Australia beats Argentina 5-2 in their first match of Hero Hockey Junior World Cup Men 2013

Australia dominated the game in both the session of the match

New Delhi, 6 December 2013: First match of pool B pitted two highly ranked teams, Oceania Champions Australia and America Champions Argentina, and the players immediately displayed their skills in a fast paced opening ten minutes, without so much of an observation round.

Attackers were however kept well outside the circle and there were hardly any dangerous scoring opportunities until the 14th minutes, when the Australians finally managed to find the key to the Argentinian defense to score three goals in quick succession by Justin Douglas, Francis Main and captain for the day Daniel Beale, establishing a comfortable lead.

Argentina regrouped promptly but could not seriously threaten Andrew Butturini in the Kookaburra’s goal, leaving the door open for another Australian surge forward. Aussie Matthew Dawson scored a spectacular goal, picking up the rebound from a penalty-corner and sending it high in the roof of the net, but it was canceled after an Argentinian video-referral.

Argentina had a good reaction at the end of the period and Joaquin Leonel Coelho reduced the deficit in the 31st minute, finding the ball in traffic in the circle after a long run and perfect cross by Manuel Nicolas Sacchetti. Frederico Fernandez Onega had another excellent chance soon after but shot just wide after doing all the hard work going through the Australian defense.

The break was called after a long video-referral break over a penalty-corner call, with Australia comfortably in the lead with a two-goal cushion. Jeremy Hayward increased the Australian lead early in second period with a penalty-corner just under the bar, hotly contested for some reason by the Argentineans, who had unfortunately already lost their right to a video-referral. The Kookaburras scored their fifth goal in the 49th minute, after a long run on the right wing by Daniel Beale, taken down when entering the circle but still managing a spectacular diving pass to Casey Hammond in front of the goal.

With a 4-goal deficit and less than fifteen minutes to go, things looked bleak for the South Americans. They kept trying and were rewarded with a late goal on penalty-corner by Gonzalo Peillat, but it was too little and too late and the Kookaburras walked away with the 3 points of the win in this entertaining match.

Speaking after the win player of the match, Douglas Justin said “we had a very convincing game over Argentina today and we are very satisfied with our performance today. Our next game is against Spain on Sunday and we hope to continue winning our next two matches”