With two more days of the 2011 Pan Am Challenge completed, one more day of Round-Robin competition remains. On both the women’s and men’s sides, the past two days were full of shut-outs. For the women’s side of the Pan Am Challenge, Uruguay has emerged as the team to beat. Uruguay’s Karina BISIGNANO and Lucia DE MARIA both had two goals in their team’s 5-0 win over Paraguay; and Teresa VIANA’s back-to-back goals in the first half was enough for the two-nill victory against Brazil. In second place in the women’s standings is Guyana. By scoring the first goal of the first and second halves, respectively, Captain Chantelle FERNANDES guided her team to a 6-0 win over Bermuda. On Day 4, both Bermuda and Paraguay had yet to win a tournament match. Thus, it was a hard fought match between both teams in which Captain Maria SERVIAN GIOSA’s second half field goal earned Paraguay their first win of the 2011 Pan Am Challenge.
On the men’s side, there may only be three teams (compared to five for the women), but the number of goals scored is only one less than the total number of goals scored amongst the women. Having thus far played one more match than Uruguay, Brazil is atop the men’s standings. Four goals scored by both Augusto DE PAULA FELIPE and Yuri VAN DER HEIJDEN, respectively, guided Brazil’s 11-0 victory over Paraguay on Day 4. As a result, DE PAULA FELIPE and Y. VAN DER HEIJDEN currently are tied for top on the goal scorers list with five goals each. On Day 3, Uruguay beat Paraguay by a score of 10-0 where Federico INGLESIAS and Mateo PEREIRO both scored two goals.
The match between Brazil and Uruguay on the final day should be exciting. While on the women’s side it is a battle for second spot in the Final. For the Women, the 2011 Pan Am Challenge continues with one more day of Round Robin on Saturday and the Final on Sunday. For the men, on Saturday Uruguay and Paraguay play; and on Sunday the Brazil versus Uruguay match will take place. The top two teams from both the Women’s and the Men’s 2011 Pan Am Challenge will be awarded spots in the 2013 Pan Am Cup.
Please continue to check the PAHF Pan American Hockey Federation for live score updates, game reports, pictures, and videos on the Men’s and Women’s Competition webpages, respectively. We are also posting live updates on Twitter (at PanAmHockey) and Facebook (PAHF Pan American Hockey Federation).
