Saturday, February 09, 2008

No Ticket To Beijing For Hockey

New Zealand grabbed the coveted ticket to Beijing while all Sergio VIGIL and his men could do is watch in despair.

Argentina did control much in the beginning and took the lead when Lucas VILA deflected a penalty corner hit from brother Matias VILA up into the roof of the goal. Then the Black Sticks came back strongly and took the equalizer through Dave KOSOOF in the 49th minute.

That only lasted for three minutes as a quick response Argentina took the lead again, this time through Matias VILA. With the pace of the game increasing, Argentina could no longer hold on as the host equalized through Hayden SHAW with just four minutes left.

The match went into sudden extra time from which disaster strike with only less them a minute left when New Zealand got the winner trough Brad SHAW.

This was a big disappointment indeed as we have always qualified since 1968 but there were still other good news elsewhere.

Davis Cup...

Despite being put to tough fight in the second set, Britain's pair of Jamie MURRAY/Ross HUTCHINS could not still stop Argentina from sealing this tie in Day 2 of the round.

Jose ACASUSO and David NALBANDIAN were too strong for the inexperience pair as they won 6-2, 7-6 & 6-0 to book Argentina's place in the quarter-finals.

Argentina captain Alberto MANCINI said: "We had a pretty good first set and had the control of the second and then they got a little distracted I think. The British team rose their level a bit but the first set was very good for us. They [Britain] went down emotionally after losing the second set."

"Our goal is to win Davis Cup. Our hope is to get to the final and win it but we now have to see who wins between Sweden and Israel. We hope Sweden wins because we would face them at home," continued MANCINI.

He also revealed that Agustin CALLERI and Jose ACASUSO will play the dead rubbers with Alex BOGDANOVIC and Jamie BAKER expected to play for Britain.

NBA News...

Utah Jazz 97 Chicago Bulls 87

Another defeat for the Bulls that could effect their chances of a play-off birth. Andres NOCIONI was a starter, posted 14 points, 4 rebounds & 1 assist.

Houston Rockets 108 Atlanta Hawks 89

A sixth straight won for the Rockets from which Luis SCOLA, now a regular starter, had 8 points in the opening quarter to help Houston built a 30-16 lead.

Late in the third quarter, he appeared to jam a finger on his left hand when Josh CHILDRESS swatted the ball out of his hands. SCOLA went to the bench, grimacing in pain and did not return.

He eventually posted 14 points, 9 rebounds & 1 steal.

Football - French Ligue 1...

A double strike from Fernando CAVENAGHI, ensured Bordeaux close the gap on Lyon to four points after 3-0 win over Metz.

His first was from a penalty in the 25th minute and the second was from a superb combination with Brazilian WENDELL in the 73rd minute.

2 comments:

Seba said...

I was watching the hockey match live last night in Buenos Aires.

What a heart-breaking result and what a horrible way to happen.

Argentina went up 2-1 with only 15 minutes to go (or something like that) and then New Zealand had a short corner. The ball was played badly but the referee said one of Argentina defenders started running off the goal-line too early and showed him the green card (not the one you need to live and work in the USA, this is another type of green card, haha!). So they had to play the corner again and scored to equalize the match with 5 minutes to go.

And then in the second half of extra time, New Zealand won another short corner and scored after a couple of crazy moves with only 8 seconds in the clock.

Devastating. Horrible.

John said...

I woke up as early as 7.30 a.m. just to have my breakfast and watch the game. I was pretty nervous the way our players defended when it comes to penalty corner.

But looks like there is no point to argue on that right now. We’ll just have to hope that Los Leonas might redeem some pride for our hockey team.

Here is some other news…

In football, Esteban CAMBIASSO was the only Albiceleste scorers on Sunday in Inter 2-0 win over Catania (unless I have miss someone else).

Meanwhile in the Davis Cup, Argentina was denied a 5-0 whitewash by Great Britain after Agustin CALLERI lost to Jamie BAKER 6-7 & 4-6. Before that Jose ACASUSO defeated Alex BOGDANOVIC 7-5 & 7-5.

Therefore Argentina completed the tie with a 4-1 win but not before knowing that their quarterfinal tie will be played in Buenos Aires. Our opponent is non other than Sweden (whom we met in same stage last year, lost 1-4) after they defeated Israel 3-2.

With the likes of CANAS, DEL POTRO and MONACO missing this tie through injury, Alberto MANCINI has a formidable squad to choose from and he can surely expect another long and successful run in this year’s competition.

“Our goal is to win Davis Cup,” said MANCINI. “We hope to get to the final and win it but we need to go step by step.”