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Argentina thrash India in opener
Posted On Nov 28 2015
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For me, the result is not important, what is important is performance and today our performance was by far below the level.
“If they continue to commit such errors in the rest of the tournament then it’s a serious concern. But still what I saw today I don’t want to see it anymore”, the captain said. Now we have created chances, and hopefully we will convert them in the next game.
Argentina is a team who likes to defend and rely on fast counter attacks.
Argentina’s drag-flick exponent Peillat made no mistake in giving his side the lead with a powerful flick to the right of the Indian custodian PR Sreejesh. You never know how long it will take but I expect him to recover and be back during the tournament. “The good part is the format due to which we can afford today’s defeat”, Oltmans said.
“It was a disappointment conceding early goal”.
The first of India’s only four shots at goal came in the 26th minute. We failed to penetrate in their half. “I am happy with the overall performance, but of course there is always room for improvement and that’s what we will try to find out”, he said. After the match, he had to admit it was “a disappointing game” where the players “tried ess ahead from the second quarter onwards but not enough to worry Argentina”.
With all eight teams already qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and vital FIH World Ranking points on offer, competition is set to be fierce.
Argentina’s dominance could be gauged from the fact that they earned as many as nine penalty corners in the match to India’s one.
“I am not too concerned about penalty corners I am more concerned about our all over performance”, Oltmans said.
Apart from the tournament-opener between India and Argentina, the opening day will also witness the famous European rivalry between Germany and Netherlands. “Germany is a very strong and we have a very tough pool”.
“We didn’t execute our plans”. The team showed a lot of energy which we were lacking yesterday. There was a communication problem between the players.
