Olympic champions suffer yet another reverse

Olympic champions suffer yet another reverse: World number one and Olympic champions Argentina suffered yet another reverse to end without a win in pool matches of the Odisha Hockey World League Final at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Defeated by ninth placed Spain 1-2, the South Americans ended their three league matches with just one point thus giving Spain its second win of the tournament so far. Though Argentina finished at the bottom of pool A, it still qualifies for the quarter-finals. Spain conceded lead in the 21st minute when Matias Parades scored a brilliant field goal. Rattled by the reverse, Red Sticks were desperate in their efforts to restore parity but had to wait till 50th minute and from their second penalty corner to get the equaliser. Pau Quemada got his second goal of the tournament with a neat flick that left the Argentine defence clueless. In fact, it was a penalty corner, their third of the game, that came to great relief of Spain. It was from the follow up of the flick that got a defender ball rolling down his body on the goalline. From the resultant penalty stroke young  Josep Romeu made no mistake to give Spain a historic win. -PTC News