As a Canadian athlete you represent each and every citizen every time you wear the maple leaf on your sleeve. To represent Canada as a member of this team is an honour we all take great pride in. For 70 minutes we battle against athletes who represent a different nation, a different flag with the same passion. Yesterday we played our second match of the tour against Malaysia, a group of athletes representing a nation in mourning in the wake of the tragic news of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 missing on route to Beijing. As a team we thank the Malaysian team/fans for being a part of last night’s match and send our prayers to the families of the passengers on board.
Yesterday was not the first time we have faced a team in mourning. In 2012 at the Olympic qualifier in Delhi we played France the day after the tragic passing of the father of three brothers on the French team. We tied France 1-1 in that match which eliminated us from any chance of qualifying for the London Olympics. The French showed incredible resolve to compete on such a sad day. I remember before that game Rob Short addressing the team with the message that we had a responsibility to represent Canada. To not compete with the same pride and passion that we always do would have not done the French team justice.
Malaysia showed a strong sense of national pride and responsibility during last night’s match despite the difficult circumstances. I am extremely proud of the way our team conducted ourselves during the match. In front of a vocal 1000+ home crowd we grinded out a 5-4 victory coming from one goal deficits on three separate occasions. We started well opening the scoring through James Kirkpatrick. The Malaysians responded with a period of sustained pressure that resulted in us trailing 2-1 mid way through the second half. Captain for the series Philip Wright levelled the scores at 2-2 after a long overhead from a 16-yard hit. Malaysia struck again shortly after with a scintillating backhand finish hitting the underside of the crossbar and in to the back of the net to again take the lead. To finish of an exciting half of hockey young talent Gabe Ho-Garcia produced an exciting solo effort to bring us level at 3-3.
The second half started with Malaysia going ahead 4-3 with a powerful short corner conversion. In tough, hot and humid conditions the boys showed an incredible amount of fight to claw our way back in to the match. Iain Smythe found himself on the end of a fantastic build up to level the scores at 4-4.
Fresh off a solid Junior World Cup campaign Gordie Johnston picked up the game winning goal with a low corner drag flick. At the final whistle it was apparent both teams had left it all out there and we were happy to level the series at 1-1 heading in to our final warm up match before Azlan Shah.
Before the game we were challenged by the coaching staff to play a more “Canadian” game, a style of play that has produced a proud field hockey history in Canada. I think we showed a lot of what it means to be and play like a Canadian in the match. We see the victory as a small but positive step towards our goal of competing in Rio 2016. Thanks to all our family, friends and fans from home who have been following our blog posts whilst we are on tour in Malaysia. The support means the world to us all and we hope you all continue to follow us on our Road to Rio 2016!
You can check out Matt Guest’s interview with the Toronto Star.
Make sure you follow the Canadian Men’s National Field Hockey Team on Facebook for the latest updates and results from Malaysia.
And to follow his individual journey to Rio 2016 and the tournaments along the way follow Matthew Guest – Road to Rio Olympics 2016 on Facebook.