The Argentine Lions ended their Olympic reign by falling this Sunday against the German team in the first match of the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Games (3-1), where the European team, bronze five years ago in Rio, will once again be in the fight for the medals.
Five years after achieving his first gold in Rio de Janeiro by defeating Belgium (2-3), the group that leads Carlos Retegui, a coach who also won silver with the women’s team in London 2012, a golden age closes in Tokyo after which a new cycle will begin that will involve changes in the face of the seniority of many internationals.
Seven Olympic champions from Rio have repeated their presence in Tokyo: Ignacio Ortiz, Pedro Ibarra, Juan Martín López, Lucas Rossi, Matías Rey, Lucas Vila and Agustín Mazzilli, as well as Juan Manuel Vivaldi, the holder in the Argentine goal that has celebrated its fourth Games.
The team that signed the best page in history for Argentine hockey, with the goal achieved in Brazil by defeating Belgium (2-1), he will have to recover from the blow he conceded today and start thinking about a new challenge, which will have a new goal at the World Cup in India 2023.
In Tokyo, The Lions were part of group A and debuted with a draw with Spain (1-1). Then they added their first victory over Japan (1-2), but they linked two defeats to Australia (2-5) e India (3-1), which forced them to win New Zealand on your last engagement (4-1) to pass quarters.
The albicelestes add a diploma to their Olympic history, as in Sydney 2000 and Seoul’88.
In Athens 2004 they were penultimate and, after failing to qualify for Beijing 2008, they jumped from 10th in London 2012 to 1st in Rio.
