Argies pile on the agony

It was a now-familiar script of hard luck and disappointment for Ireland this morning, as they suffered a third straight defeat at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, going down 3-0 to Argentina. Having to play the top three sides in the six-team tournament first up has done Dave Passmore’s charges no favours in terms of putting points on the board.

While they have yet to get off the mark, all is not lost; previous results have seen Korea and South Africa – whom the girls in green have yet to play – easily wiped out by the better teams in the group. The Koreans are up next tomorrow with South Africa to follow on Sunday; win both, and Ireland will have a shot at the bronze medal in the classification games. In the meantime, they will have to come to terms with their heaviest defeat of the tournament at the hands of Las Leonas, who plundered all three of their strikes from corners. That statistic was testament to the brilliance of Irish netminder Jenna Holmes, who pulled off save after save in the first half to keep Ireland level. Ireland had started brightly at the other end too, with Katie Mullan missing a golden opportunity early on, and Argentina finally made them pay when Agustina Alvarez converted a rebound off Holmes’s pads on 25 minutes. They dominated the second half, but further Holmes heroics denied them until Roci Broccoli smashed a penalty corner to the bottom right-hand corner on 44 minutes. Ireland continued to seek a way back into the game but couldn’t outmaneuver a tidy South American defence, and Argentina made sure of their place in a medal match – they cannot finish lower than fourth – when Eugenia Garrafo converted another corner with less than 30 seconds to go. YOG Girls Table (goal difference in brackets): 1 Argentina 9pts (+13); 2 Holland 6pts (+15); 3 New Zealand 6pts (+2); 4 Korea 3pts (-2); 5 Ireland 0pts (-6); 6 South Africa 0pts (-22). Today: Holland vs New Zealand Remaining Irish fixtures: Ireland vs Korea (Friday, 9.30am Irish time); Ireland vs South Africa (Sunday, 1pm Irish time).