Peillat’s Hat Trick Leads Argentina to Gold Medal Match
The commentators started referring to Gonzalo Peillat as “that magic man.”
Rightfully so.
Peillat led Argentina to a 5-2 upset over the defending gold medalist Germany with a hat trick to send his team to the gold medal match.
Argentina never looked back after Peillat’s goal, which came from a penalty corner at about the midway point in the first quarter.
The lethal drag flicker scored another before the quarter’s end, and then one more for good measure heading into halftime.
Despite being up three goals to nil on the Germans, Argentina knew that this still may not be enough against this German team who had proven its resilience not just once, but twice in the Olympic tournament.
Joaquin Menini and Lucas Vila led the continued charge on offense scoring in the third and fourth quarters to increase the Argentina lead to five.
Germany team captain Moritz Furste finally got his team on the board by testing Juan Vivaldi, who had been perfect in goal, with his drag flick on a penalty corner. It flew past Vivaldi to cut Argentina’s lead to four goals.
With just over two minutes left on the clock and an extra man on the field, Germany kept attacking in hopes to somehow come back from the overwhelming lead Argentina had built the first three quarters.
Christopher Ruhr succeeded in cutting the deficit to three goals by chipping another shot past Vivaldi, but the effort would not be enough this time for Germany to get the chance to defend its gold medal.
Germany will have the chance to compete for the bronze medal, however Argentina will be moving on to look for the program’s first-ever men’s field hockey gold medal.
For full results of Tuesday’s matches, click here.