The Olympics men’s hockey final between Argentina and Belgium in Rio tonight will be historic as both teams will be playing their first Olympic gold medal match. Nobody predicted these two teams to be in the finals before the start of the tournament.
Germany’s run to win their third consecutive final was annihilated by the Argentinian team when they were defeated 5-2 at Rio on Tuesday. This is Germany’s second biggest defeat in an Olympic knock-out, biggest being back in 1936 when they lost 1-8 to India in the finals.
With the Germans knocked out by Argentina, Indian remains the only team to win the Olympic title three consecutive times. In fact, they won it six times consecutively from 1928 to 1956.
The Semis
In the first semi-final, Argentina scored off the first three penalty corners in the first 30 minutes. All three goals were scored by Gonzalo Peillat, who is currently the top scorer of the tournament with 10 goals.
Defending champions Germany was restricted to just two shots at the goal in the first half. Joaquin Menini and Lucas Vila scored the next two goals for Argentina.
Germany was trailing 0-5 with less than a quarter left. Germany came back in the fourth quarter with a penalty stroke goal from captain Moritz Furste and then Christopher Ruhr netted in the final minutes but it was a bit too late. Argentina fans were already celebrating their entry to the first ever Olympic final by then.
Argentina goal scorer Joaquín Menini said, “We're smashing Germany by a record score”, but more importantly Menini’s primary thought was, “Don't lose this". "Every time we started from the middle line, we said the score was zero-zero, that we had to keep on playing, keep on defending," he added.
Gonzalo Peillat, the expert drag-flicker who converted a remarkable 3 out of 3 in the final said at the end of the game, "Germany always plays to the last seconds. We couldn't stop and congratulate ourselves."
“This is crazy, we knew we could do this, but it's still crazy,” said the thrilled Argentine midfielder Lucas Rey
In the second semi-final, an 80-year-old unbeaten record of Netherlands against Belgium in a major tournament was broken by Belgium, when they won the game 2-1 and entered their first ever Olympic finals.
Jérôme Truyens opened the account for Belgium by scoring a penalty corner rebound. Then, Belgian skipper Dohmen knocked in a goal from a magnificent pass from Cedric Charlier to put the Red Lions 2-0 in the 29’. Seconds before the first half, Mink van der Weerden scored for the Dutch scored through a penalty corner.
Charlier again set up Florent van Aubel to score the third Belgian goal at the start of the last quarter. The Netherlands stacked on the pressure with a series of attacks. Belgian keeper Vincent Vanasch produced quite a few great saves and Belgium hung on for a spot in the final.
"It's unbelievable we were better than them. We showed good hockey, good maturity, a team fighting for each other. We showed our Belgian hearts”, said Belgian ace striker Tom Boon."
"It's a historical night. It was a great game, amazing against Holland. I think we've never beaten them in an official tournament," Dohmen told reporters. "Now we are doing the perfect tournament, the tournament for life and it's at the right moment, at the Olympics," he added.
Belgium and Argentina barely met in a major tournament and never in an Olympic Games for last 40 years. The last time they met in the Olympics was in the 1976 Montreal Games for the ninth to twelfth place play-off where Belgium won 3-2. Their last meeting was in the recent World League Finals at India held on December 2015, where Belgium won 2-1.
The Stats
Belgium have scored 27 goals out of which 25 were field goals. Their penalty corner conversion is on the lower side at 9%, converting two from twenty-three chances.
Belgium’s main strength in this tournament has been their defence - they have just let in 7 goals and conceded only eighteen penalty corners out of which rival teams managed to score just 3 goals.
Argentina, on the other hand, have scored 21 goals out of which 12 goals came from penalty corners. Their penalty corner conversion rate is at 27%.
They have conceded 15 goals, out of which seven came from twenty-eight penalty corners they have allowed so far.
The Final Frontier
If Argentina wants to win the gold medal they have to chalk out a strategy to run through the robust Belgian defence, which has stood tall in the tournament so far. The Belgian forward line have managed to score 25 field goals in the tournament and will cause a real threat to Argentina.
Belgian striker Tom Boon is confident of beating Argentina in the finals. "We can beat Argentina, for sure. We have an unbelievable team. I don't think anyone is going to stop us", he said after the semifinals against Netherlands.
"Now we should only have to look at the last details that can make a difference between the fifth place and medal", said Marc Coudron, Chairman, Royal Belgian Hockey Association.
It should be an exciting final. World Hockey League silver medalist Belgium certainly look the favourites, but the 2014 World Cup bronze medalist and current Pan American champions, Argentina are full of newly found confidence after the semifinal win against Germany.
Being close to home Argentina will surely have lot of crowd support at Olympic Hockey Centre in Rio.
Players to watch out for
Belgium: Tom Boon, John-John Dohmen and Cedric Charlier
Argentina: Gonzalo Peillat, Lucas Vila and Juan Manuel Vivaldi
Prediction: Belgium to win by two goals
Germany will take on Netherlands before the final for the bronze medal match.
