Argentina fans cheer during a men’s field hockey semifinal match against Germany at 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016.
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The flurry, however, came too late, and the defeat consigned the Germans to a bronze medal play-off, while keeping Argentina in the hunt for their first-ever Olympic hockey gold medal.
The final match of the day was an epic battle between the top two sides in world hockey, with reigning Olympic and World champions the Netherlands fighting their way past perennial rivals Argentina.
New Zealand earned a shot at its first Olympic medal by beating Australia 4-2, only its third win over its trans-Tasman neighbor in major competition since the London Games.
Argentina stunned Germany, the gold medallists in 2008 and 2012, by 5-2 while Belgium clinched a 3-1 semi-final win over neighbours Netherlands, the 1996 and 2000 champions.
The women lost their quarterfinal late Monday, ensuring they won’t medal for the first time in 20 years.
The Leones will play either Netherlands or Belgium for the gold on Thursday.
“This is insane”, midfielder Lucas Rey said. “We knew we could do this, but it’s still insane”.
Defender Gonzalo Peillat hit a hattrick of penalty corners with Joaquin Menini and Lucas Vila giving Argentina a 5-0 lead. That’s when Germany replaced its goalie for an extra forward to try and limit the roasting.
The Germans rode an incredible streak of luck from scoring in the last 8 seconds of three games, including forcing a 4-4 draw with Argentina in pool play last Thursday.
Following a tiresome first quarter, Truyens opened the scoring from a penalty corner attempt and Dohmen doubled the advantage three minutes later after getting into the circle and knocking in a pass.
Even as the score mounted, Menini said their prime thought was not, “We’re smashing Germany by a record score”, but more, “Don’t lose this”. “After that it was very hard for us to come back into the game”, he added.
Paillet, the expert drag-flicker who has converted a remarkable 10 of his 36 chances in these games, said, “Germany always plays to the last seconds”.
Not until the last minute did Argentina coach Carlos Retegui, responsible for numerous women’s triumphs, finally accept he’d masterminded the men’s biggest success yet, and began hugging his assistants.
Some hockey fans tend to pigeonhole Shea McAleese as a player in the German mould but, it seems, regrettably the Black Sticks men desperately needed to clone a few more of the Hawke’s Bay worldwide yesterday morning to flip the Rio Olympics tournament on its head.
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Also, one-time champion Germany scored early and held on to beat the United States 2-1 for its best result since 2012, before the last Olympics. The U.S. team had seemed to get a respite when a penalty corner was awarded in the final period – but Germany requested a video review that showed an American player had been guilty of a foot foul, and possession went to Germany. “It’s disappointing for us, but we want to get the bronze medal”. “If we keep playing the way we’re playing, believing in ourselves and having the confidence, and executing our game plan, then that’s going to get us through to that (gold) medal match”.
