The national men’s hockey team ended in fifth position at the Pan American championships in Venezuela after pulling off an upset victory over Uruguay on Saturday in another cliff hanger at the 2010 Indoor Pan American Championships in Barquisimeto, Venezuela.
Guyana’s Robert France scored the winning goal in extra time for the 2-1 win.
The win ensured Guyana its highest possible placing after losses to Argentina and Canada, saw them narrowly missing a semi-final spot.
Guyana was the lowest ranked team in the competition.
According to a release, the match started with Uruguay playing their customary defensive style dropping to below the halfway line and stifling the space that Guyana had to operate. This led to Guyana maintaining possessions of the ball for large stretches of the game while Uruguay was content to counter attack when the opportunity presented itself.
Guyana had their first and only short corner of the game in the 17th minute but to score and the second half followed much the same pattern as the first.
Uruguay had the best opportunity of the half when Mateo Pereiro narrowly missed a wide open goal.
In the dying minutes of the game Guyana tried to press for the win by pushing further up the court but Uruguay set off a wild celebration when they scored on a counter with 38 seconds left in the game. By the time Guyana centred the ball there was only 28 seconds left on the clock, the ball was passed to left back Dwayne Scott across the field to Jerazeno Bell down the right board to Marvin Dannett who sent the ball across face off the goal for captain Devin Munroe to finish. The goal left the entire arena stunned and meant that the game would have to be settled in sudden death overtime. Extra time started with the momentum in Guyana’s favour, but again Uruguay hung back and counter attacked but time and time again they were turned back by goalkeeper Michael Xavier. In the last minute of the first half of overtime Alex Gouveia received a pass in the left corner of the Uruguay area and flicked the ball towards the goal which deflected off the goalkeeper and went bouncing towards the far post before Robert France trapped the ball and sealed the win with an easy tap in. As soon as the referee confirmed the goal the entire Guyanese bench was on the floor in wild celebration.
