Hockey: Black Sticks aiming for one win

Mark Hager still has his sights firmly set on at least one victory in the remaining three matches of the five-test series with world-ranked Argentina and China.

Despite losing the second of three tests 4-1 to the South Americans in Whangarei on Saturday, Hager still hankers after a win for his young Black Sticks side either in this evening's third test with the Argentinians in Pukekohe or in the two tests against China which follow tomorrow and on Wednesday in Hamilton and Pukekohe respectively.

Asked what he wanted from today's game, Hager, as positive as ever, said: "a win would be as good result. We are not going to be happy with losing 1-0, 2-1 or 3-2. We will be aiming to win one of these next three games."

That, he just as quickly admits, will not be easy.

"In the second game in Whangarei we played without confidence. They gang-tackled us and we could not respond. It is all part of a big learning curve but really we did not fire a shot, particularly on attack. There was still a three-goal gap at the end."

In the two tests thus far, Argentina have won 7-4 and 4-1 with a large percentage of the Argentine goals scored from penalty corners.

Hager is concerned at that.

"We have to look at the way we defend penalty corners," he said. "We talked about it after the first game but you are not going to improve on the field simply by talking about it. The players have to get out and do something about it."

While he is concerned about his team's lack of goals - and more particularly the paucity of goal-scoring opportunities - Hager also has worries about some defensive frailties.

"We have let in some soft goals which is disappointing especially in that we have matched them on circle penetrations. But you can't expect to win if you let them score seven from penalty corners."

Hager could point to the number of newcomers in his side as a reason for much of the uncertainty and, he admits, on a couple of occasions his players' inexperience has been exposed but he feels the losses have been a result of more than that.

"We were outplayed on attack in the second test. Our forward line was too individualistic and wasn't combining," said Hager. "We have to put more pressure on their back four if we are to have any real hope."

In keeping with his pre-series plan, Hager will again use a different combination for the remaining three matches.

"It has been a big ask to step up from playing India B to play the second-best team in the world and while the young players have shown some promising signs, they need to be more consistent. The main focus remains the Oceania Cup and later in the year the Champions Challenge.

"The current matches are all about finding the best players for those tournaments and giving them as much game time as possible."

Noel Barrioneuvo, who scored a goal in the first test, scored two in the second to lead the Argentine assault. Rosario Luchetti, who scored two first-up, managed one on Saturday while the fourth was scored by the world's best player Luciana Aymar.

Gemma Flynn scored New Zealand's only goal on Saturday after she too had scored in the series opener.