By ERROL D’CRUZ

Argentina are an enigma when it comes to men’s hockey. FIH Junior World Cup champions at Rotterdam 2005, the national sides – both junior and senior – oscillate between mediocre and superlative.

After the epic in Rotterdam, Argentina went off the radar in the top echelon but returned with a bang at the 2016 Rio Olympics when the senior team struck gold.

The South American battlers are now at the 2021 FIH Junior World Cup for men in Bhubaneswar and a virtual media interaction on Thursday with coach Lucas Rey and captain Facundo Zarate revealed interesting facts about hockey in the country.

“Football kills every single sport in Argentina,” said Rey, a former seasoned campaigner for his country.

“In our country, the top sport for men is football, for women it’s hockey,” he said. “Young boys grow up dreaming of becoming a Messi or Maradona.

“If not football, then rugby which is the second sport for men. It makes things very difficult for men’s hockey to grow even after winning the 2016 Olympic gold medal at Rio.”

But for all that, hockey soldiers on in Argentina. It took into its stride the Covid-19 pandemic and a year-long lockdown. And the usual long haul to Bhubaneswar which took the team 40 hours.

“Our preparation has been intense,” said Zarate “And we will be working very hard for our national colours.”

Reaching Bhubaneswar well in time to get used to the conditions has been a priority. But qualifying for the Junior World Cup itself was a tricky proposition.

The pandemic compelled the Argentina Hockey Confederation to send a second string to the Pan Am Cup in Santiago where they lost to hosts Chile in the final but booked tickets to Bhubaneswar all the same.

Not all has gone well with the team’s prospects over the years, Rey revealed. “The ‘golden generation’ that formed in 2005 went on to take Argentina to the top but we didn’t continue with our process and programs.

“This is where we have to improve in Argentina,” he said candidly. “We have problems with managers and staff. We couldn’t train together and we lost the gains from that victory.”

“When it all came together in 2016, we won the Olympic gold,” Rey, a former midfielder and a member of the team in Rio, added. “We need players and managers pushing in the same direction for such an achievement.”

The coach’s insights into administrative hurdles also revealed reasons for Argentina losing their way in the men’s game after the glory of Rio.

He pointed to the absence of a single junior player in the team that played touring India earlier this year and reiterated the problems and politics that plague the system.

“We need to improve here. We should follow the process keeping in mind that players must be developed for the senior team,” Rey affirmed.

But former midfielder who did duty for his country at the 2001 Hobart Jr World Cup where they lost to India 1-6 in the final is focussed on the campaign in Bhubaneswar. He looks ahead to a tough campaign where the first challenge will be qualifying for the quarterfinals from Pool D where Pakistan, Germany and Egypt lie in wait.

“This is a competition and we must aim to win every single game,” the coach said.

Rey’s wards include students – ranging from lawyers to physical trainers – like Zarate – and much as he focuses on achievement in the World Cup, he echoes the federation’s view that the players think beyond hockey.

“It is important that they have to think not only about hockey but studies as well. They have to be open-minded to understand other aspects of life and grow up in all respects,” Rey said.

The sojourn to Bhubaneswar may well raise the players’ learning curve steeply.