BENALMÅDENA, Spain – February 3, 2019 – The final match of the 3 Nations Invitational saw the No. 25 U.S. Men's National Team take on No. 27 Brazil in Benalmádena, Spain. Although Brazil scored early, USA tallied six in a row on their way to a 6-3 victory.

In today's match, USA was looking for a strong finish to the Spain training camp and 3 Nations Invitational round-robin tournament, and they got it. Earlier in the week, USA was exposed with two goals in the final minute in their first meeting against Brazil, and the second meeting seemed to be a similar pattern when Brazil scored within the first minute off a penalty corner through Paulo Monsores.

In the 20th minute in the second quarter, Brazil added to their lead off another penalty corner from Matheus Borges. Two minutes following that goal, momentum shifted to USA when Christian De Angelis (Doylestown, Pa.) scored to cut the goal margin in half. The first half ended 1-2 in favor of Brazil.

Out of halftime, USA scored back-to-back penalty corner goals, both through Aki Kaeppeler (Stuttgart, Germany) to give USA a 3-2 lead. Michael Barminski (Ventura, Calif.) added his name to the score sheet in the 37th minute through a field goal to extend the lead.

The renewed energy allowed the USA strikers to continue to be dominant as two more goals were tallied in the fourth quarter. The first came in the 50th minute on a field goal from Alex Grassi (Brookeville, Md.) and the second in the 54th minute from Kei Kaeppeler (Stuttgart, Germany). In the 59th minute Brazil added one more from Lucas Paixao as USA ended the tournament with a strong 6-3 finish.

At the end of the 3 Nations Invitational event, Pat Harris (Moorpark, Calif.) was named Player of the Tournament.

The U.S. Men's National Team will spend the next several months preparing for the FIH Hockey Series Final in Bhubaneswar, India from June 6-16.