Hockey: Hager wary of fired up visitors

Mark Hager. Photo / Dean Purcell

Black Sticks coach Mark Hager is wary of the Argentinian women in preparing for tonight's decisive second test at the North Harbour Hockey Stadium.

While encouraged by the 1-1 result in the opening match of the series in Whangarei on Saturday, Hager is all too aware of the visitors' ability to bounce back.

"Last year in the matches in Hamilton and Tauranga, we beat them first-up but they hit back to beat us 6-0 in the second test," said Hager, who expects a similar step-up from the South Americans again.

"In Whangarei they were probably still not 100 per cent over the jet lag as they had only been here two days, so I expect they will be better prepared for the second test. I was disappointed with the amount of turnover ball. They pressured us and we didn't respond to that very well."

Hager took some comfort in that the only Argentine goal came from a penalty corner (scored by Maria D'Elia to get back to 1-1 after trailing at halftime) and that the Black Sticks - through Cathryn Finlayson - scored from open play when they broke away from a defensive penalty corner (with the visitors pushing eight players forward).

"Overall we defended reasonably well, certainly better than we did against Japan, but we gave away too much ball in midfield by not holding the ball for long periods," said Hager. "We need to improve on that."

Asked whether he had looked at the video of the match, Hager replied "sure have", adding that it only underlined what he had seen during the game.

"On Monday we need to have better defensive patterns up front rather than simply following their players."

Although Argentina are without a couple of key players, Hager said they have lost little.

"It is a still a very good team even if they are probably not as potent as they were at the World Cup," he said.

"They still have 11 or 12 of their World Cup-winning team here which means we can't afford to take them lightly."

NZ goalkeeper Sally Rutherford, and Amanda Green, sat out the opener but will return tonight - provided Rutherford is over a slight groin injury.

"We have a few niggles so we won't name the 16 until closer to game time," said Hager. "We have to be better prepared. Our forwards all struggled with the intensity and pressure from their defenders. We have to sort that out."