Argentina Inflict First FIH Hockey Pro League Defeat On England

Argentina 2 (1)

Rey (5’, FG); Monja (45+’, PC)

England 0 (0)

England’s men suffered their first defeat in the FIH Hockey Pro League as Argentina emerged victorious in the first double-header in Buenos Aires.

An early strike by Matias Rey gave the hosts the perfect start before Federico Monja doubled their lead in overtime at the end of the third quarter.

Sam Ward – playing his first game since having hand surgery over the winter – had a number of penalty corner chances but couldn’t find the target on this occasion.

James Mazarelo and Tim Nurse impressed on their senior international debuts while Tom Sorsby captained his country for the first time and Jack Turner played for the first time since 2017.

Fresh off an impressive victory over Belgium last weekend, Argentina started in fine fettle as Maico Casella forced Mazarelo into a save at his near post in the opening seconds.

The Loughborough Students goalkeeper could do nothing to keep out Rey’s deflected corner in the fifth minute though as the hosts took the lead.

Martin Ferreiro should have made it two in the final minute of the first quarter but smashed his effort the wrong side of the goal from his perspective before Ward just failed to get on the end of a cross-shot by Peter Scott in the 17th minute.

England saw further chances come and go in the second quarter as Ward and Duncan Scott had efforts blocked as David Goodfield flashed an shot on the spin wide, while at the other end Mazarelo produced a smart save to keep out an Argentinean corner.

After a cagey start to the third quarter, the hosts grew in confidence and saw Liam Sanford charge down two corners before they won another in the dying moments. After England thwarted the initial effort, the ball fell to an Argentine at the top of the circle and his pass was deflected beyond Mazarelo by Monja.

England had opportunities to get themselves on the scoresheet in the final quarter, with Ward seeing another two corners fail to go into the net while Sanford had a shot go wide.

After the game, Turner said: “I think we created a lot of chances that we will want to put away tomorrow. We were disappointed with the goals we gave away. We started a bit slow, it took us a while to get into the game and in general we’re disappointed but this evening we’ll regroup and we’ll go again tomorrow.

“We’ve got a big squad, we’ve got a lot of competition to play in the team so everyone knows they have to play well and it’s great to get some new boys in. Tim played really well in his first game. We’re a big squad and we enjoy playing together.”

England have the chance to exact immediate revenge when they play Argentina again at 19:30 GMT on Sunday 20 February on BT Sport 2.

Starting XI: Park, Gall, Albery, Mazarelo (GK), Creed, Goodfield, Bandurak, D Scott, Sanford, Sorsby (C), Smith

Subs (Used): Ward, Condon, P Scott, Turner, Nurse, Taylor

Subs (Unused): Payne (GK)