Argentina shock Pakistan 2-1

kuala lumpur: at the press conference after the win over new zealand on wednesday, brig. khalid sajjad khokhar, manager of four-time champions pakistan, had remarked: our world cup campaign actually begins tomorrow when we take on argentina. the brigadier knew what he was talking. for, after three soft matches, what lay ahead were the tough games against argentina, germany, defending champions, holland, and spain.he was wary. and his fears were not unfounded. for, after spain rallied to split points with the dutch at the main pitch of the bukit jalil stadium here on thursday, pakistan started well, on pitch no. 2 and took an early lead. but they were then put under tremendous pressure by the south americans and ultimately caved in by the odd goal in three. pakistan went into the attack from the start. and, after kashif jawad was thwarted in the eighth minute, their penalty-corner specialist sohail abbas gave meaning to the slight edge they held, scoring off their first penalty corner. but the argentinians hit back strongly. they forced as many as seven penalty corners in the opening stanza. holland 1 (karel klaver) spain 1 (jordi quintana); new zealand 2 (simon towns, bevan hari) south africa 1 (greg nicol); argentina 2 (tomas mccormik, matias paredes) pakistan 1 (sohail abbas).