Hockeyroos take victory over World Champions Argentina 1-0 in the Sydney series – Hockey Update
Hockeyroos put in a brilliant performance as they beat the World Champions, Argentina 1-0 on the first day of the Sydney series, being held at the Sydney Olympic Park Hockey Center on April 8.
This was an exceptional progress shown by the Hockeyroos after the two match defeats played under the Canberra Series. Las Leonas were holding an undefeated record of two out of four test match wins over the Hockeyroos, which has now changed to 2-1.
The head coach of the triumphant team Adam Commens stood confident at the end of the day saying, “I think we have progressed from the games in Canberra.”
“We did have a lot of opportunities, but we didn’t get any penalty corners and with the amount of circle penetrations we had we needed to get more of a result in terms of penalty corners,” added Commens.
Since the opening minute of the first half, the host squad was found attacking at the opponent’s circle. They managed to pressurise the Argentinean Women, dominating the field with their dominant possession of the ball.
Few of the attacks went in vain with very close misses. One to mention, Jade Close cornered the Argentinean goalkeeper in the opening minute but failed to deliver the shot inside of the goal.
Few minutes later, Kellie White, a debutant, was found running into the circle for a shot but it missed as well.
Similar to the attack-line, the defensive wing of the Hockeyroos also controlled the game very well as Madonna Blyth, Casey Eastham and Jodie Schulz put in a tremendous defensive effort. The first half closed with no score on the board.
The second half also featured the energetic Australian Women rushing attacks against the top-class team. However, Argentina was found quite focused after the half-break that helped in attaining two early penalty corner awards. These chances were missed because
the shots went wide of the goal. The match went scoreless until the last twenty minutes on the clock.
Schulz managed to throw a long pass at Ashleigh Nelson that was brilliantly opted by the receiving end. Nelson made an accurate shot right into the goal in the 51st minute, scoring a lead for the Hockeyroos 1-0.
Soon, the Las Leonas were found making attempts to match up their surprising trail but were denied by the Australian defenders.
The final minute was nerve-wrecking for the Hockeyroos upon recalling their former last minute defeats, however they held up with their one score lead in the end.
The match concluded with Hockeyroos victorious over the Las Leonas 1-0. The next match of the Sydney series is to be played on April 9 at the same venue.
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