The men’s and women’s national teams of Argentina are dominating the 2013 South American Championships in Santiago, Chile, with both sides maintaining 100% win records after four days of competition.
Argentina men have been in scintillating form, scoring a staggering 54 goals in their four matches. They opened their campaign with a 19-0 thrashing of Peru, before putting Paraguay (19-1), Brazil (10-1) and Chile (6-0) to the sword. The recent winners of the Champions Challenge 1 have already guaranteed their place in Sunday’s tournament final, despite the fact that there is still a round of pool matches left to play.
Chile have also secured a berth in the final thanks to some very big score-lines. The team scored 39 goals along the way to defeating Paraguay (17-0), Uruguay (8-0) and Peru (14-1), showing that they clearly have the scoring power to trouble Argentina in Sunday’s showpiece.
Argentina striker Lucas Vila leads the scoring charts having netted 13 times so far in the competition, with compatriot Guillermo Schickendantz just behind on 12.
Like their male counterparts, Argentina women are dominating proceedings in their competition, showing exactly why they are second in the FIH World Rankings with some brutal goal-scoring displays.
Despite entering a team containing many new faces, the Olympic silver medallists opened their campaign with a 20-0 victory over Peru on Saturday before smashing Paraguay 13-0 on Sunday. The current World Champions had a much tougher time of it when they face Uruguay on Tuesday, being forced to fight back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 thanks to goals from Pilar Romang, Luciana Molina and Sofia Villarroya.
Las Leonas consolidated their position at the top of the table on Wednesday with a thumping 5-1 win over second placed Chile.
The final round of pool matches in the women's tournament take place on Saturday. The big match of the day is the meeting between Uruguay and Chile, with the winner sealing a place in Sunday’s showpiece final against Argentina.
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