'It's a tough one for the lads to take' - Mixed emotions for Ireland's Mark Tumilty after Olympic Games elimination confirmed
It was a case of mixed emotions for Ireland head coach Mark Tumilty after his side’s Olympic Games elimination was confirmed following a narrow 2-1 defeat against Argentina.
Tumilty’s men knew victory was an essential requirement to keep their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals alive and suffered a further setback in the first-half as Tomas Domene put Argentina ahead, but they showed resilience to equalise through Lee Cole’s strike.
However, the South American outfit, who sit five places higher in the world rankings than Ireland (11th), responded almost immediately and restored their advantage via Maico Casella Schuth’s penalty corner.
It marked a fourth consecutive Olympic group defeat for Ireland after also losing out to Belgium, Australia and India – the three medal winners from Tokyo – and they’ll now finish their campaign off against New Zealand on Friday.
"It was frustrating, disappointing and we probably take a lot of pride as well in the performance, but at the end of the day at this level we fell short today, and we didn't do enough to stay in the tournament,” reflected Tumilty. “It's a tough one for the lads to take.
"I don't think we could have asked any more from the lads, they left it all out there on the pitch. We have to regroup and concentrate on the New Zealand game to try and get the win and finish the tournament on a high.
“We set ourselves an objective when we came here of producing five performances we could be proud of. We have produced four good performances, some better than others.
"We just want to finish with another good performance. As we moved through the tournament we got more comfortable playing at this level. I don't think anybody could fault the effort.”
Like Ireland, New Zealand are winless throughout their Olympic group to date and sit below Tumilty’s side on goal difference after losing 5-0 to Australia on Thursday.
“I thought at times New Zealand have been like ourselves, impressive,” he added. “Although they lost 5-0, I think New Zealand have been unfortunate not to get some results, a lot like ourselves.
"Both teams will be disappointed to go out of the tournament at this stage. Hopefully we can find a bit more tomorrow than they have.”