India's hopes in the gold medal match at the Tokyo Olympics ended on Wednesday after a 2-1 loss against Argentina, riding on two penalty corner (PC) conversions from skipper Noel Barrionuevo and an almost flawless performance from goalkeeper Maria Susi. Gurjit Kaur canceled the opening goal. The scoreline was an indicator of how close the competition was, with India with 17 seconds on the clock rejecting a referral that could have given them the final bite of the cherry. India will now take on defending champions Great Britain (GBR) to clinch a historic bronze medal on Friday, while Argentina will take on the Netherlands, who thrashed GBR 5-1 earlier in the day.
For the second game in a row, Gurjeet was able to overcome the first PC India earned, to face a goalkeeper of the highest quality. Just as she did in the quarter-finals against Australia, Gurjit went down Suchi's left side, and within two minutes, India went 1-0 up in the semi-finals, something some even fought at the start of these games. would have imagined.
This prompted an encouraging reply from Argentina, who used the left flank to push India deep into their defence. Perhaps stunned by the initial momentum, India also made the mistake of dropping too early. The Argentine would soon earn his first PC, but Augustina Gorzelani saw his drag flick widely deflected by the first rusher, Salima Tete. The Argentine also failed to make the most of their next short corner, with a failed stop going hard for Gorzelny.
After a fruitless first quarter, Barrionuevo took it upon himself to pull off the Argentine third PC, and he pulled off a hard drag, passing the left pads of first runners Lalremsiami and Savita Punia into the net.
Savita would then miss an opportunity for Argentina with a ball from the left to Juliette Jankunas, the Indian goalkeeper closing the space to kill any chances ahead of the Argentine. India actually ended the second quarter with a bit of a flurry between the lines of Rani Rampal and Vandana Katariya making some PCs with some relentless running and imaginative dribbling. However, Susie made some good stops in the third quarter to keep the teams level.
With Argentina leading six minutes into the first half in the second half, Barrionuevo got a little lucky with a drag flick that took a deflection off Sushila Chanu's leg and smacked Savita and the defender off her post. The video umpire looked closely to see if the ball was dangerous, but the goal was scored for lack of conclusive evidence. India put a little more emphasis on their game, but the goal cushion favored Argentina, who went back into deep defense and marked the Indians tightly in midfield and attack. A green card for Neha Goyal also took away India's fight in the middle of the third quarter.
India started the fourth quarter in earnest, applying more pressure both in the midfield and up front. In the 50th minute, India worked their way up with some capable dribbling, and a low ball crossed the face of the goal to beat Suchi, but could not make a late deflection from any overlapping forward. India's persistence paid off a minute later, when Neha retrieved a lost cause from the right side and hit a low pass that took the Argentine defender's stick off her body. The resulting PC saw Gurjeet whipping a low to the right of Suchi, who guessed right, and found enough gloves to keep him away from Navneet Kaur, who was ready to pounce on the rebound.
With both teams gone in the final 10 minutes, Argentina had a golden opportunity to put the game to bed, with the right ball from Michaela Retegui, but Savita came out again to deny the forward. India pushed with all their might, but Suchi made another stop with a speculative shot, and by the time the ball came off her pads, Navneet was already on the ground and therefore in no position to take advantage of the loose ball.
This is already the best performance by Indian women at the Olympics, having finished fourth in the six-team round-robin format in 1980. They were eliminated in the group stages in 2016, where they had their only previous meeting with Argentina at this level. 5-0 win for the South Americans. The men will take on Germany for the bronze medal on Thursday at 7 am IST.