get our minds off the game Coach Nick Conway, decided that it would be a good idea for us to play cricket. Not having that great of an idea on how to play we went out and tried it. More or less Nick just wanted to take us outside for a run around, little did we know he pretty much just wanted to smash us at cricket. He got half the guys out, and when it was his turn to bat, he decided to hit the ball a hundred feet down the street for us to chase…. It was great fun. After that it was the usual rest period, we all packed in to room “Perfecta” to watch The Dark Knight. Then we had the usual Heart Rate Spike, and Pre-Game Meal. We went into the game feeling more prepared than we had ever been before for our 8 o’clock showdown. That was later pushed to 9 o’clock. We were ready for the game to start. It was business as usual when we rolled up to the National Hockey Centre. Straight into the locker room to change and mentally focus, and find out that our game was now at 8:45. The game was exactly what we expected it to be. From when we exited the locker room and marched out on the field, the lights were bright, there was a slight drizzle and the sounds of hundreds of Trinadians beating their drums, whistling and chanting “T n T.” We lined up in our positions waiting for the push back, and as the Trinadians did their usual pre-game chants the crowd erupted. But it only awakened us, now all we wanted to do was silence the crowd. And we did in the eleventh minute, through some silky stick work from the young Liam Walsh who threaded the needle to a well prepared right striker sitting in a goal scoring spot (Will Holt) who put the match to 1 – 0. This fueled Americans; again in the 18th minute the USA took the energy out of the crowd through a very well executed penalty corner. A dummy flick by Will, a slip to LJ who swept it straight to Nick Szoke who deflected it through the legs of the Trinidad Goal Keeper. The States were feeling great, with nothing but adrenalin pumping through their veins, and in the 19th minute the USA took the carpet out from underneath Trinidad, it was Holt and Walsh who hooked up for the second time this one ending with Walsh sneaking it past the Goal Keeper on his near side. It was great to win, and has now placed us in a Semi-Final Match against Chile.
Will Holt & Kevin Barber
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| Wednesday October 22: |
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Recover, Relax, and Reset, that was the overall tone of the day. The morning started with a lightly competitive pool recovery session to shake out the left over aches from the game the pervious day. Next the team headed to breakfast, where there was french toast, hot dogs, and eggs. Then it was time for everyone to put on their poker faces, because we had a little team poker competition and chess matches. Ryan, Jon, and Kevin S., were the top three players of the poker competition winning the coveted pin and pen. Following this the team refocused and had a practice to prepare for the epic match against T&T. When arriving back late from practice we quickly scurried to dinner at the luxurious “The Normandie.” Leaving us to rest and sleep and Stomp the Yard. Colin & Amrit.
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| Tuesday October 21: |
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The iPhone alarm went off at 7:05am. We woke up to a deceptively mild morn
ing for a warm up jog and stretch. After breakfast, the team left for the
field in one of transport buses that we filled with mixed conversations. S
ome of us chose to sleep, some us chose to listen to our iPods, and others
passed the 45min bus ride with small talk. In the locker room, our prepara
tion for the game became more focused. Following words of encouragement an
d the game plan from Coach Nick Conway, that mild morning turned to the hea
t and humidity in which we have become accustomed. The team decided to sho
rten our warm-up as we felt a longer warm-up in the heat brought on more fa
tigue later in the game. Today’s game started to a more encouraging tune
. As we lined up before the game to hear both the U.S. and Puerto Rican Na
tional Anthems, there was a more positive vibe to the team. The Puerto Rica
n Anthem played out as usual, but the words of the Star Spangled Banner cou
ld be heard through the stadium being sung by our team. Playing with high
pressure on their defense and a plus one defense in our backfield limited t
heir scoring opportunities with their only goal coming from a penalty strok
e. We executed our penalty corners well with Will Holt scoring two flicks
and adding another deflection goal for a hat trick in the second half. Nic
k Szoke tallied the second goal for us from a rebound on the far post mid way through the first half. With the addition of the team’s first-rate pe
rformance during crucial moments, we pulled out a 4-1 victory. After a poo
l recovery, and some relaxation, we went to a team favorite Normandie Resta
urant for dinner where team captain Jon Ginolfi was awarded our coveted sil
ver mug for man of the match. Next, we face the host country, Trinidad & To
bago, at 8pm Thursday night to see which one of us advances to the semifina
ls. Freezing in the “Ice Box” room Perfecta. – Jon G. and Nick S.
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| Monday October 20: |
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We woke up with one thing on our mind. Argentina. The team knew the morning game against one of the best teams in the world was going to be a tough even though we had a strict game plan to make it as simple as possible. We had some awesome support in the stands for the entire game. The exorbitant loss is obviously disappointing, but as usually is the case, valuable lessons were learned. In this instance we had to learn them the hard way. We recovered in the pool as a team, and then had a debriefing meeting, legitimately knocking the dust off our shoulders. The fact is we were prepared for the loss and our tournament is still on track. In the evening we began preparing for tomorrows game against Puerto Rico, had a big lasagna dinner, and were treated to some ice cream by visiting family.
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| Sunday October 19: |
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After our exciting first game yesterday, today was a day of rest,
relaxation and fun. We first woke up at 8:30 for our usual recovery pool
session. From there we went straight to our delicious breakfast,
consisting of French toast, eggs and porridge. We then had a team meeting
where we debriefed about our game against Jamaica yesterday. Following
the meeting we gather our swim suits and hopped in the van headed for
Maracus Bay which was about an hour away. The water was warm and
refreshing with some pretty big waves. We also played a game of rough
touch football on the beach. Some people bought some small souvenirs from
the locals at the beach. We then had lunch at the Moms Bake and Shark
across the street, which was amazing. Apparently shark tastes like
chicken. We then had a briefing about Argentina which followed a delicious
dinner at The Normandie and went to bed excited for our challenge
tomorrow. Alex Grassi and Ajai Dhadwal.
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| Saturday October 18: |
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The last few days have been fun but today it was finally time to get to work. The day began as usual, with a light jog and a tasty breakfast. Anticipation for our first game was obvious among the team, everyone longing for the opportunity to step on the field and represent. The day consisted of a lot of preparation, walking through strategies. Once the time to head to the field finally rolled around, everyone was locked in to game mode. We arrived at the field, jumped off the bus and went straight into the locker room to dress. The moment we had all been waiting for was finally here. We lined up and marched out to midfield for the national anthems. We played well, and its an encouraging start to our tournament. Tomorrow we're heading to the beach for a day of relaxation.
- Kevin Barber and Will Holt |
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| Friday October 17: |
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Today was the first day of the rest of the tournament! We got to experience firsthand the early morning Trinidadian heat with a 5am unannounced wakeup call. Let us say, the early morning heat feels very similar to the evening heat: hot and humid. After a sleepy breakfast we headed to the field for our final pre-tournament training session. Practice was more tense than intense so after wrapping up we returned to Alicia’s house for some crucial midmorning relaxation before lunch. After a copasetic Trin-Indian lunch we zipped off our travel pant legs and headed to the field for the opening ceremonies of the tournament. With the banging of classic Trinny steel drums, the teams marched out and the ceremonies began. After some speeches from hockey bigwigs and some amazing Indian-influenced dancing, the flags were marched out, and the Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs in Trinidad announced the official start of the tournament. Once we returned to Alicia’s, we headed out on a short walk to the best meal we have had the whole trip at a nearby hotel restaurant. Back at Alicia’s the team settles down into bed to write some blogs and mentally review our key responsibilities in preparation for tomorrow’s showdown with Jamaica. We Ready.
Andrew and Amrit |
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| Thursday October 16: |
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We started out in the morning with a pool recovery. Everyone was tired from the early wake up. After breakfast and a video session, we were set loose to get supplies for our dance competition. After a long hot walk into downtown through the "Savanna", we got lunch at KFC then split into our teams and scavenged for supplies. Everyone was rushing because time was running out… Meanwhile the rowdy bunch (Jed, Jon, Nick, and Manny) were able to covertly capture a four person suite that we love. The "Dance Off" was a great team building exercise, keeping us relaxed and our minds off the tournament. Randy Jackson (Nick Conway) judged a tough competition with the winning crew (Nick, Colin, Amrit, Corbin, and Willie) only getting a score of 39/50. Tonight was a reception at the President of Trinidad and Tobago's house. At the reception, most of the teams were able to meet each other as well as socialize with a few political heads including the U.S. Ambassador. All in all it was a very low key and relaxing day.
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| Wednesday October 15: |
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The early morning pool recovery session was followed by breakfast (Eggs, bacon, and hash browns). We then had a bit of time to relax before our sharpening run. By luck of the draw, Jon and Jed were in a double room, as were Nick and Manny. The rowdy bunch is plotting to take over a four person room because they have been in each other's rooms for the past few nights. Tonight we are playing Chile in a scrimmage, which is an ongoing rivalry from past tournaments. Our staff presented the team this afternoon with a small competition "The Dance Off", whom are trying to take the anxiety and stress off the tournament. Looking forward to a good turnout, Judge Randy Jackson (played by Nick Conway) and Host Mario "Maruquin" Lopez aka Papa Bear have evened out the four competing teams. The competition will be taking place tomorrow afternoon. |
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| Tuesday October 14: |
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We had an early wakeup after our late night. Had practice in the late morning, and for many it was their first experience playing in Caribbean weather. The turf was PolyTan, a little different then we are used to. Most of the practice was spent getting used to the turf. We then came back to the hotel for lunch and relaxation. We went on a walk with a few other players in the neighborhood around the hotel. After returning from our walk, we sat down for our dinner. Dinner concluded with a surprise birthday celebration for fellow teammate Liam Walsh, who just turned 17. Arriving to the pitch for evening training session, we found Barbados on the field and ended up scrimmaging them. The score was 2-1 in our favor at the end. It was a good first experience for many playing against a Caribbean side which plays different then we are used to. We spent our downtime watching Kat Williams and laughing throughout the night until lights out. |
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| Monday October 13: |
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Monday was an early day… Our flight from LAX to Miami was late leaving and we almost missed our connecting flight. They waited for us, and we were on our way to Trinidad. Jon was able to sleep on both our flight and through the night… Pretty impressive, that is almost 20 hours of sleeping! When we landed, it was about 10pm, so everyone grabbed food at the airport. After a long drive to Alicia's House, and a quick photo shoot in the bus, we finally arrived to our accommodation where we meet the blazing heat and the soggy humidity. |
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Full Tournament
Results & Photos:
panamhockey.org
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