KEY POINTS:
Their Olympic dream is not yet in tatters but the Black Sticks were handed a harsh dose of reality in yesterday's 3-1 loss to Argentina - one they must address quickly and reverse in Sunday's winner-take-all final of the Olympic qualifying tournament.
The clash between the two previously
unbeaten tournament favourites was dominated by the visitors. A yard quicker and with better ball control, they forced the home side on to the back foot, rarely letting them into the game.
"Our error rate was too high," Black Sticks coach Shane McLeod later admitted. "That came from the amount of pressure they put us under which led us to turnover too much ball."
The match statistics backed that. They showed that while both teams had 17 circle penetrations, New Zealand, ranked 10th in the world, committed 12 unforced errors to their opponent's four. Argentina, the seventh-ranked nation on the world list, had seven shots saved, New Zealand just two.
From the outset this was a more open game than both teams have played on the first three days of the Crown Relocations Stadium-based tournament.
The Argentinians constantly pushed forward to put the New Zealand defence under unaccustomed pressure, yet the opening goal came from set play.
From just outside the attacking circle Juan Garreta, in his first play of the match after coming on as a substitute, swept the ball in. Lucas Cammareri stuck out a hopeful stick to skilfully deflect the ball high into the New Zealand goal.
From the restart New Zealand had their chance to equalise but Hayden Shaw's drag flick attempt from their only penalty corner was deflected by goalkeeper Juan Vivaldi's stick.
Argentina's 23rd minute second goal was virtually a repeat of their first. A close-range free-hit taking a faint touch from Rodrigo Vila and giving goalkeeper Kyle Pontifex no chance.
Simon Child had an opportunity to close the gap less than a minute into the second spell but his shot was deflected away for a long corner.
Argentina quickly forced their only penalty corner and were, like New Zealand, denied by a strong Dean Couzins clearance.
With 12 minutes to play, the visitors slammed the door when, from turned-over ball, Vila broke clear and scored.
Five minutes on, New Zealand gave the big crowd some hope when Ben Collier provided the final touch at the far post to score - something the ever-vocal Argentine captain Mario Almada refused to accept and jostled British umpire David Leiper in pushing his case.
McLeod said that while a replay of yesterday's match is the likely final, he must first turn his attention to Saturday's final pool match against France from which they must take at least a point to progress - assuming Argentina beat Ireland in an earlier match.
"We still have to focus on France," said McLeod. "We would be foolish to disregard them."
Before that there will be a video watch of yesterday's game and a good deal of soul-searching.
In one of the more entertaining matches, France beat Trinidad and Tobago 5-2 with the Trinidadians muffing three late chances to get something from the match. In the late game Ireland beat the United States 8-0 with Mark Gleghorne scoring five to keep their tournament hopes alive.
