(translation from the original Spanish , from Cordoba’s press El Tribuno edited and modified by our staff editor , photographer John Coxon
Las Leonas , the Argentine women's field hockey world champions, yesterday afternoon suffered a wake up call tough 1-5 defeat against the South Korean in the Four Nations Tournament in Cordoba.
A little less than a week before the start of the prestigious Champions Trophy, the team of Carlos "Chapa" Retegui presented a disturbing picture, even with its biggest name, #8 Luciana Aymar, on the field but with the noticeable absence of the multi capped #10 star Sole Garcia who was not selected although she did enjoy some consolation in having the actual stadium named after her at the start of the event.In the Provincial Stadium now renamed Soledad Garcia, ( who takes no part either in this or the subsequent Champions Trophy and has not chosen to attend any of the games as a mere spectator) the Argentine team was clearly surpassed by a determined and disciplined rival along with Great Britain , who yesterday defeated New Zealand 2-0 (goals from Kate Walsh and Alexis Danson) an will contest the final in Cordoba.
After the three days, Argentina harvested just three points, the product of the solitary victory against New Zealand (7-3) and two defeats with Great Britain (0-2) and South Korea (1-5).Thus, Argentina will play with New Zealand for third place. South Korea stood firm in defence and caused the host teams a lot of problems and the win suggests the current squad has areas of vulnerability and were not able to be at ease on the ball. Goals from Lee Seon Mi (short corner) and Mi Hyun Park, were clinical struck in front of hapless goalkeeper Belen Succi left vulnherable by the defence giving the team from Asia a comfortable lead going into the break at half time. In the second half, despite their valiant efforts, Argentina at times looked average and were 0-4 down, with new goals from Ji Eun Cho (9m.) and Park (19m.).
#27 Noel Barrionuevo had a short corner, in the last 20minutes, and with her characteristically powerful shot scored what was a little consolation goal for Las Leonas but Korea delivered the knockout blow, four minutes later with Lee finding the net beyond a helpless Succi. Las Leonas need recover quickly from what must have been a the tremendous shock today to earn third place and then have only a week to put things back on track before the Champions Trophy at Rosario.
Foot Notes
Find further updates on Argentina hockey news check out my Facebook or Twitter. Visit the Conderacion Argentina de hockey (CAH) official website for up to date news on the national hockey scene or try the excellent , independent and reliable self funded “Flicking Hockey” news web site, a not for profit fan enterprise website run by young volunteer members of the national hockey community who are journalists . If you do not speak Spanish consider using Google Chrome which offers the facility, when visiting a website, of automatic language recognition and a good enough rough translation into the language of your choice
