World champions Australia surrendered a two-goal lead as Argentina battled back for a 2-2 draw in men’s Olympic hockey on Friday. Meanwhile the Netherlands coasted to a third straight win of the tournament with a 5-1 victory over New Zealand. Australia continue to lead Pool A with seven points from three matches, while New Zealand have just three from as many games. The Dutch are on top in Pool B with a maximum nine points in three outings, followed by defending Olympic champions Germany on six points from two games. Germany play India later on Friday. Argentina captain Matias Vila’s field goal on a counter attack in the 37th minute and Gonzalo Peillat’s penalty corner conversion in the 68th minuted brought the South Americans level with Australia, for whom Edward Ockenden opened the scoring by seizing on a penalty corner rebound in the 11th minute. Jamie Dwyer added the second goal right on half-time, making him Australia’s highest ever scorer with 180 goals. Australia had several chances to add to their lead but could not find another way past Argentine goalkeeper Juan Vivaldi. “We’ve got to improve all the way through the tournament. I don’t think we finished well,” said Australia coach Ric Charlesworth. New Zealand took an early lead with a field goal from Simon Child in the fifth minute, but the Dutch bounced back firing to be 3-1 up t half-time after two penalty stroke conversions by Roderick Weusthof nd Mink van der Weerden were followed by Billy Bakker’s open play strike. Bakker scored another field goal in the 56th minute before Robbert (attn eds: correct) Kemperman rounded off the scoring three minutes from the end. “We never had a feeling that we would lose despite conceding an early goal,” said Kemperman. “Before the game we thought we could score five goals. “What we did well was that we passed the ball into the midfield, which we had not done much in the past two games.”
