New Zealand nearly did enough to hold out Argentina in stifling conditions, but eventually went down 1-0 in the opening match of the Champions Trophy women's tournament in Macau.
The defending champions deserved their win after dominating much of the match, making nine shots to one in general play and winningsix penalty corners to two.
Oliva Mariana Gonzalez converted one of the corners 16 minutes into the second half with a fine reverse stick shot, forcing the New Zealanders to adopt a more attacking style.
They came close to equalising when a fine run from Jaimee Provan nearly resulted in a goal two minutes from the end.
New Zealand coach Jan Borren admitted his team went out to play a defensive style under the scorching sun, with temperatures hovering in the high 30 degrees.
"Today was about survival, for Argentina as well, and we almost came away with a draw, which would have been a good result," Borren said.
"It is incredibly hot here. Our players have never experienced anything like it before a game.
"It is especially tough coming from the Commonwealth Games [in Manchester], where we were playing in 12 to 13 degrees."
Borren said his players had all come through relatively unscathed, mainly because he continually rotated his reserves bench. He tried to operate the switches so most players never had more than 20 minutes on the turf at a time.
"In the end that probably counted against us because we had a lot of our inexperienced players out there early in the second half and Argentina got right on top then and got the goal," he said.
"It was always going to be hard to come back from there. You would have to say they deserved to win it."
In the other opening-round matches, played in cooler evening conditions, Australia and the Netherlands played out a scoreless draw and China and England drew 1-1.
