Hockey Indoor World Cup schedule

[dwolfman]

The 2nd Indoor World Cup groups have been drawn. T&T is in the group with champions Germany.

Feb 14th - 18th; Vienna, Austria

(Pool A: Australia, Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, T&T)

(Pool B: Austria, Canada, Spain, Italy, Poland, South Africa)

Also, in the latest World Ranking the T&T men are ranked tied 23rd in the world with the Czech Republic and Wales. CAC champions Cuba are next in 26th place, USA 27th and Mexico 28th. Only Argentina (7th), Canada (16th) and Chile (19th) are ranked higher.

[sinned]

How do the groups work ie. how many make it out of the group (?) and what's the format of the latter parts of the tournament?

[dwolfman]

They haven't released the format as yet, but I will see if I find the 1st one and use that as a reference. There tend to be 2 formats for these tournaments, one with a crossover and one without. So either the the top 2 teams from the group advance to the finals while the rest play classification matches or the 1st team from each group go straight to the final and the rest are classified in a similar fashion. More on that later.

[dwolfman]

Still no fixtures out, but judging from the last tournament the top 2 come out of the group for the semi-final and the rest of teams play classification matches. So 9th-12th and 5th-8th play cross-over and classification finals.

[dwolfman]

Despite all the negative press, preparations for the World Cup continues. Sinned86 asked for a schedule and here is T&T match schedule:

Wed 14th:
9:00am - T&T vs. Germany (World Champs)
5:35pm - T&T vs. Russia

Thu 15th:
11:45am - Switzerland vs. T&T
6:40pm - Australia vs. T&T

Fri 16th:
12:45pm - Czech Republic vs. T&T

Saturday and Sunday are the cross over matches and finals respectively.

[sinned]

thanks. keep the forum posted on any developments in preparations. an an avid T&T fan I must be excited about this

[dwolfman]

Preparations have been... dramatic. Kwan Browne is in the middle of an attempted coup on the Board and we (the players) are taking stick from Anil Roberts.

It's a big mess at the moment. Browne is acting like a spoiled child and Roberts is just being his usual stupid self. I've never heard so many lies, exaggerations and misinformation in the 20 minutes I allowed myself to listen to it.

The team though is determined to not let it bother us and we're focusing on going to a World Cup.

[truetrini]

well I talk to some men who in de know and dey say de coach is ah clown.
I out ah de loop for some time now, but dat is de word ah getting from men dong dey including some current players and some ex-nationals.

[fishs]

Preparations have been... dramatic. Kwan Browne is in the middle of an attempted coup on the Board and we (the players) are taking stick from Anil Roberts.

It's a big mess at the moment. Browne is acting like a spoiled child and Roberts is just being his usual stupid self. I've never heard so many lies, exaggerations and misinformation in the 20 minutes I allowed myself to listen to it.

The team though is determined to not let it bother us and we're focusing on going to a World Cup.

So wha is de real deal ?
Yuh cud tell us , we aint going tuh tell anybody else , if is one ting we pride ourselves for in this forum is confidentiality. 

[dwolfman]

I won't get too much involved in the debate, but I'll give part of my view. Hockey people tend to not be the most knowledgeable around here. Many don't even know that this was a world cup year nor can they name any international players. In terms of tactictical and technical work he is the best coach many of us have experienced at this level. This is including guys like Fido and Kwan with whom I have had this discussion. Personality issues though have turned this whole situation into something that has nothing to do with hockey. People don't like him as a person so they don't care what he knows about the game. On top of that he dares to disagree with their hero, Kwan, so in their eyes he's a clown. Kwan, great player that he is, is not the end all of hockey. One can disagree with him and still know about the game.

I am interested in playing good hockey and doing my country proud. The personality stuff I not too concerned about. We have been training hard and in Kwan's absence have been forced to step up our game. Will we win the WC? No. But is that the standard by which a favourable performance will be judged?

[lickslikefire]

Boy, just go out and do all yuh best.....that's all anybody could ask...hopefully this political bachanal go end soon.....

the indoor world cup go be a hell of an experience.....but hopefully this situation will sort itself out soon cause all yuh have to really focus on Pan Ams in Brazil......