18 August,2016 08:14 AM IST | | Mervyn Fernandis
History is in the making. It's now confirmed that a new gold medal winner will emerge as Argentina take on Belgium in the men's hockey finals at Rio on Thursday. I am sure, that no ardent Indian follower of the game would have predicted it
Argentina's players celebrate winning the men's semifinal field hockey Argentina vs Germany match of the Rio 2016 Olympics Games at the Olympic Hockey Centre in Rio de Janeiro. Pic/AFP
History is in the making. It's now confirmed that a new gold medal winner will emerge as Argentina take on Belgium in the men's hockey finals at Rio on Thursday. I am sure, that no ardent Indian follower of the game would have predicted it.
Argentina's players celebrate winning the men's semifinal field hockey Argentina vs Germany match of the Rio 2016 Olympics Games at the Olympic Hockey Centre in Rio de Janeiro. Pic/AFP
The top three, Australia, Holland and Germany, were the pre-tournament favourites. But, instead, it will be Argentina and Belgium in the title match for the first time since its inception.
Germany, the defending two-time champions were humiliated 5-2 by world No 7 Argentina who are now assured of their first Olympic hockey medal. On the other hand, world No 2 The Netherlands, who had not lost to Belgium in a major competition for almost 80 years saw that record shattered by a 3-1 defeat in the second semi-final.
I was not surprised with the outcome of both the semi-finals as the team which played better on the day came up trumps. However, I cannot recollect when was the last time that Germany was humiliated by such a huge margin in an Olympic game. The Germans had shown plenty of resilience scoring three times in the final five minutes to beat New Zealand 3-2 in the quarter-finals. But, in the semi-final, they were completely flattened by Argentina.
Drag-flick specialist Gonzalo Peillat has proved to be very lethal and he hit a hat-trick of penalty corners with Joaquin Menini and Lucas Vila coming up with the other two goals to give Argentina a 5-0 lead. The Germans showed they still had fire in the belly with Moritz Furste and Christopher Ruhr scoring late consolation goals.
This endorses my belief that all teams are equal in a big tournament and that no team can guarantee their dominance in a major competition. The sport is growing and the lesser teams have now shown tremendous improvement. However, the Asian nations who once dominated the game seem to be on the decline. Pakistan and South Korea (one time medallists) did not qualify for the Olympics and it shows how tough qualifiers are these days.
Argentina had finished 10th, which was two positions above India, at the 2012 London Olympics, and they managed to go the distance in Rio. We had beaten them 2-1 in the group stage but still bowed out in the knock-out game while they will now be playing for pride and honour.
The writer was a member of India's 1980 Moscow Olympics gold medal-winning hockey team
