New Zealand's women's Youth Olympic team's loss to Argentina sees them in the bronze play off game on Tuesday.
Argentina beat New Zealand 1-0 in Sunday’s first match, taking it through to the gold medal match against Netherlands.
The result of last round-robin match between New Zealand and Argentina was very important for both. Argentina needed at least a draw to qualify for Tuesday’s gold edal match while New Zealand needed a victory to make the final.
Both teams started off nervously, the game took place mostly in the midfield. Argentina created better opportunities in the first half but couldn’t benefit from them.
They won four penalty corners but all of them failed: Either the flicks went wide or the New Zealand runners blocked the shots. Julia CASTIGLIONI missed what was probably Argentina’s biggest chance when she couldn’t control a pass coming from Agustina ALBERTARRIO across the circle.
Team Argentina dominated the second half but was still unable to capitalise on the many opportunities in the circle. For example Agustina ALBERTARRIO had a one-on-one with the goalkeeper but mishit the ball left of goal under pressure from the goalkeeper.
The New Zealand defence was busy as the attack was not able to penetrate the attacking circle until the 64th minute of play. The young Argentine side took the lead in the 61st minute when Rocio BROCCOLI flicked a penalty corner into the bottom right of the goal. New Zealand became stronger after they went 0-1 down. The won four penalty corners in the last five minutes but none of them succeeded.
New Zealand v Argentina 0-1 (0-0)
0-1 61' Rocio BROCCOLI (PC)
