Amstelveen: India’s men’s hockey team failed to overcome the pressure of conceding an early goal and saw its hopes of reaching the World Cup semifinals end with a 3-5 loss to Argentina here on Monday.
After losing to the Netherlands in their previous match, India were almost out of the race for the last four from Pool E. However, Argentina’s victory over England had technically kept their qualification hopes alive.
India needed to win by at least three goals to advance, but conceded twice in the opening six minutes and struggled to recover. Poor passing, frequent loss of possession and a leaky defence compounded their problems.
India did manage to score twice within a span of two minutes late in the match, but by then it was too little, too late.
The Netherlands have already qualified for the semifinals from the pool, with the second semifinalist to be decided by the final pool match between England and the Netherlands.
Argentina, which defeated India 8-0 and 4-2 in the FIH Pro League in Rourkela earlier this year, continued its dominance. Joaquin Toscani (1st minute), Nicolas Della Torre (6th), Tomas Domene (33rd, 45th) and Lucas Toscani (53rd) scored for Argentina, while Sukhjeet Singh struck twice (10th, 58th) and Hardik Singh converted a penalty stroke in the 59th minute for India.
With this defeat, India remained fourth in the pool without a point from three matches and will now play for seventh or eighth place.
India needed to win by at least three goals to keep their semifinal hopes alive, but Argentina put them under pressure from the start, scoring in the 39th second.
