T&T senior men’s indoor hockey coach Raphael Govia has made three changes to his 13-member team which will head to the Fifth FIFTH Indoor Hockey World Cup in Berlin, Germany from February 7 to 11.
Following a training session at the Woodbrook Youth Facility, Woodbrook on Monday night, Govia, who was part of the T&T team which qualified to play at the Indoor World Cup in Vienna, Austria in 2007, but opted out of the final selected his squad which will depart on Sunday for a one-week training camp in Holland before selecting his final 12 players for the short journey to Germany.
As expected Solomon Eccles who led the national team to the 2017 Pan American Indoor Cup Men’s Tournament finals win, 7-0 over Argentina at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in Georgetown, Guyana last October and he will have the core of his team from that team with him for Berlin stint.
They include, goalkeeper Ron Alexander, Jordan Reynos, Aidan De Gannes, Australia-based Akim Toussaint, Mikel Pierre, Kristien Emmanuel, Marcus James and England-based University student, Tariq Marcano.
The three players added to the team who were not involved in Guyana are goalkeeper Karlos Stephens, and attacking duo Shaquille Daniel and Andrew Vieira with goalkeeper Reiza Hosein, vice-captain Dwain Quan Chan and Mark Ayen the three players failing to keep their spots.
Quan Chan misses out due to a groin injury, Ayen has work commitments while a drop in form has costs Hosein his spot which goes to Stephens.
When the competition flicks off at the Max-Schmeling-Halle, T&T will come up against Czech Republic in their first Pool B, match on February 7 from 12.45pm (Germany Time) and then Poland at 7.30pm to close out the first day.
On February 8, the “Calypso Stickmen” will come up against Australia at 3.05pm and Kazakhstan from 10.05pm before closing out the round-robin series versus host Germany on February from 11.50am. Pool A comprises Austria, Belgium, Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland and Russia.
A confident Govia ended, “This team is combined of good quality and enormous talent and explosive players, the mix of seniors with the younger fiery ones augers well for the two games a day competition”.
T&T MEN’S HOCKEY TEAM
Solomon Eccles (captain)
Ron Alexander
Jordan Reynos
Aidan De Gannes
Akim Toussaint
Mikel Pierre
Kristien Emmanuel
Marcus James
Tariq Marcano
Karlos Stephens
Shaquille Daniel
Andrew Vieira
Reiza Hosein.
