TT hockey men battle Russia tonight

The eight-team competition, which takes place between today and April 2, will see Canada, Japan, Russia, Chile, United States, Switzerland, hosts Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados battling for a top two finish to guarantee a place in the Hockey World League Semi-Finals, where those coveted berths at the Hockey Men’s World Cup 2018 in India are up for grabs.

Like all the Round Two events, the competition in Tacarigua will witness a clash between teams that came through the first phase of the competition against sides that were automatically given a bye through to Round Two due to their higher placement in the FIH Hero World Rankings.

The highest ranked teams will enter at the Semi-Final stage of the Hockey World League which will take place this summer.

The competition will feature two pools of four, with the finishing positions at the end of the pool phase determining the line-up for the quarter-finals, which begin on Thursday.

In Pool A, Canada (FIH Hero World Ranking: 11), Chile (WR: 26), United States (WR: 29) and Barbados (49) will all go head to head.

Japan (WR: 16) are top ranked side in Pool B but are likely to face stern challenges from Russia (WR: 22), Switzerland (WR: 30) and home favourites Trinidad and Tobago (33).

Japan’s campaign at the 2016 Men’s Asian Champions Trophy in Kuantan, Malaysia last October ended in a disappointing sixth place finish, but a ray of light came from the performances of striker Kenta Tanaka, who scored six times — five from open play — to finish second in the scorer’s charts at that event. Tanaka has been selected for the competition in Tacarigua could well be hoping that his goals can fire his team into the World Cup qualification phase of the Hockey World League.

On paper, Russia could well be Japan’s strongest challengers in the pool, with veteran defender Evegenii Mokrousov captaining the team. Mokrousov lead Russia through their Hockey World League campaign in 2014-15, where a fourth place finish at the Round Two event in San Diego, USA was not quite enough for them to progress to the next phase.

Hosts Trinidad and Tobago may be the lowest ranked team in the pool, but according to team captain Darren Cowie, they are confident of their chances.

“I think probably acceptable is a fifth-place finish, judging from rankings, preparation and the fact that we are the only team that has not had a international match in preparation,” said Cowie in an interview recently.

At the age of 39, Trinidad and Tobago’s Kwan Browne may be the second oldest player in the competition - behind USA’s Paul Singh, who is three months older - but he is still capable of producing match-winning moments of brilliance.