India slid from bad to worse as they crashed to a 2-4defeat against Argentina and will now be left to fight for minor positions inthe 25th Champions Trophy at Amstelveen today.
Argentina, playing only their second Champions Trophyevent after their debut in 1987, capitalised fully on a tottering Indian defenceto score their second win in three matches.
India suffered their third defeat in four games withonly a win against an inexperienced Germany to show for their efforts, and areleft with one match in hand, against Pakistan on Friday.
Goals by Jorge Lombi (19th, 40th), Matias Vila (24th)and Mario Almada (38th) set up the Argentine win, while the Indian reply camefrom Deepak Thakur (30th) and Baljit Singh Dhillon (42nd).
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It was not as if the Indians played badly, rather, theyallowed Argentina to score despite having more opportunities themselves.
India had more of the ball in the first-half much ofwhich they controlled. But two lapses in the midfield saw them fall behind. Inthe first instance, Argentina was allowed to develop a left wing move that ledto a penalty corner which Lombi converted in the 19th minute.
Five minutes later, Vila was left totally free at the top of the circle toreceive a pass from Juan Eduardo Garreta and scored to give Argentina a 2-0advantage.
The Indians did well to keep their nerves and followinga nice rotation of the ball from wing to wing, centre-half Bimal Lakra let fly along ball straight to Thakur who deflected in as the teams went into the breakwith Argentina leading 2-1.
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The Indians had a couple of more scoring chancesmid-way through the session, but the sharpness was missing at the finish and itallowed the Pan American winners to breathe a bit easier.
Soon after half time, Argentina came up with a typicalcounter-attack through the middle where the Indian mid-field had left acres ofspace. Tomas MacCormik began the run and put through Matias Paredes who, onadvancing into the circle, flicked left for Almada to score from close.
The Indians had no respite as Lombi forced a penaltycorner and went on to convert it as Argentina took a firm grip on the match.
However, the Indians were not quite finished yet asDhillon pounced on a rebound after Dhanraj Pillay's attempt came off thegoalkeeper, and found the boards with an angular hit.
Though India forced a couple of penalty corners in thedying minutes, they failed to convert any of them.
Earlier, a high-flying Australia destroyed Germany 6-1with an awesome display of speed and power.
Thriving on lightning counter-attacks and set-pieceplay, the Australians left their opposition clueless scoring goals at will.
Two goals each by Michael McCann and Grant Schubert setthe stage for the big Australian win while both Adam Commens and Aaron Hopkinssounded the board once to complete the German rout.
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Alexander Sahmel put the world champions on the boardwith a penalty corner conversion.
PTI
