India lose to Argentina

The jittery Indians, who had lost 4-3 to New Zealand in their opening match, put up a rather pathetic display to find themselves at the bottom of the points table after the first two matches.

The Argentinians relied on the brilliance of Facundo Callioni who struck three goals while Pedro Ibarra and Tomas Incento chipped in with a goal each in what turned out to be a lop-sided contest. Dragflicker Sandeep Singh scored the only goal for the Indian team, which comprised mostly of junior players, who were found wanting against their much faster opponents.

Argentina fired the first salvo in the 12th minute of the contest when the nippy Callioni produced a brilliant back-hand flick to take the Indian defenders by surprise. The goal was the result of a fast counter-attack, which saw Callioni break through the defence and find the target.

Argentina shot into the lead just four minutes before the interval with Pedro Ibarra converting a penalty corner much to the delight of his team mates. After the break, Argentina attacked with renewed vigour and slammed in two goals in quick succession to shatter India’s hopes of staging a fightback.

While Callioni capped a brilliant move to score the third goal in the 43rd minute, Tomas Incento consolidated the position for his team with a gentle push two minutes later, capitalising on a defensive lapse.