Argentina hand India 0-8 drubbing

Rourkela: At a time when there’s love in the air all around, it was doom and gloom here in Rourkela as the Indian men’s hockey team went down to Argentina 0-8 in their second match of FIH Pro League at Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium on Thursday.After their defeat against Belgium in the opener, everyone had expected India to make a turnaround, but it was a nightmarish performance by the hosts as they conceded twice in the first quarter, five more in the second and one in the final minute that saw Argentina earn their biggest win against India.

Tomas Domene (15th, 20th, 26th, 60th) scored four goals while Tomas Ruiz (14th), Lucio Mendez (22nd), Ignacio Ibarra (25th) and Nicolas della Torre (30th) found the net once each.It was only the second time in the history of the game that India lost 0-8 with the other instance being the 2010 Commonwealth Games final against Australia. Thursday’s loss was also India’s biggest defeat since the 7-0 drubbing by Australia at the Commonwealth Games final in Birmingham.It’s hard to put a finger on what exactly went wrong as the team just seemed lost on the field. They made mis-passes, failed to trap the balls, there was lack of communication and their structure went for a toss.

India’s performance was so bad that after one point the home fans started cheering every time the Argentines went on the attack.Speaking after the match, a teary-eyed Hardik Singh was quite simply out of words. “I think we were off like 20-30%. It’s hard to tell. We’re doing everything in our training session, but something is not going right,” said one of the senior-most players in the team.Earlier, against the run of play India won a penalty stroke when Aditya Arjun Lalage was fouled inside the D towards the end of the first quarter.

Lalage, one of the four changes in the team from the last game including debutant Manmeet Singh, was running down the right baseline when he was knocked off his feet by one of the Argentine defenders.However, Harmanpreet Singh failed to convert it. He got a second chance following a referral but his shot was again saved by Argentine goalkeeper Tomas Santiago and it marked the start of the Argentine onslaught.Ruiz scored the opener after the Argentines ran down the middle with the ball without any trouble.

Lucas Toscani’s pass inside the D was blocked by a defender but Ruiz put the loose ball into the net with ease. A minute later, Domene doubled the lead from a PC following a variation.In the second quarter, fans hoping for an Indian fightback were in for a rude shock as matters went from bad to worse.Five minutes into the break, Domene made it 3-0, latching on to a brilliant through ball from the right, before Mendez added a fourth after capitalising on a dreadful back pass.

The next three goals were scored in a flurry as it was impossible to believe what was unfurling in front of the eyes.After the third quarter began, India did just enough to keep the Argentines in check but Domene scored the eighth in the last minute of the game to really rub it in by which time the stadium was half empty.They will need something really special to come back from such a performance, but coach Craig Fulton is hopeful as he said after the match, “We’ve kind of walked this journey a few times. It looks like it’s all falling apart but it’s not. There’s a bigger plan behind, but we just need trust and time. That’s the thing.”