Luciana Aranguiz placeholder image
08/03/2021 5:00
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 08/03/2021 5:00 AM
The 3-0 victory over Germany, which qualified Las Leonas to the Tokyo 2020 semifinals, was celebrated with great enthusiasm on the team of the women's field hockey team. There were tears of joy, hugs and many smiles among the Argentineans, who returned to get into the best four of an Olympic Game after the disappointment that the seventh place obtained in Rio de Janeiro 2016, almost five years ago, meant. In the Brazilian event, the team hit rock bottom. And then began a process of reconstruction and generational change that ended up shaping the group that arrived in the Japanese capital confident and with great illusions, already fulfilled the first objective and this Wednesday will seek to secure a medal against India.
In Rio, Las Leonas had arrived touched, with some of the most experienced players injured, several new and very young faces, with very little international experience, and with
Gabriel Minadeo on the bench, after
a tumultuous Olympic cycle, in which five coaches passed by the bench
.
And all these factors led to a result that hurt: with a 3-2 defeat to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals, they were left out of the top 4 of an international tournament for the first time since 1998. The blow was hard and marked the starting point for the renovation, which began that same year, but outside the scope of that team.
It is that a few months later, at the beginning of December,
Las Leoncita
s were crowned champions in the Junior World Cup in Santiago de Chile with a 4-2 victory over the Dutch team.
At the head of that group, which had many very talented players, was
Agustín Corradini
, who in May 2017 was elected by the new board of directors of the
Argentine Hockey Confederation
(CAH) to succeed Minadeo as coach of the Leonas.
Rio 2016's seventh-place pain was the kicker for the rebuilding process.
Photo Lorena Lucca
When he passed to the senior national team, the coach trained in San Fernando took with him a large part of the players who had been on the podium in Chile.
Cristina Cosentino
,
Sofía Toccalino
,
Agustina Gorzelany
,
Eugenia Trinchinetti
,
Agostina Alonso
,
Bianca Donati
,
Bárbara Dichiara
,
Magdalena
and
Milagros Fernández Ladra
,
María José Granatto
and
Lucina von der Heyde
(two who had debuted in Rio at the age of 21 and 19, respectively) ,
Paula Ortiz
and
Julieta Jankunas
were some of those who were
"promoted"
to Leonas by Corradini.
Eight of them were even part of the squad that played in July and August 2018 at the London World Cup (Trinchinetti, Alonso, Donati, Magdalena Fernández Ladra, Granatto, von der Heyde, Ortiz and Jankunas).
Also in that tournament were
Belén Succi
,
Martina Cavallero
,
Delfina Merino
,
Agustina
and
Florencia Habif
,
Rocío Sánchez Moccia
,
Agustina Albertarrio
,
Noel Barrionuevo
,
Julia Gómes Fantasia
and
Florencia Mutio
.
The working time was not enough for that group to become a team with all the letters and in London they had to settle for another seventh place, the first out of the four best since the ninth place in Sydney 1990. However, the process Reconstruction was underway, with the junior world champions as the backbone of the replacement.
The 2016 world champion Leoncitas became the backbone of the replacement.
Photo EFE / Esteban Garay
In November, Argentina returned to a podium. It was bronze in the
Champions Trophy
in China with almost the same squad of the World Cup. But with just under two years to go to the Tokyo Olympics, the progress - which there was, albeit with ups and downs - was not enough and the CAH decided at the end of the year to fire Corradini and designate, once again, Carlos Retegui as coach.
In the third cycle of
Chapa
with Las Leonas, the change was deepened.
For the first major commitment, the
Lima 2019 Pan American Games
, the coach left out some figures from the team from previous years, such as the Habif sisters, Cavallero and Gomes Fantasia, and continued to give place to the younger ones.
Von der Heyde, one of the great talents of that litter of champion Leoncitas, made the personal decision to leave the team.
After a 2020 complicated by the pandemic and with very little competition, in the final stretch of the preparation for Tokyo, iconic players such as
Rosario Luchetti
(disaffected), Carla Rebecchi and
Silvina D'Elía
(both, due to personal decisions)
were fired
.
Argentina arrived in Tokyo with a team with some historical players, other experienced players and eleven newcomers.
Photo EFE / EPA / RITCHIE B. TONGO
Thus, Las Leonas landed in Tokyo with a young squad, with four historical ones -Succi, Barrionuevo (he is playing his fourth Games), Merino and Sánchez Moccia, all part of the Rio 2916 team-, some names with a lot of international experience -
Sofia Maccari
, who returned to the team at the age of 37, Albertarrio and Majo Granatto- and eleven newcomers.
Six - Tocalino, Gorzelany, Trinchinetti, Alonso, Majo Granatto and Jankunas - were youth champions five years ago in Santiago de Chile.
And some more from that team - Cosentino, Dichiara, Donati, for example - were part of the process but stayed at the gates of the Games.
Separate paragraph for
Valentina Raposo
, the youngest of the team, who at 18 is an "infiltrator" of a generation that has not yet reached the senior team.
But the talent and the head to play of the salteña impressed Retegui, who was encouraged to take her to Tokyo, even though he had barely played two international matches with the selected team.
And the defender emerged in the Popeye club responded with great results and up to two goals, the last one, which sealed the 3-0 against Germany.
Valentina Raposo, 18 years old, the youngest on the campus.
Photo Luis Acosta / AFP
Five years have passed since the painful seventh place in Rio.
Five years of reconstruction, which transformed that historical team into a team with experience but also with new blood that has already achieved its first great goal in Tokyo: to get among the four best.
Now comes the most important thing, the fight for the medals.
And the first obstacle will be India, the great surprise of the tournament.
The Lionesses start as favorites for that clash.
For history, but also for a present that is the result of this profound renewal.
The medals of the Lionesses
In Tokyo, Las Leonas want to return to an Olympic podium and win the fifth medal in the rich history of women's hockey in our country at the most important event in world sport.
The first medal came in
Sydney 2000
, when a team full of figures -Vanina Oneto,
Mariela Antoniska
,
Soledad García
,
Magdalena Aicega
, Luciana Aymar, to name just a few- fell 3 to 1 against Australia in the final and took the silver. .
In that edition, the nickname that to this day accompanies the team was forged.
Lionesses
The Argentine field hockey team, Olympic silver medalist in Sydney 2000, where his new era began.
Four years later, in
Athens 2004
, the national team lost on penalties to the Netherlands in the semis and then beat China 1-0 to take bronze.
The Dutch team was once again "executioner" in the semis of
Beijing 2008
, with a victory 5 to 2 that cut the golden dream of the Argentines, who still recovered and beat Germany 3 to 1 to finish third.
And in
London 2012
, the Lionesses added their last medal, a silver, by falling 2-0 in the gold match, also against the team with an orange shirt.
Look also
Tokyo 2020: Agustín Vernice did not reach the podium but he fulfilled his dream and ran the Olympic final of the K1 1000 canoeing
From Biles to Hassan, panic and heroism in Tokyo
The hidden side of Tokyo 2020: a competitor claimed that she quarantined under "inhuman" conditions
