Playing with overwhelming crowd support from fans, who crossed into neighboring Brazil in large numbers, Argentina handed 2008 and 2012 Olympic champions Germany their worst ever hockey defeat in recent memory. While India couldn’t make the expected dent in hockey, Argentina distinguished themselves by registering their best finish in Olympics. Ranked 7th in the world, Argentina have already surpassed their best 5th place finish in London’s 1948 Games but had a lowly 10th place performance in London again in 2012. On the other hand, Germany have been the hockey powerhouse along with Australia in recent times and recorded back-to-back top finish in 2008 and 2012 Games in Beijing and London. However, Tuesday night didn’t belong to them. Argentina played amazingly and helped by Gonzalo Peillat’s hat-trick of penalties surged to a 3-0 halftime lead. That swelled to 5-0 before Germany pulled two goals back in closing stages. Having already assured themselves of at least a silver medal, Argentina will look for an even better finish, when they play against Belgium on Friday August 19. Belgium came through by defeating the Netherlands 3-1 in the other semifinal later on Tuesday evening.
On match day, besides their improved status in hockey, Argentina also had sumptuous crowd support from those, who had come to the Olympic Hockey Center in Deodoro from neighboring home cities for the match. Halfway into the first quarter, Argentina earned their first penalty corner and defender Gonzalo Peillat produced a powerful drag-flick that found the net. The South Americans doubled their lead just before the 15-minute period ended, when Peillat converted Argentina’s second penalty corner as well. By the time the second quarter began, Germany were already downcast and they conceded another penalty corner. Gonzalo Peillat stepped up and completed his hat-trick to take Argentina to a 3-0 lead. Besides, the Argentine also took his tally of goals to 10 in this tournament.
Five minutes after halftime, Joaquin Menini made it 4-0 for Argentina from a brilliant effort by Agustin Mazzilli. Menini was in great position, when Mazzilli dodged a defender and scooped the ball over the German goalkeeper’s head. All Menini required to do was an easy tap into the open goal. Germany had completely lost their rhythm by this time and to make it even worse for them, Argentina shot into a 5-0 lead with a fourth quarter goal from Lucas Vila in open play. Now the only thing Argentina needed to do was to quell any last- minute German miracle, like of which they had pulled off against India and New Zealand. Germany still did their best to score two goals in the last 10 minutes by Moritz Furste and Christopher Ruhr. However, with only minutes remaining, the 5-2 difference was too great for them to upstage Argentina.