Great Britain’s five match series against Argentina has come to end with team GB being beaten 4-1 overall. The final game came to an end Friday night with the hosts winning 3-1 scoring all their goals before halftime.
Britain managed to pull back a consolation goal in the second half from Crista Cullen who later received a blow to the face resulting in her leaving the game to head to hospital.
The early minutes of the match showed promise for the visiting side but after they squandered two good chances of scoring, Maccari took the opportunity to put Argentina in the lead from a deflected penalty corner shot.
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Noel Barrionuevo soon followed with her third and fourth goals of the series with penalty corner drag flicks in the 21st and 26th minutes.
With the result effectively out of reach for Danny Kerry’s young side, GB had no choice but to keep hammering away at the South Americans in hope of some good luck.
The second half saw a more determined and focused GB side, successfully batting away any attempts on goal by Argentina.
They were hit by a blow when Nicola White was shown a yellow card eight minutes in, but this did not stop Crista Cullen hitting from a penalty corner, only to have her effort save by the on form Argentinean goalkeeper Laura Aldrado.
Good work from Alex Danson saw Cullen receive the ball right in front of goal and the defender from Leicester duly slotted it home to put her side on the score board.
There then followed a significant stoppage after Cullen took a hefty blow to the face and she left the field of play to be taken to hospital for further treatment.
After the match Danny Kerry was disappointed with the way in which his side had played for the opening spell: “If you only play for one half of a hockey match you’ll lose,”
“We were rightly behind at halftime. In the second half we got the goal and played better but the damage had already been done.”
“Coming to Argentina has certainly been worthwhile. I have found out a lot about the players, such as who has the self motivational skills required to play five intense matches in seven days. I have discovered who can put in the performances, which will certainly help my thinking around selection as we progress towards the London 2012 Olympics.”
The squad will now fly home to the UK in time for Christmas. Great Britain’s centralised training programme will resume in February after the domestic indoor season.
Erin Healey, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
