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 Rio
de Janeiro : The Pan American Games Final was played in front of a
large and vocal crowd, the Argentineans fans winning easily the
atmosphere making contest! Argentina was immediately dangerous under
the impulsion of Aymar and earned a penalty-corner, but it was well
defended by the Americans.
The game went back and forth, and the first real chance was for the
USA, when they found Carrie Lingo alone in the attacking zone, but she
could not win her one-on-one duel with Paola Vukojicic in the
Argentinean goal. The Americans were well organized in defense,
regularly upsetting the Argentinean attacking waves, and defending
well a series of 4 successive penalty-corners with excellent
goal-keeping from Amy Tran.
The USA also fancied their chances and narrowly missed scoring on a
swift counter-attack that saw the final diving deflection miss the
post by an inch. Both teams seemed to throw caution to the wind at the
end of the period, with some temper flaring, and Kate Barber earned a
penalty corner in the 33rd minute that was skillfully converted by
Tiffany Snow, stunning the Argentinean fans as well as their players,
not used to play from behind against a Pan American opponent.
It didn’t take long for the Argentineans to level the score in second
period, when Alejandra Gulla received the ball alone in the circle and
had time to adjust a reverse-stick shot that left no chance to Amy
Tran.
The Americans were well prepared for this Final, and their physical
play seemed to hamper the running game of the Argentineans for a
while. It took a sumptuous run by Luciana Aymar to find Rosario
Luchetti at the top of the circle; she missed her first control, but
managed to regain the ball and hammered a ball past Amy Tran. The
Argentinean fans were singing again at full throat, and had more to
celebrate soon after when Agustina Bouza added a third goal, and
Claudia Burkart a forth one.
The USA pulled back a goal on a direct penalty-corner but never
recovered from this burst of 3 goals in 6 minutes. “Las Leonas”
finished the game still at the top of the Pan American hierarchy,
although unsettled for a while by this strong American team. With the
win, Argentina qualifies for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
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