KEY POINTS:
New Zealand endured a catastrophic climax to their Champions Challenge hockey campaign in Belgium today conceding two late strikes before being pipped 3-2 in golden goal extra time by Argentina, a defeat with serious funding implications as they plot a course to next year's Beijing Olympics.
The Black
Sticks needed to win the second-tier tournament to qualify for next June's Champions Trophy in Holland -- plus earn a $270,000 funding boost from Sparc -- and appeared on course to achieve both objectives with four minutes remaining in the final after a double from penalty corner expert Hayden Shaw.
However, Jorge Lombi enabled the Argentines to complete a remarkable comeback deep in overtime by completing his hat trick to devastate the previously unbeaten Black Sticks.
Both sides missed gilt-edged opportunities during a first half stalemate but when Shaw opened the scoring with a trademark drag flick and then doubled his tally with a powerful drive to the left hand corner it appeared the Black Sticks were on the verge of a significant triumph.
But Lombi eventually found his range after a glut of penalty corner chances as the New Zealand defence were continually placed under pressure.
Lombi gave the Argentines a lifeline four minutes from time, levelled the contest a 60 seconds later and then stepped up to crack the killer blow five minutes into extra time.
Shaw, who had the consolation of being the tournament's top scorer, lamented New Zealand's inability to combat Argentina's attack down the right hand side -- a tactic they employed effectively during a 3-3 draw in Saturday's pool match.
"That troubled us yesterday and we didn't really cope with it again," Shaw told Radio Sport.
By exerting pressure down that flank Argentina were able to force multiple penalty corners and eventually the defensive workload proved too much.
"They must have had close to 15 penalty corners and if you let an international side have that many you're going to pay for it," he said.
New Zealand also experienced problems on attack late in the match when a rare attacking foray on the hooter yielded a penalty corner but Dean Couzins was unable to trap the ball for Shaw to attempt a last-ditch winner.
"Unfortunately the ball hit Dean on the body -- it's unfortunate but these things happen.
"We'd played so well throughout the tournament, had a good lead and threw it away."
By missing the six-team Champions Trophy, the Black Sticks also missed a crucial boost from the sports funding agency Sparc.
"It's (Champions Trophy) something we were really looking forward to in terms of preparing for the Olympics. It would have been a great build-up.
"We also miss out on some funding because this was our priority tournament this year."
With that valuable funding erased Shaw said some squad members could no longer afford to practise full time, therefore compromising the quality of training.
"It's pretty harsh. A lot of the guys will have to train at 6am before fitting in work and training again at night. It's not ideal."
Other than Shaw's scoring exploits throughout the six-team tournament, the Black Sticks could also reflect positively on Ryan Archibald being named player of the tournament while New Zealand also secured the fair play award.
- NZPA
