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Olympic champions Argentina suffered a major setback as they were crashed out of the 2018 Hockey World Cup on Wednesday. Los Leones were defeated by England by a 2-3 margin at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
It was certainly a bad day in the office for Argentina, who bowed down under extreme pressure from a team ranked five places below them. The World No. 2 team now need to go back to the drawing board to analyze what went wrong.
Also Read: Argentina vs England - 3 Standout Players from Quarterfinal 1
After a goalless first half, Gonzalo Peillat gave Argentina the lead early in the second quarter. England got the equaliser after some minutes thorough Barry Middleton.
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Will Calnan gave England the lead and once again Peillat came to his team’s rescue with another goal from a penalty corner. Finally in the last quarter, Harry Martin scored the winning goal to throw Argentina out of the tournament.
Let us look at the three reasons why Argentina lost the match against England.
#3 Argentinian defence crumbles at crucial moments
Going to every match, Argentina always sit back and try to understand the moves of their opponent. The tradition was started by their previous coach Carlos Retegui and is continued by current coach German Orozco. The formula is often criticized by the coaches but Orozco is adamant of using it.
Against England, they followed the same strategy. The first quarter was a drab performance from them as Argentina have not made single circle penetration.
The defenders were looking solid in the first half. Every time an England player tried to reach the circle, any of the two or three Argentine defenders lurking around the Englishmen stole the ball. They made good tackles as England struggled to get past them.
Just before the end of the first half, England scored through Barry Middleton. Argentina finally succumbed to individual excellence of Liam Ansell and with the goal, the floodgates were open.
Defenders were looking clueless amid relentless attacks from English players and as the match went on, their confidence dropped drastically. England cleverly used the opportunity to put past two more goals, which ensured them a place in the semi-finals.
The Argentine defenders, who produced an impressive performance so far, showed signs of fatigue in their match against France. Against England, they just couldn’t resist it. All the three goals came due to a mistake from their defenders. Lucas Vila, Pedro Ibarra, Lucas Rossi all should take responsibility for the loss.
#2 England reap rewards for their attacking mentality
To beat the Olympic Champions, you need to take the attack to them. Perhaps that was the advice Danny Kerry told his wards before England faced Argentina.
The boys kept the words of their coach in their mind and pulled off a major upset in the Hockey World Cup.
England started attacking their opponents from the very first minute. It was hard to take a bite at the Argentine defence but England kept their concentration. Liam Sanford was doing the entire job from the left and right side.
England got two back-to-back penalty corners but failed to use any of them as the first quarter ended goalless, much to their frustration.
Phil Roper missed a glorious chance just after England conceded a goal. But it was the brilliance of Liam Ansell that brought England back into the game. From left, Ansell dotted past three Argentine defenders, entered the circle and passed it to Barry Middleton. The latter took a powerful shot to beat Juan Vivaldi.
The legend Middleton was at it again as he lofted a pass to Will Calnan, who received the ball before unleashing another powerful shot which Vivaldi had no chance to save. The winning goal came from a mistake of Argentina captain Pedro Ibarra.
England never tried to hold their fort as they kept continuing their attack. The win was a reward of their mentality.
#1 Over-dependence on Peillat hurts Argentina's fortunes
Gonzalo Peillat has been the best player of Argentina for the last four years. He also helped his country to finish third in the same tournament four years ago. He single-handedly helped Argentina to win the Gold medal in the Rio Olympics, which also made him the best drag flicker of the world.
But no player from any sport carried his team for the entire life and now it is high time for Argentina to look at the other options in order to score goals. Argentina forgot that Peillat would not win the game for them every time.
Peillat scored half of his team’s goals in this edition. Agustin Mazzilli was behind him with three goals. But apart from these two senior players, no one else looked confident in the circle. Argentina missed many opportunities against France due to the profligacy of their strikers.
Nowadays, with new techniques, Penalty corners are not effective as it was before. Defenders are coming out with new strategies to stop penalty corners. So the task for drag-flickers has become increasingly hard as they are short of ideas.
Even the best drag flicker cannot get you a goal from every opportunity. But Argentina might have thought otherwise and their over-reliance on Peillat denied them an entry into the last four.
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