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It's not often you'll see a coach admit prior to a match that his team has no chance of winning, let alone scoring, but hockey coach Gareth Tavares is looking at the bigger picture.

Bermuda takes on hockey juggernaut Argentina tonight at 6pm at the National Sports Centre in a Pan Am Cup match.

The score will be irrelevant for coach Tavares; what will matter is how will his women defend against the scoring might of the South Americans.

Bermuda lost its first two games in pool play - 7-0 to Trinidad and 10-0 to Canada.

Those matches showed growth from Bermuda's two warm-up matches prior to the tournament proper. Tavares said the warm-up games have helped his squad during the Pan Am Cup.

"We've taken a lot of that through to the tournament as seen by our performance against Canada. We only conceded five goals in each half and they're a world class team - they're ranked 20th in the world. We went out there and we took it to them. It took them a long time to get their first two goals, which was our goal. We succeeded in doing that.

"The kind of excellence that is Canada, will obviously put some pressure on us and expose some weaknesses that we do have.

"We fought all the way to the end and it was a very respectable score. I was very proud of the girls."

He said he was 'very, very happy" in keeping Trinidad and Tobago to only a 2-nil lead at half time.

"In looking at the footage, T and T could have scored a couple more and, on the flip side, we would have scored a couple as well. I was very satisfied with the first half.

"The girls put their bodies on the line and fought all the way to the end. It was a really good performance so far by the girls."

Tavares said that with the big match looming against hockey juggernaut Argentina today, the squad would be looking ahead to the weekend's cross-pool play.

"Our pool games aren't as important to us just based on the fact that we need to make sure that we win our cross pool games to make it into the top six. That's been our focus for the entire tournament and to make sure that we're ready and prepared for that game."

He said the realistic expectation for tonight's contest is for Bermuda to defend as well as it can.

"Argentina is playing some fantastic hockey. It will be a game for the girls to get out there and enjoy and learn as much as possible to take to our cross-pool game."

No goals

He said it was unlikely that Bermuda would get a goal against the Argentines. "We won't be going out there to score; we'll be going out there to make sure that we can defend correctly so we can take that defensive strategy into our game against Mexico.

"I think we can be really competitive against Mexico and Jamaica."

That game will probably be at 6pm on Friday.

Tavares said that if the defensive strategy pans out correctly, then his squad can work on its attacking structure for the next games.

He said playing against Argentina is 'unprecedented'.

"This is going to be great for spectators in Bermuda to see this world class sport out there. The players are extremely excited and they're learning all the time by watching the other teams play each other. It's one thing being coached and taught how to do something; it's another thing to be able to see other females being able to do this so effectively."

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