Bhubaneswar: Olympic champions Argentina must be thankful to Gonzalo Peillat who scored in the last minute to help his earn their first point in the ongoing Men’s Hockey World League Finals (HWLF). In an exciting game, the Los Leones played out a 3-3 draw with the Netherlands in a Pool A game at the Kalinga Stadium here Sunday.
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Thierry Brinkman (12th), Valentin Varga (37th) and MircoPruijser (55th) scored for the Netherlands while Matias Rey (45th) and Lucas Villa (50th) got the other two goals for the Dutch.
It was a truly entertaining match with 12 penalty corners (six for each side) being awarded during the course of the game. The first chance came for Argentina in the third minute as Juan Lopez latching on to a ball broke in from the left to pass it to skipper Matias Parades who shot it wide of the post.
However, it was the Netherlands who broke the deadlock with Brinkman scoring after a superb bout of passing with Seve van Ass which had the Argentina defence in tatters.
Netherlands got three penalty corners in succession between the 26th and 30th minutes, but failed to capitalise. However, they were 2-0 up midway into the third quarter when Varga scored with a powerful drive from the top of the ‘D’.
Down by two goals, Argentina threw everything into attack. Rey converted their fourth penalty corner to make it 1-2 and the Villa hit the target five minutes later and it was 2-2.
Undeterred the Dutch came back again strongly to take the lead with Pruijser converting the side’s sixth penalty corner. But then Peillat heroics saved Argentina’s day.
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