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Argentina suffered a major setback on Thursday when they lost to France by 3-5 in the last round of their Pool A match at the World Cup.
The match should easily be termed as the upset of the tournament as the lowest ranked team defeated the highest ranked team and moreover, Olympic goal medallists.
With their two mind-blowing performances, Argentina have already garnered a huge number of local supporters, who were vociferous at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar whenever an Argentine player touched the ball. But the crowd support could do little to change their fortune.
Argentina have already secured their passage straight to the quarter-finals and this was not more than a practice match for them. But they would’ve surely loved to make it three out of three.
France probably saved their best against Argentina as the result kicked Spain out of the tournament, who finished last having only two points in their account.
Hugo Genestet, Victor Charlet, Aristide Coisne, Gaspard Baumgarten and Francois Goyet scored for France while for Argentina, Gonzalo Peillat scored a brace and Lucas Martinez scored the other.
Let us look at the three reasons why Argentina lost the match:
#3 Shoddy defence allowed France more space
Argentina is a team that boasts some of the best defenders to have played the game. But in this tournament, their defensive frailties are exposed rudely. Against Spain, they’ve conceded three goals and France utilised the opportunity fully to pump up five goals.
Take the example of the first goal. Hugo Gentset dribbled past a couple of defenders so easily on the left side to enter the circle.
From there, his was shot was deflected off Gonzalo Peillat’s stick before finding the net. The way Argentine defenders allowed him to come to the D box was shocking to see. They should’ve tackled him before.
Argentina defence completely went missing when Timothy Clement split a pass at the near post which was lofted over the goalkeeper by Aristide Coisne. They made the Olympic champion a school team at that moment.
The same thing repeated during the fourth goal. Gasper Baumgarten’s initial shot was saved by Juan Vivaldi but the rebound off Charles Masson was deflected by Baumgarten. At least four Argentine defenders were there and none of them went to stop Masson from taking the shot.
#2 Argentina fall too short of France’s spirited performance
France came into the tournament with the tag of being the lowest ranked team. They were sitting at 20th. Nobody thought they could pull an upset. Going the match against Argentina, history was on France’s side as they have beaten Los Leones the last time they played this tournament in 1990.
The first quarter was quiet for them as they mostly tried to defend the initial pressure from Argentina.
But what transpired in the second quarter will never be forgotten by this French team. Not one or two but they’ve scored four goals in this 15 minutes. At one point in time, the top-ranked team were looking like amateur players.
Argentina surely could have not expected this kind of renaissance from the French players and before they could understand what was happening, they were 0-3 behind.
It was never easy for them to make a comeback and unfortunately, French players didn’t allow them to do so.
#1 Argentina must rue missed chances
This World Cup is clearly showing that there is no difference between the two opponents, even team are China and Ireland are surprising the experts. Argentina got the taste of it too harshly against France.
While analysing the defeat afterwards, Los Leones must true the chances which they missed so easily into the game.
They controlled the game in the first quarter and should’ve been ahead when Matias Rey utilized huge spaces on the right side and passed it to Joaquin Manini, who was standing at the centre of the goal and had only the goalkeeper to beat.
To everybody’s surprise, Manini failed to get a connect the ball and a golden chance was wasted. Manini was again at the receiving end when he missed a sitter before the end of third quarter.
Agustin Mazzilli showed some brilliant stickwork and got into the baseline and lofted it Manini. The strikers, standing at the right post, made a complete mess of it.
He had an open goal and all he would’ve to do was to guide the ball and he again failed to connect the ball with his stick.
Gonzalo Peillat, despite scoring two goals, should take the responsibility. He scored brilliantly from two penalty corners in the third quarter but missed two in the second.
If he would’ve taken that more seriously and scored, then the scoreline could’ve been different.
Head to Sportskeeda to check out the Hockey World Cup schedule for the upcoming matches
