Do you remember that I had asked about the team psychology in the previous blog? What triggers the teams to perform or falter suddenly for a few minutes? Argentina (ranked 7) faltered the entire game against lowly ranked South Africa a couple of days ago and barely won 1-0. At that time, they did not trap well, dribble well, the ball moved like a random Brownian motion with no purpose and the goalkeeper was sluggish.
Not sure if its Bhubaneshwar water, or slapping by the coach, or scolding by family members or them looking at video tape in shame. Argentina literally had an about turn against mighty Australia and almost won this match. Australia is a prepared, methodic and highly skilled team. But I think Argentina wanted to prove a point to their coach (or their wives!) that they are not pushovers. Australia scored the first two goals. Argentina netted the ball with the next three consecutive goals, including two field goals (not by penalty corners). Australia tried “Chak-De-India” fame one-on-one marking, partial one-on-one, complete zonal defense, attacking Argentine defenders before the ball reached the midfield. Nothing worked. Eventually, they let the goalie go and introduced all eleven players on attack. This risky strategy worked, and they scored the final goal in waning minutes of the game.
Trust me; Argentina is back! Inspired by Messi, they want this world cup as desperately as anybody else.
There were three other matches. New Zealand was thrashed by Netherlands 0-4. NZ implemented a strategy of removing the goalkeeper in the first quarter. Such a weird strategy will yield weird results. What does one expect? France beat South Africa 2-1 , their first ever goal and first ever win in the world cup. Finally, Malaysia beat Chile 3-2.
Group B second round matches are pending for Day 5. Then I will analyze the scenario of who is expected to go to the next round.
Ps: photo credit to International Hockey Federation
