BHUBANESWAR : There was an air of nonchalance around them, the kind that you usually see in teams exceedingly confident in their ability. Most of the couple of minutes they spent interacting with the media at the Biju Patnaik airport had them brushing aside their own title credentials and playing up their rivals. You’d think that it was Argentina’s football team that had landed for a World Cup.
Their achievements over the last four years means that Los Leones will start the 2018 FIH World Cup as one of the favourites, a position that Argentina’s men’s hockey team rarely finds itself in when going into a major tournament. Before their bronze-winning performance in the last edition of the Cup in The Hague, their best finish was sixth. Then they won the Olympic gold in 2016 and became the top-ranked team in world. Two years later, they have barely moved from there — they head to World Cup as World No 2. They are no longer one of those teams that hope to do well. They expect to do well.
Gonzalo Peillat laughs when asked if this expectation means increased pressure. He is perhaps better placed to answer that question more than any of his teammates, for his rise has matched that of his national team, almost step for step. He first shot to prominence after top-scoring in the last edition of the WC. Then, in Rio, he scored eleven as Argentina took gold, including a hat-trick in the semifinal against Germany and one in the final against Belgium.
“If anything, that’s just even more motivation for us to maintain our levels,” the penalty corner specialist says. “It’s true that everyone is talking about Argentina and that can only be a good thing. We like to play with pressure so even if there is more pressure on us to perform (because of our newfound status), that shouldn’t bother us. We are comfortable with the pressure we have on us.”
Two years on, their Olympic victory has marked a drastic shift in how the game is being looked at in Argentina. It’s not that the South American country lacked a hockey culture. Their women’s team is one of the most consistent forces, having medalled in four of the last five Olympics. But that was all hockey was to Argentina — a woman’s game. The men preferred football or basketball.
All that appears to have changed post 2016. “The sport is growing all the time thanks to the gold we won,” Peillat says. “We weren’t as famous as a sport in the past but that win over Belgium has resonated with a lot of people in our country. It had a big impact.”
For him personally, that translates to ‘can’t walk the streets without getting mobbed’ as if he was a footballer. Peillat and his teammates know a win here could spark an unprecedented boom for Argentinean hockey. “Earlier this year we went to Australia and beat them in their own backyard. Plus we played some good hockey in the Champions Trophy and there is, of course, the added motivation of doing well in a World Cup. So, yeah, looking forward to it.”