Cuba and Mexico ended the first day of the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games (Men) at the top of Pool A and Pool B respectively.

In Pool A, Cuba stormed to a 17-0 victory against Guatemala scoring 9 goals in the first half. Despite their commanding lead Cuba relentlessly attacked Guatemala and scored 8 more goals in the second half. Yoel VEITIA scored an impressive 6 goals in the match with Roger AGUILERA accounting for 4 of his team’s goals. Guatemala ended the day at the bottom of the table.

In the other Pool A match Trinidad & Tobago beat Dominican Republic 4-3 to end the day in second place in the table.

Trinidad’s hatrick hero, Tariq MARCANO got the opening goal in the 3rd minute but Dominican Republic stormed back and Jose LOPEZ gave his team the lead with 2 quick goals in the 6th and 8th minutes. MARCANO pulled his team level 2-2 in the 26th minute and when Dominican Republic lost 3 players to penalty cards, Trinidad capitalized on their numerical advantage with Nicholas GRANT putting his team 3-2 ahead in the 28th minute. The score remained unchanged at the end of the first half.

In the second half Dominican Republic’s Francisco GARCIA got the equalizing goal in the 41st minute, to make the score 3-3. Both teams were clearly not content with a draw and it was Trinidad’s MARCANO who scored his third goal and ultimately the winning goal for his team in the 66th minute.

 

Mexico topped Pool B after their 6-1 victory against Jamaica, which saw the latter in third place at the end of day. The other team in Pool B Barbados has a game in hand.

The opening stages of the match were evenly contested however Mexico broke the deadlock in the 19th minute with Othon MIGUEL’s field goal. Jamaica’s Jerome DAVIS then brought his team back on level terms 5 minutes later but Miguel LEON then gave Mexico a 2-1 lead one minute before the end of the first half.

In the second half the home team piled on the pressure against Jamaica and this paid off when Francisco AGUILAR scored in the 47th minute. Jamaica earned a number of penalty corners which they were not able to convert and they paid the price when Guillermo PEDRAZA gave Mexico a 4-1 lead in the 59th minute. Mexico was awarded a penalty stroke in 68th minute which was put away by Francisco AGUILAR and shortly after that Guillermo PEDRAZA sealed his team’s 6-1 victory two minutes from time.

The next round of Men’s matched will be played on 18 November 2014 as follows:

Pool A                  11:00am             DOM - GUA

Pool A                  1:00pm               CUB - TTO

Pool B                  3:00pm               BAR - MEX