Spain’s coach is a French legend. France coach is a Dutch legend. The battle between teams under the label of these legends ended in a 1-1 draw in Pool A of the Odisha World Cup. French star of yore Feredric Soyez could not believe his eyes when his team Spain frittered away many chances in the crucial match result of which will count a lot in the coming days in the long tournament.
Jeroen Delmee, who led the Dutch eight years ago in the Delhi World Cup, was distinctly unlucky when his team could not put it across struggling Spain. Smart France got a stroke on their video referral but Hugo Genestet could not beat hugely talented Spaniard in Quico Cortes, the men under the cage. Lowly rated France otherwise surprised Spain, who got many penalty corners on account of their field ascendency but were denied any conversion.
The match that followed the above draw, one between Argentina and New Zealand, rose to greater heights, which saw untiring and most experienced Argentina punishing New Zealand relentlessly.
After a opening buzz in which the Kiwis missed out on all three shots at goal within first 30 seconds from commencement, it was Argentina all the way.
It was a tit for tit match.
Energetic Agustin Mazzli equalized within a minute after conceding first goal of the match. Pan American team’s penalty corner expert Gonzalo Peillat, top scorer at Rio, was initially undone by their daring rivals but he came on his own with an immaculate conversion five minutes before the hooter. The 3-0 win is straight second win, and this will suffice them to qualify directly for the quarters from Pool A.