KEY POINTS:
Even an hour of free beer could not wash away the gut-wrenching feeling the New Zealand men's team had after throwing away what should have been a winning 2-0 lead against Argentina in the Champions Challenge final in Belgium yesterday.
Defensive lapses in the dying minutes let Argentina
back into the game the Black Sticks had in safe keeping. "It was a story-book ending until the end," said philosophical New Zealand coach Shane McLeod after his team went down 3-2 in a dramatic end to the tournament.
"In the last few minutes, they were caught out trying to play outside their comfort zone."
In a game in which neither goalkeeper was seriously tested with shots from open play, the Black Sticks appeared a little naive as they tried to defend their hard-won lead rather than continue in much the same way they had in taking the game to their higher-ranked opponents.
McLeod, who at one stage was seen talking to the umpires, said he and his players were frustrated by some of their calls especially at attacking penalty corners when the Argentine defenders were constantly called for breaking early.
He also, rightly, pointed out the Argentinian attackers were illegally breaking back towards goal before the penalty corners were taken.
After Hayden Shaw had struck twice - from 44th and 48th minute penalty corners - to give New Zealand the lead, the Argentinians responded in a like manner.
Jorge Lombi unlocked the New Zealand defence with penalty corner strikes in the 65th and 66th minutes to send the game into sudden death extra time.
Despite being a player down after a second player had been sent to the bin, Argentina, who kept out what could have been a match-winner for the Black Sticks after the fulltime hooter had sounded, won a penalty corner four minutes into extra time.
Lombi blasted home to leave the New Zealanders wondering just what had gone wrong.
"It would have been great to book a place in next year's Champions Trophy by winning here," said McLeod, on his first overseas assignment since taking over from Kevin Towns as national coach.
Even being awarded the fair play trophy, having inspirational captain Ryan Archibald - who overcame a serious ankle injury to play the final (even if not at 100 per cent) - named as player of the tournament and Shaw taking top goalscorer award (with nine - two more than Lombi) could not disguise the disappointment felt by the team.
"We will now have to sit down and plan our way through to the Beijing Olympics," said McLeod.
"We have made some good contacts here and I'm sure there will be teams keen to play us after what we have done.
"We have a five-test series in Japan in August as a lead-in to the Oceania Olympic qualifiers.
"I will take 18 players to both but there are unlikely to be many changes from the squad we have here.
"I'm keen to have Jan Petersen involved and possibly have another look at James Nation who is going through a recovery programme."
By missing out in this tournament, funding issues may now arise but McLeod is hopeful that will not be the case.
"This was regarded as a pinnacle event," he said.
"I hope the performance enhancement grants paid to the players are not in jeopardy.
"I would hate to see them lose those.
"The general feeling was that we were the best team at the tournament. Missing out on getting back to play the best at the Champions Trophy is hugely disappointing.
"But, as we have seen elsewhere, sport has a way of biting you."
