Harpal Singh Bedi / Bhubaneswar
In an edge of the seat encounter Olympic champion Argentina piped spirited Spain 4-3 in the pool A match to open their campaign in the 14th Hockey World Cup with full three points at Kalinga stadium Bhubaneswar on Thursday .
It was a thrill a minute encounter which left the crowd mesmerized and asking for more. The 23 -encounter between the two teams has raised the bar for other teams in this competition. Argentina has now 10 wins as against Spain’s eight while five ended in a draw.
Prolific drag flicker Gonzalo Peillat who was the top goal scorer in the last World Cup and Olympic Games, converted two penalty corners one which gave his side the lead and second turned out to be the winner.
The other goal scorer for the winner was Aguanstin Mazzilli who also scored a brace. For Spain Enrique Gonzalez, Josep Romeu, Ruiz Vicenc scored a goal each
The match opened on a fiery note as both teams went on the offensive from the start and the first quarter produced staggering five goals.
Spain breached the Argentina defence in the 3rd minute when Marc Serrahima set up unmarked Enrique Gonzalel, who cut through couple of defenders to send the ball home (1-0).
Spanish jubilation lasted barely sixty seconds as Argentina launched a incisive counter attack that caught the rival defenders totally off guard and Augustin Mazzilli dribbled past a defender to shot home the equalizer (1-1).
Next ten minutes saw both teams attacking each other’s citadel with all the ferocity and their respective defenders frustrating and foiling each other’s attacks. Two minutes before the end of the first quarter , excitement reached feverish pitch as three goals scored much to the delight of the packed stadium.
Spain earned their first penalty corner in the 14th minute when Enrique was fouled inside the circle and Josep Romeo with crisp push hit the the ball on the board (2-1). Once again the lead lasted barely few seconds as Argentina counter fetched them the equalizer again through Aguanstin Mazzilli (2-2) and it was followed with a penalty corner for the Olympic champions and Gonzalo Peillat made no mistake in converting it to make it 3-2.
However in the second quarter, though both the teams continued playing fast paced game and repeatedly exchanged attacks but they failed to find the target in this 15 minute session.
However there was no dearth of thrills as the second half (third quarter) opened as within five minutes Spain drew parity with Vicenc Ruiz intercepting a cross from the right step aside a blocker and with an angular shot sent the ball into the cave (3-3)
The start of the last quarter was again very explosive with both the teams earning a penalty corner each in a space of four minutes while Spain failed to convert, Argentina’s Gonzalo Peillat was again right on the target to put his side ahead (4-3) and that turned out to be the winner.