Why are the Leonas not winning all the time?

Field hockey

Argentina has so far won one game and drawn two of their three group games in the Champions Trophy to finish second behind Germany, but coach Carlos Retegui says they are not so dominant as before, because the game has improved tremendously and other countries have caught up.

ROSARIO — The Argentine women’s field hockey team, commonly known as the Leonas, had been winning virtually everything for years until the middle of last year. Then came the shock defeat by the United States in the Pan-American Games final which they had always won and now in the Championship Trophy being held here at the moment they won one and drew two of their group games. The question is why is the team, who are current world champions, not so superior against other countries as they had been for years?

Obviously, younger newcomers have to be brought in all the time and these, for the most part, have fitted in well, but as coach Carlos Retegui rightly says, women’s hockey has improved tremendously in the last few years and other counties have simply caught them up in standard. He is also surprised that the standard in this tournament is so high this early in the year as, with seven of the eight countries already qualified for the Olympic Games it was looked upon as a trial for the big event still over five months away.

Although the format of this tournament is rather ridiculous with all teams playing three group games and then again all joining in a quarterfinal knock-out, his team has not had enough training, which is why, he says, they did badly in a 4-Nations tournament against some of the same rivals in Córdoba the week before. Retegui said group play gave them more training and they could still do better.

Argentina started against New Zealand, outplayed them in the first half, yet crossed over two goals down which as captain Luciana Aymar said was frustrating, but they managed to equalize in the second half (2-2). Against Germany it was another story. They managed to outrun their rivals in the first half for a 3-0 lead, then scored a fourth from a penalty corner just after a break. But they could not keep up the rhythm afterwards and it was touch and go as the Germans came within striking distance at 4-2.

Carla Rebecchi, who scored one of the best goals of the tournament against the Germans, said she knew how to stop the South Koreans (who had beaten them 5-1 in Córdoba... and that is all they did most of the time. Being close to the Korean circle, I never saw Argentina, playing with only two strikers, enter the circle intelligently and their first half goal came only from a penalty corner. Aymar saved Argentina from defeat with her brilliant play in defence and attack, scoring also a great 2-2 equalizer a minute from the end. She said she changes position continuously so that rivals don’t know where she is (she hopes!). Where ever she is, there are three or four rivals on top of her.

Today, Argentina’s quarterfinal is against China, (third in the other group) at 8pm (on TV Channel 7). If they win, they are likely to face favourites Netherlands tomorrow — a physical team with tall players who block well in defence and have some dangerous strikers, mainly Kim Lammers. But the Dutch team’s main danger comes from penalty corners taken by Maartje Paumen who brought goalkeepers to great saves and only managed to get off the mark with a couple on Tuesday which made her all-time leading Champions Trophy scorer with 23. Other games today are Netherlands v Japan (12.30pm), Germany v Japan (3pm) and Britain (with top scorer Crista Cullen with 5 goals) v South Korea (5.30pm).

Curiously, in the three days of group, 17 goals have been scored on each day in the four games at an average of 4.25 per game. According to tournament statistics, Germany’s 34-year-old Natasha Keller is the player with most international matches — 402, followed by Japan’s Akemi Kato with 372 and who is the oldest player at 41. Argentina’s leading international is Luciana Aymar with 317 games.