Inexperienced Hockeyroos gallant in narrow defeat to Argentina
Published Fri 03 Mar 2023
A single deflection goal was all that separated the Hockeyroos and Argentina as the South Americans secured a 1-0 win at the Tasmanian Hockey Centre in the FIH Pro League tonight.
With injury forcing experienced duo Grace Stewart and Mariah Williams to miss the rest of the ‘mini tournament’, the Hockeyroos entered the contest against the world number two ranked team with just one player (Renee Taylor) having made over 100 appearances.
Rosie Malone and Maddison Smith were thrust into the team as the Hockeyroos looked to continue their positive progress.
Argentina started brightly, Hockeyroos goalkeeper Aleisha Power called into action early.
In a first half that saw limited opportunities, Bec Greiner tried her best to break the deadlock when she fizzed a ball across the goal face but there was no one in a gold shirt on the end of it.
Penny Squibb then tried her luck, sending a drag flick towards goals only to be denied by Cristina Cosentino.
As they did in the first, Argentina made a hot start to the second half, however Meg Pearce and Hattie Shand were doing a stellar job in a defence that had yet to concede this tournament.
Maria Granatto tested Power midway through the third quarter with a rocket of a shot, before the deciding moment of the match came in the 48th minute.
Argentina had seemingly squandered a penalty corner routine when their pushout was miss trapped. However, the ball came to Lucina Von Der Heyde at the top of the attacking circle and her speculative effort took a wicked deflection on its way past a helpless Power into the net.
“We had a couple of good opportunities but didn’t put them away,” said Taylor.
“In saying that, there are some positives we can take out of the game, we shifted the ball well and managed to play through them better than we did on Tuesday night.”
“We keep building with each performance and each of the nine girls who have come in for this tournament have stepped up and played well.”
Match Details
Hockeyroos 0
Argentina 1 (von der Heyde)
@ Tasmanian Hockey Centre
Hockeyroos: 1.Claire Colwill, 2.Rosie Malone, 4.Amy Lawton, 5.Grace Young, 6.Penny Squibb, 7.Aleisha Power (gk), 8.Georgia Wilson, 9.Shanea Tonkin, 11.Meg Pearce, 12.Greta Hayes, 13.Hattie Shand, 21.Renee Taylor, 28.Hannah Cullum-Sanders, 29.Rebecca Greiner, 35.Maddison Brooks, 42.Maddison Smith, 44.Abby Wilson
Unused substitutes: 41.Zoe Newman (gk)
