Wednesday, July
28, 1999
Women lose
'nightmare' against U.S.
By JASON SCOTT -- Winnipeg Sun
The Canadian women's field hockey team
probably had bad dreams about the goals that got away. The
team missed several terrific opportunities to score, including a gaping corner, during
their crucial game against Team USA yesterday which ended in a 1-0 loss.
"It was a big, bad nightmare," said
Winnipeg native Christine Hunter after the hard-fought game. "We've been training for
two years now towards this tournament and we knew that was the game."
"It's a pretty big loss, especially to
the Americans. You want to beat them," she said. Canada
needed to win to ensure a spot in the gold-medal game.
The Pan Am gold-medal winner automatically
qualifies for the Sydney Olympics. Canada must now hope the U.S. or Argentina lose at
least two of their remaining games in order to have a chance at being in the gold medal
game.
"It's a little
bit out of our hands now. We have to rely on somebody else to do something. But that's not
out of the question in (round robin) events," said coach Dru Marshall. Marshall felt
the missed open corner late in the first half was the turning point.
"I think if that goal gets buried it's a
different game. But it's not like we didn't create our chances after that," Marshall
said.
"I thought we played well enough to win.
Unfortunately we didn't bury the ball when we had our opportunities," she said.
A near-capacity crowd turned out for the game,
waving U.S. and Canadian flags and shouting boisterous chants before play started.
But Canadian fans were disappointed when American Kris Fillat scored the winner on a
penalty corner in the 49th minute.
Canada hopes to improve their record to 2-2
when they play Cuba today.
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