Indoor Pan American Hockey Cup: Guyana goes down to Argentina, USA on opening day

The Guyana men’s team have suffered two hard-fought defeats at the hands of Argentina and the USA on the opening day of the Indoor Pan American Cup, presently underway in Calgary, Canada.
In their morning match against Argentina, the Golden Arrows conceded early when a penalty corner resulted in a penalty stroke, which was converted by Juan Eleicegui. Argentina scored again in the 4th minute from a Facundo Navarro field goal, before Shakeem Fausette scored Guyana’s first goal from a penalty corner.
Argentina regained the two-goal cushion in the 6th minute through a Nehuen Ayala Gallo field goal, but Guyana capitalized on their one-man advantage after Juan Eleicegui received a green card (1 min suspension) with identical deflected goals scored by Robert France and Jamarj Assanah to tie the game at 3-3.
The two countries traded goals for the remainder of the game, but Argentina landed the more telling blows and eventually won 9-5.

In the afternoon game against the USA, Guyana conceded early again when Ajai Dhadwal converted a penalty corner in the 3rd minute. USA went up 3-0 through field goals from Jeroen Dijkema and Jack Weitzman, before a composed Shaquon Favorite finish pulled one back for Guyana.
Both teams scored two additional penalty corner goals through Dhadwai and Aroydy Branford, which gave USA the 5-3 victory.
In his assessment of the team’s opening day performance, Head Coach Shane Samuels said, “We knew playing two matches on the same day would’ve been tough, especially against the two highest ranked teams in the tournament. Argentina has a wealth of experience, with seven members of their players having competed in the 2023 Indoor World Cup in South Africa. However, I think our guys competed well. At one point, the game was actually tied at 3-3 before their experience took over. They were more patient than us, and capitalized on our mistakes, but I am really proud of our showing against this powerhouse.
“In the US game, the guys worked very hard defensively, resulting in a number of counterattacking opportunities, which we should have converted at a higher rate. We actually created much more scorings opportunities in this match, even hitting the crossbar on one occasion. Had some of our early chances gone in, I think we could have won this one.
“Tomorrow is a must-win game, we have a short practice in the morning to finetune a few things. Hopefully, with a good night’s rest, we can refocus and execute a game plan which will help us to win.”
Guyana was scheduled to take on Canada on Wednesday.