BHUBANESWAR: In the end, the penalty corners made the difference. Both Australia and Argentina boasted of some of the top exponents of the art but it was the former who beat them to retain their
Hockey World League Final
title, with a 2-1 win in the summit clash here on Sunday.
READ ALSO: India beat Germany 2-1 to win bronzeBy virtue of their win, Australia replaced Argentina at the top spot in team's rankings.
Jeremy Hayward
(17') converted a penalty corner in the second quarter to put Australia ahead before Argentina equalised through
Agustin Bugallo
(18').
Blake Govers
(58') then sealed the gold in the final quarter when he converted a penalty corner two minutes before the full time.
The teams found it difficult to make enough circle entries and so there were few attempts at goal. Australia found an opening in the second quarter when they won their first penalty corner of the night. And Haywards scored, lifting his shot to the right of Juan Vivaldi, putting Australia 1-0 ahead.
The celebrations lasted a minute with Bugallo getting his name on the scoresheet. Juan Gillardi played on inside the Australian circle and Bugallo lifted the ball to the right of goalkeeper Tristan Clemons with a lovely deflection with the ball ending inside the far corner. It wasn't a pulsating contest but a battle of wits. Both teams had their chances but neither found the success.
Juan Gilardi had a golden chance to put the game to bed when he beat Australian captain
Mark Knowles
, the last defender and all he had to beat Tyler Lovell but the goalie charged ahead and the Argentine crashed his shot wide of the cage.
He would come to regret that miss when Govers continued his excellent form, converting his fifth penalty corner of
HWL Final
. Argentina came back hard winning three penalty corners in the dying moments but failed to convert either with the Kookaburras defending with all their might to deny the Olympic champions.
Argentina would make one final attempt with an overhead pass landing inside the Australian D in the final seconds and Diego Paz thrashed a bouncing ball at the goal but it was off target. Australia thus became champions for the second time in a row and will go down in international hockey history as the last team ever to win Hockey World League Final.
Earlier, India defeated a depleted Germany 2-1 in the bronze medal match.