Argentina defeats Australian Hockey team 3-1 in INSEP Hockey Challenge – Hockey Update
Ignacio Bergner scored three times and had an assist, as the Men’s hockey team of Argentina marked a 3-2 win over World Number one Australia in the round match of the Five-Nation INSEP Hockey Challenge contested at the National Institute of Sports (INSEP)
in Paris on July 29.
It seems that the reigning period of Australia in field hockey is being challenged. Their performances are below par and the level during the European tour is decreasing the morale of Kookaburras players. The defeat from low-profile Argentina is a shocking
state of mind for the Aussies particularly for the Australian Coach Ric Charlesworth.
Though the Australian national team was missing a number of key players including Jamie Dwyer (four time Player of the Year award holder) and Mark Knowles, they were still a strong line-up as compared to the Argentinean squad, which is standing at the 11th
position in the world ranking. Conversely, the Las Leonas proved everyone wrong and showed outstanding passing and conversion rate against Australia. Ignacio Bergner availed most of the opportunities and played a significant role in the upset.
The difference between Australia and Argentina on paper was clearly indicating the dominance of the former. However, the expectations were proved wrong. In fact, it was Australia which unfolded the game in quite an impressive way, but they failed to hold
back their dominating level and went down at the end.
After making penetrations into each other’s defensive circles, it was the Kookaburras that drew first blood in the 20th minute of the match. Chris Ciriello of Australia took the ball under his stick and sent a low-flying drag flick into the backboard.
It was the goal that put the Argentineans under pressure.
Kookaburras further sped up their action after the maiden goal but to no avail. In the counter-offence, Las Leonas’ strikers penetrated several strikes which paid off and resulted in back-to-back short corners.
The Argentinean squad earned a couple of short corners in the very short span of two minutes and tested Ignacio Bergner both times. He was gleaming enough, converting the two chances into successful goal scores and turned over the results into their favour.
He scored the goal in the 27th and 29th minutes and closed out the first round with Argentina sitting ahead at 2-1.
In the second half of play, the game continued in the same pace and the Aussies failed to make a comeback in the game. Argentina continued their dominance over the field and Bergner scored off another short corner in the 54th minute and expanded
the lead up to two goals.
In a matter of two minutes, Matthew Butturini of Australia notched a goal from the field and reduced the edge down to a single goal. However, it was the last goal and Argentina won the match at 3-2.
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