Second friendly match between Las Leonas and Spanish Women ends on 1-1 draw in Barcelona
The second match of the two friendly match series which is played in Barcelona, Spain, between World Champion Argentina’s Las Leonas and the Spanish Women hockey team ended in a draw at 1-1.
The Spanish Women hockey team, who recently returned home after winning a three test match series in Dublin against the home side, Ireland, in which they whitewashed the home side by winning all of the three games, could hardly manage to draw the game after
a humiliated loss in the first match in which they were outclassed by the reigning world champions, Las Leonas, by 4-1.
In Ireland the Spanish women won all the games impressively as they beat the hosts by 1-0, 1-0 and 3-1 respectively in the three matches. However, against the Las Leonas could not perform according to the expectations, losing in the first game while levelling
the second one.
"Yesterday we played well but we had some irregularity that cost us face. Today, however, we did a good hockey during the seventy minutes; the team has been very successful at work without a ball and went after the win against an opponent the likes of Argentina."
Salva Indurain, the head coach of the Spanish national women’s hockey team, concluded his team’s performance after the match.
The draw against the World Champions, "a prize for the team and the staff,” and puts an end to the European stage of preparation with the "best of which we have this summer." The five games of the past seven days have also shown that "the team has prepared
very well,” Salva Indurain further stated about team’s lively show against the World Champions.
The first half started slowly and progressed gradually as there was not much entertaining throughout the match because both the teams ticked scoreboard only once in the entire time. Argentina scored the opening goal of the match in the first half when Carla
Rebecchi made an astonishing effort in the 25th minute to give the Las Leonas the early lead but this lasted only for eight minutes as Barbara Malda scored the equaliser just two minutes before the interval by converting a penalty corner into goal.
The second half remained goalless and the match was concluded at 1-1.
Meanwhile, Argentina’s Las Leonas will be up against their Irish counterparts in a series of two matches in Dublin before flying to Germany to participate in the FIH EuroHockey Nations Championship which is going to be held in Monchengladbach, Germany from
August 20 and will be concluded on August 27. It will be interesting to see how Las Leonas can improve their performance before their next match-up.
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