Indian Express: Argentine cubs aim to emulate Los Leones

By Mihir Vasavda

When Valeria Keenan asked her teenage son Nicolas to take up hockey, his response was: “Isn’t that what girls play?”
Nicolas played football, and like most Rosario kids, he day-dreamt of being like Lionel Messi. But three generations of Keenans had played international hockey for Argentina’s men’s and women’s teams. And Nicolas was expected to carry on the tradition.

Rosario is also home to another sporting legend – Luciana Aymar. The hockey stalwart beat the football superstar to the 2010 Argentine sports personality of the year award. At times, she was compared with Diego Maradona for her skills. But it only fostered hockey’s image as a ‘feminine’ sport in Argentina. “Men play football and rugby. Hockey was for women,” Nicolas says. “When I carried my kitbag, most people thought it was a guitar or something. The concept of a boy walking to a hockey ground is something most of Argentina never understood.”

The men’s team has always been good, if qualifying for the Olympics is a benchmark. Mired in mediocrity, they, however, were never good enough for medals. The women, meanwhile, raised the bar.

In this century alone, the Aymar-led side medalled at all four Olympics, missing out in Rio, won two World Cups and seven Champions Trophy crowns. Their male counterparts, meanwhile, played in relative obscurity. Even when they achieved their (previous) best international result, a bronze at the 2014 World Cup, the women matched it as well.
But earlier this year, they shattered the 108-year old perception. At Rio, Los Leones, or the Lions, won their first ever Olympic medal. A gold. What made it slightly sweeter was that, for once, the women returned emptyhanded.
“Suddenly, everyone noticed the men’s team. They were on TV stations, newspapers…everywhere. They were the most watched team during the Olympics,” says Valeria, who played for Las Leonas.

It wasn’t only about the women’s team. The long, dark shadow of the national football team was perennially cast over them. The hockey team was everything that the Albiceleste weren’t. They were unattractive and lacked aggression, while the Argentine football team is seen as macho and always brimming with creative players.

But any attempt to compare the two sports fades when you take into account the popularity. “You have football, a huge gap, and then the other sports. Hockey is a part of other sports, not very big,” says Emilliano Bosso, the captain of their under-21 side. “Football is huge. Everyone plays. Everyone follows.”

Maradona is a hockey fan, they say. He walked into the women’s team locker room to console them after they lost the gold medal match at the Beijing Olympics. At the World League last year in Buenos Aires, he was once again in the stands cheering the side on.

But most others do not care. You wonder, why would someone pick up a hockey stick in the land of Maradona and Messi?
“Because it’s a family sport. You play hockey because someone in your family has played. That’s the main motivation,” striker Nicolas Acosta says. In the under-21 team that has travelled to Lucknow, almost every player has had a parent or grandparent who once played for the national team. Acosta is among the few whose family hasn’t played hockey.

A lot of credit for Argentina’s turnaround goes to Carlos Retegui. Think of a Diego Simeone or a Jurgen Klopp, and double their passion levels. That’s Chapa, or the Boss, for you. “Argentina are 70 percent because of Retegui’s passion and aggression. The remaining is talent,” a member of the Indian team that beat Argentina at the Rio Games says.

It’s not an exaggeration. Argentina had silently been working on their youth structure over the last six years but Retegui knew how to get the best out of it. He inherited a young, talented side in 2013 and within months, took them to another level. “He just fires you up with his style. Some coaches have that in them, don’t they?” Nicolas says.
Retegui was the coach of Argentina’s men and women teams at the 2014 World Cup, when both won medals. For the men, the bronze worked wonders. Suddenly, they became an international force. When they thrashed London Olympics gold medallists Germany in the semifinals of the Rio Games, it only asserted their new-found status.

The under-21 side, which scraped through to the quarterfinals on Monday, has a legacy to follow. Their women’s team won the junior World Cup in Chile last week. The boys have a tough act to follow.

Nicolas, though, isn’t concerned. “It’s not pressure. It’s a privilege,” he says. “At least back home when I now walk with my kitbag, people know I’m a hockey player. It’s a good time to be a hockey player in Argentina now.”