NZISA U23 Tournament Report

NZISA U23 Tournament Report

By Vinod Patel

AISC hosted this Tournament over two days, on 29th/30th, Saturday/Sunday, January 2022, at Lloyd Elsmore Park, Auckland. Under Covid-19 and red light settings, we were hampered, by the Tournament we could host. Only players and admin could attend, all had to have Covid passes, stay isolated, within the Women’s and Men’s group to maintain bubbles under 100. Apart from that, we had problems getting graded umpires for the event and access to food and drinks were by a side door. The pavilion was closed. The hockey car parks were closed due to Covid Testing station on site. 

To further complicate matters, there were locations of interest turning up, such as, the music festival in Hamilton, that some of our youth had attended, the Pukekohe Indian Association Hall and the Mahatma Gandhi Centre. None of our personnel had been to either of those venues. As late as Thursday, prior to the Tournament, I had considered cancelling the event. But that may have been unfair to the travelling teams that had already booked flights and accommodation. NZISA had invited Maori teams to make up the numbers for men’s and women’s. They had to be uninvited, as it became apparent that the men’s would exceed the 100 people bubble limit.

Fortunately, the weather held and we had two days of fine and overcast conditions. AHA put out a purpose built Fast 5 field complete with side boards, which had been set up for previous tournaments. Dilip Parbhu provided fruit for the players and Morris from Fenchurch provided bottled water. Both were appreciated. Vijay Dahya and Raju Bhana did the Tournament selections for the Womens. Preetesh Parsotam and Hitendra Patel did the men’s selections. With the lack of graded umpires, Raj Pancha and Deelan Patel filled the gaps and Raj Jeram help with the technical bench. Sanjay Soma umpired all of the Women’s matches.

Three Women’s teams made up the Fast tournament. They played a double round robin. Pukekohe registered 7 players, which reduced with injury to 6 on the second day. They won the tournament winning 3 of their 4 games. Former Argentinian women’s international, Rocio Gonzalez Canda, coached the Auckland Women’s team. They won 2 out of their 4 games. Their second game against Wellington, they lost in extra time. They left their best effort to the last game against Pukekohe, which they won convincingly.

Three Men’s teams completed in the tournament. The first day was a round robin with the two best teams going forward to the final on the second day. The Auckland men’s team was coached by Stephen Jenness. All teams seemed evenly matched. Auckland conceded goals early in both matches and were not able to recover. Pukekohe were the best team, but it was Wellington that won in the final on the second day on shoot out.

Tournament Results:

Men’s Results:

Pukekohe 6 v Wellington 1
Auckland 2 v Wellington 3
Pukekohe 2 v Auckland 1

Final Pukekohe 1 (2) v Wellington 1 (4).

Women’s Results:

Pukekohe 8 v Wellington 3
Auckland 4 v Wellington 1
Pukekohe 8 v Auckland 6
Pukekohe 7 v Wellington 3
Auckland 4 v Wellington 4 (plus 1 in extra time)
Pukekohe 3 v Auckland 5

Most Valuable Player
Keenan Bhikha – Auckland Men
Priya Kanji - Auckland Women

Auckland Players that made the NZISA Men’s Tournament Team:

Keenan Bhikha
Kieran Chhiba
Manraj Gill
Alex Deo
Keshan Narsai 

Auckland Players that made the NZISA Women’s Tournament Team:

Karishma Kumar
Pritika Patel
Yashani Bhana