We want five. It’s not a chant you hear for a British team every day. Certainly not when playing Argentina.
We
didn’t get five, of course, but four will do for starters. There may
be more later this week when Great Britain face South Africa. This is
the Olympics and this is hockey.
So while certain aspects are
familiar to all who follow the national sport — 11-a-side, the fans’
band, the edge against certain opponents, the odd outbreak of
histrionics — it is rather delightful to be on the right side of all
the good stuff.
In this sport it is the home team, it is us, that
have the flair, the finesse and the determination to attack. Great
Britain are the style council at this tournament, they play high-risk,
high-tempo hockey and demand their rivals match them. Last night it
worked, and Argentina could not.
This was also payback for an
unsavoury little incident that had occurred in the build-up to the
competition. Fernando Zylberberg, then Argentina’s captain — he’s not
now — had been shown training on sites in the Falkland Islands,
including a war memorial, in a television campaign.
Home rule: Ben Hawes (left) and Matt Daly (centre) celebrate with captain Barry Middleton
Olympic
Games 2012: Homage to the Fallen and the Veterans of the Malvinas was
its title. ‘To compete on English soil we train on Argentine soil,’
read the slogan.
Zylberberg was depicted clambering over various
parts of the territory Argentina would like to reclaim as the Malvinas.
He tied his laces on a war monument. It is fair to say this left a
residue of ill feeling.
It did not exactly explode at London’s Riverbank Arena because hockey is not like that.
The
teams shook hands at the end and apart from a sin bin spell for
Argentina’s Agustin Mazzilli, both countries kept 11 players on the
field. There was no need for a repeat of Sir Alf Ramsey’s ‘animals’
outburst following a quarter-final victory at football’s World Cup in
1966, no equivalent of the Hand of God, or the dirty tricks that got
David Beckham sent off for a moment of foolishness in 1998.
There
was, however, a degree of niggle — Argentina’s Pedro Ibarra was quite
spectacularly cleaned out by Matt Daly — a ferocious desire and, at the
end, a lap of honour to celebrate a job well done.
Argy bargy: It was a tetchy affair between the two teams in Stratford
This has been a highly promising start for both Great Britain teams. On
Sunday night, Japan were beaten 4-0 by the highly regarded women, and
this was an emphatic statement by the men.
Great Britain led 4-0 before Argentina pulled one back through Ibarra at a penalty corner, but the outcome was long decided.
Britain
were not all beauty but brawn, too; they more than matched Argentina’s
physicality and destroyed them going forward. A goal had already been
disallowed when captain Barry Middleton (left) opened the scoring after
21 minutes from a penalty corner. He added his second shortly after
the interval, a fantastic backhand strike from the edge of the D.
The
best goal was Britain’s third, a quite electric break that ended with
Ashley Jackson — the closest thing British hockey has to a star —
feeding Dan Fox, whose finish was sublime.
The scoring was
completed by Richard Smith when Argentina were reduced to 10 men: by
then British superiority did not depend on team numbers.
Next up
for the men are South Africa, defeated 6-0 by Australia yesterday,
which augers well. No clues to guessing who the main rivals will be
here.
Still, if Argentina can be dispatched in this fashion, who knows? The Poms may get their day on the Smurf Turf yet.
Stunning start: Team GB – with huge home support – started their gold medal chase with a win
With
Jackson off the pitch again Smith then succeeded where he had failed
in the first half by beating Vivaldi from a penalty corner.
Argentina
scored with a set-piece of their own with 15 minutes to go through
Ibarra, who later became yet another to be sin-binned as the
Argentinians lost their discipline, but it was not enough to spoil the
hosts’ party.
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Article Source:http://www.multi-angle-blog.info/–Great Britain 4 Argentina 1: Team GB off to flyer in hot tempered clash with old foe
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