Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup : Olympic champions crash out of World Cup
Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup : Olympic champions crash out of World Cup
Defending Olympic champion Argentina crashed out of Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup on Wednesday. In the first quarter final played at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Argentina went down fighting to former World Cup Silver medalist England 2-3.
England has become the first team to enter semi-finals.
In a game of pulsating hockey, if the South Americans lost, it was not only because of its failure to convert half chances to goals but also to some determined defence by England, especially against penalty corners.
Though Argentina got both its goals through penalty corners, yet ti failed to capitalize on a couple of good field scoring chances. The game was repeatedly interrupted by Video Referrals. And most of the time decisions went against Argentina, including a penalty stroke award in the 47th minute. It was changed to a penalty corner by Video referee.
Argentina did not suffer much as Gonzalo Peillat pelted in his second goal of the game to bring the teams at par. But less than 30 seconds later, a blitzkrieg called counter attack saw Harry Martin scoring the decisive goal.
After a barren first quarter, it was Argentina that took the lead thanks to a powerful penalty corner conversion by Gonzalo Peillat in the 17th minute. England retaliated through one of its most experienced forwards, Barry Middleton, who made full use of a centre and slammed the ball home from a good angle.
When the teams broke for interval, they were tied 1-1.
Will Calnan put England ahead in the 45th minute with a superb effort.
In the 46th minute, Argentina had the misfortune of getting its penalty corner disallowed by the Video referee, In the 48th minute after penalty stroke decision was changed to penalty corner, Argentina restored parity.
And less than half a minute later, Harry Martin made the game safe for England besides assuring his team a place in the last four. - PTC News
