Guyana beaten 11-0 in hockey finals
Guyana Chronicle
May 9, 2007
IT WAS a one sided affair on Saturday night in Venezuela when powerhouse Cuba demolished Guyana 11-0 to win gold at the 2nd Games of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).
The Cuba team were expected to walk away champion, they dominated the competition from the opening day, defeating each opponent by at least nine goals. Guyana on the other hand were enthralled to reach the final, and even though they lost to the better team, achieving silver is definitely an accomplishment.
The silver medallists made several noticeable tactical changes to their structure and line-up, but were trailing just five minutes into the game, when a mistimed scoop bounced past the deep defence and an on-rushing Cuban forward delicately tapped the ball over the advancing goalkeeper, Azad DeAbreu and into the uprights.
Although Cuba would score in similar fashion just four minutes later, Guyana seemed a bit more organised than the Latin giants and held greater stretches of possession much to the crowd’s delight. The Cuban ‘wrecking machine’ however continued their swift counter-attacks and made few errors in their finishing as they made good on most of their opportunities, running the score up to 6-0 by the half.
Guyana made a goalkeeping change in the second half, bringing in the young, enthusiastic under-21 Michael Xavier in place of the more experienced counterpart DeAbreu, but this had little effect on the game. Cuba were destined for gold and poured in five more before the final whistle.
Earlier in the evening, Uruguay had recorded their first victory of the tournament defeating hosts Venezuela for 5th place by a 4-2 margin. Puerto Rico then picked up the bronze with a victory over Jamaica in penalty strokes after the final whistle left the score at 3-3.