Ireland 1 Argentina 4

Ireland's men showed some pretty severe ring-rust tonight at Belfield as they struggled to keep pace with a lively young Argentina outfit in the second half.

In front of a decent crowd - given the rain - the game was a bit low-key with little of the needle that characterised Ireland's 1-0 win in the Olympic qualifier against the same opposition.

Welcoming back Ronan Gormley - who has played just 15 minutes with Pembroke this season - and Mark Black after an eight month break, Ireland had the best of a low-key first half. Gormley started well while Black was probably the best midfielder on show, despite starting on the bench.
Johnny Jackson started in lively fashion at left-back creating a couple of openings and Timmy Cockram won a corner which John Jermyn fired wide. It was Cockram who broke the stalemate in the 23rd minute with Ireland's only shot in anger in the half, zinging in a beautiful reverse from the top of the circle, fed the ball by Keith Black.

Tomas Argento nearly levelled after Karl Burns' howler, hitting the sideboard to close out the half. The visitors, though, turned on the style in the second half. The warning signs were there three minutes into the half as Rodrigo Saliva just missed a rebound.

The equaliser came when Pedro Ibarra nabbed the ball off Gormley on the right sideline and he zipped into the circle. His square pass went behind Lucas Vila but he managed to pull the bouncing ball into the goal neatly.

Up until this point, the Argentineans were existing solely off Irish mistakes but they grew in confidence and started to show some beautiful touches. Lucas' brother Matias put his side in front, bashing a half-volley in from the top of the D, under pressure from three defenders, clipping the inside of David Harte's post.

Facundo Callioni's run along the backline created the third, the goal accredited to Agustin Corradini, after the former's pull-back bobbled off a defenders leg.

John Jermyn flashed wide from Ireland's one chance of the half, aided by an excellent Michael Watt run. Within a minute, though, Ibarra scored the fourth, capitalising on another mistake at left-back, easing into the circle and burying the finish.

On the whole, it is difficult to be too critical of a side with just one training weekend together since the Celtic Cup. A decent first-half was matched by a second that was disjointed at best with the number of balls around the back four intercepted was frustrating to watch.

Dave Passmore admitted his side had unravelled in the second period: “Having dominated the first half so brightly, it was disappointing not to be ahead by more at half time. In the second half we showed our youth and inexperience as we made too many individual errors that Argentina punished.”

*My thanks to Deryck Vincent for the pictures and Martina Gonzalez Del Solar for identifying the Argentinean players as they brought a set of jersies with no numbers.