Republished April 10, 2018 - 2:00 AM
Original Publication Date April 09, 2018 - 11:06 PM
GOLD COAST, Australia - Canada was blanked 4-0 by top-ranked Australia in men's field hockey action Tuesday at the Commonwealth Games.
The Australians will face No. 9 New Zealand on Tuesday to see which team finishes atop Pool A. Both will advance to the semifinals.
The 11th-ranked Canadians (1-2-0) finish off pool play Wednesday against No. 15 South Africa before playing classification matches.
No. 6 India and No. 7 England meet Wednesday to decide the order of the top two in Pool B.
Dylan Wotherspoon scored twice for Australia (3-0-0) while Trent Mitton and Jeremy Hayward added singles for the team known as the Kookaburras.
The Canadians trailed 3-0 at the Gold Coast Hockey Centre after a first quarter that saw them down a man after veteran Mark Pearson was shown a yellow card for rough play. Australia added an insurance goal in the final quarter.
"We had a difficult start, especially the first 12 minutes," said Canada captain Scott Tupper of Vancouver. "We then performed well in patches but it was very physically tough.
"The start was very disappointing," he added. "We held them out in the second and third quarter, but the umpire impacted the game by showing a yellow card. It took our team some time to get over that."
The Canadians played without North Vancouver midfielder Taylor Curran after their appeal of his one-game suspension was rejected. Curran was cited for foul play following Canada's 1-0 win over Scotland on Saturday.
"The team was down," Tupper said of Curran's absence. "His presence may have changed the game. His absence impacted the team's performance."
Canada lost its opening match of the tournament 6-2 to New Zealand.
The Canadian women, ranked 21st, play No. 30 Ghana on Wednesday.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2018