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With barely a second to play and a penalty stroke shootout looming, the Black Sticks yesterday snatched a dramatic 3-2 win over Argentina to grab the 10th spot in the 12-team men's Olympic tournament.
Brad Shaw's super strike after a botched penalty corner - only his second goal
for his country - broke the deadlock, consigned the visitors to tears and left New Zealand to celebrate.
The men will now join the New Zealand women on the plane to Beijing.
For captain Ryan Archibald it is third time lucky after New Zealand missed a place in Sydney 2000 and injury kept him away from Athens 2004. And, he admitted, the prospect of Beijing has kept him in the game.
Had we lost, come "Monday, I would probably have made the call [to quit]. I would almost certainly said 'I'm out of here'," he said. "Before this tournament I was dying to get to an Olympics. Now I can say I'm going."
The pulsating final of the Olympic qualifying tournament at Albany was pay-back time for Shane McLeod and his never-say-die team.
In last year's Champions Challenge final in Belgium - with a spot in this years Champions Trophy at stake - New Zealand led 2-1. Argentina battled back to 2-2, forced the game to extra time and broke Black Sticks hearts in winning 3-2 - from a penalty corner.
Yesterday's final was equally tense. It was ironic that in a tournament where there had been fewer-than-normal penalty corners, this final was decided with all five goals from such set play. Yet, it was that messy last-ditch attempt that, in the end, was decisive - and came after British umpire David Leiper had earlier and controversially reversed his call after awarding New Zealand what could have been a crucial penalty corner as the home side attempted to get back from 0-1 six minutes into the second spell.
There was never going to be much between the teams ranked seventh (Argentina) and 10th in the world. The post-match statistics backed that.
Argentina had 20 circle penetrations to New Zealand's 17; New Zealand made 26 tackles, Argentina 32; New Zealand won five penalty corners to three. The home side also enjoyed 53-47 per cent advantage in possession at Crown Relocations Stadium.
But, it was again the unforced errors which threatened to undo New Zealand's brave bid against a team who had comfortably beaten them 3-1 earlier in the week. New Zealand were guilty of 19 unforced errors. Argentina, in 85 minutes of heart-stopping hockey, just nine.
The first half was tentative.
New Zealand quickly went to the bench with McLeod ringing four changes before 12 minutes had been played.
The visitors made much of the pace, drawing the New Zealanders forward but, after an early half chance when Rodrigo Vila played a ball harmlessly across the face of the New Zealand goal, the impasse was not breached until the 23rd minute when Lucas Vila fired home a penalty corner drag flick which took a deflection to beat Paul Woolford, a little surprisingly preferred to Kyle Pontifex, in the New Zealand goal.
The equaliser was almost 30 minutes coming. A penalty corner variation called for Hayden Shaw to drag wide to Dave Kosoof who dived and jubilantly pushed the ball into the Argentina goal. Within a minute joy turned to despair as Matias Vila dragged his penalty corner flick low to Woolford's right for 2-1.
With five minutes to play, and with the South Americans continuing to waste as much time as possible, the hosts won a penalty corner. This time, nothing fancy, a simple Hayden Shaw drag flick rattled the cage.
At 2-2, it was game on.
Both teams had a half chance in the first seven-minute period of extra time but in the end, with the clock showing 6m 08s, the ball was played on to an Argentine foot, Dutch umpire Rob ten Cate called for the penalty corner.
The rest is now history.
