Sukhi Panesar (Canada) - 2016 Olympic Games in Rio

With just a few days to go until the final men’s event of this season’s Hockey World League (HWL) R2 bursts into action, we take one last look at the prospects of the competing teams and hear from some of the coaches and athletes.

As things stand, Malaysia, China, Ireland and France have booked their places at HWL R3, which takes place across two venues – London and Johannesburg – in June and July this year. They will be joined by the top two placed teams from Tacarigua, plus the two highest ranked third place finishers from across the three Round Two events. Not only will these teams play for HWL glory and important world ranking points, but a top three finish at Round 3 means a team can qualify for the 2018 World Cup. So make no mistake, this event is very important.

All the PAHF teams participating in Tacarigua have been pulling out all the stops to ensure they are ready for this event and none more so than the lowest ranked team going into the competition, Barbados.

Ranked 49th in the world, Barbados are ranked 16 points lower than their nearest rivals, PAHF neighbours and host nation Trinidad and Tobago (WR: 33).

Assistant coach Dave Cox spoke about his team’s strong sense of belief going into the event. “This will be a great chance for us to measure ourselves against good competition. We believe in ourselves and think we will surprise some people.”

“Of course, we are accustomed to playing games in the Pan Am region so, for us the new challenge will be new playing teams like Russia, Switzerland and Japan. They play a different style of hockey and that is something we must quickly learn to deal with.”

Preparations for the event have been as thorough as a nation with limited hockey resources can be. Cox is confident that his team’s speed and fitness will be among the best of those competing in Tacarigua but, when it comes to preparing to play unknown opposition, Barbados do not have the luxury of flying across the world to play test matches and scores of international competition.

“Much of our preparation has been classroom based, watching lots of videos of our opposition’s matches. This is very important as styles and strengths of the other teams are different.” says Cox, adding that pitch sessions have also been difficult as the only facility the Barbados team can regularly practice on is a pitch meant for soccer.

“The major challenge we have faced has been a lack of playing time against good opposition. We would have really benefited from doing a pre-tour.”

To overcome this, the coaching team are making sure the players have plenty of time to acclimatise, arriving in Trinidad and Tobago early and ensuring that they get plenty of pre-competition pitch time.

Looking at the teams that stand between Barbados and a dream outcome in Tacarigua, Cox knows that his team will be seen as the rank outsiders. He picks Canada as the team he thinks will take the title but says that home advantage will play a big part in how Trinidad and Tobago perform. 

While the Barbados coaches and athletes are desperately seeking more international experience against higher-ranked teams, that is certainly not something that Canada has lacked in recent seasons. Qualification for HWL R3 in 2015 gave the team plenty of international competition against the highest ranked teams before they competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The Red Caribou’s main problem might well be the weight of expectation going into the event. As talented midfield Sukhi Panesar says: “Our goal is to advance to the finals and qualify for HWL3. We are the top ranked team heading into the competition and if we play to our capability we are confident we will achieve this.

“The HWL competition can sometimes prove to be challenging as we face teams we may not be as familiar with and, with the significance of qualifying for either the World Cup or Olympics, the pressure is magnified and each result becomes that much more important.”

Both Panesar and fellow midfielder Taylor Curran say that their preparations for the event have gone well, aside from the occasional snow fall, which has disrupted some sessions. Both players talk of “intense training” since Christmas and Curran adds that the team is “a very hardworking and gritty team, with great team chemistry, and we have had our best performances in our most important matches.”

Chile men will arrive in Trinidad and Tobago on the back of a successful trip to Argentina in preparation for HWLR2. The Varones played a number of top club sides, including Mendoza and the University of Cordoba before returning to Chile for some specialised training at the Centro Equilibrio Funcional (CEF Chile). Their final preparation was a confidence boosting 2-0 win over PAHF rivals Uruguay – a victory that will send the team ranked 26th in the world going into their opening fixture against Barbados with high hopes of three points on the board.

Meanwhile, Trinidad and Tobago’s captain, Darren Cowie is full of expectation for his team to take a third place finish. The skipper, who is recovering from injury, says that his team is much better prepared for this year’s HWLR2 than their disappointing showing at the 2015 event, where they finished in eighth place with no wins to their name.

The host nation face Russia in their opening game – a repeat fixture from 2015, where T&T lost 6-1. Cowie is certain that the same will not happen this time around. In an interview with the Trinidad and Tobago Daily Express, he said: “We were missing a lot of senior players but I think the system (we are playing) is much better to cope with Russia and their kind of physical play, their European style, you know, they don't play as fast but they play very physically.”

“So we have been working on some stuff where we avoid contact and move the ball a little more around the park. We have been watching old videos of Russia too, so we will be better prepared and there is the home factor as well, so all of those things will come together and help us to build the momentum straight through from the start.”

Assessing his team’s chances, Cowie added: “I think probably acceptable is a fifth-place finish, judging from rankings, preparation and the fact that we are the only team that has not had a international match in preparation. Even Barbados has had, while we haven't had any matches in almost two years. Nothing! But despite all that, we are better prepared tactically and we are aiming for third spot.”

The action begins on 25 March, as PAHF northern rivals USA and Canada take to the field.