Beijing 2008: Argentina overwhelm Chile to take Three-Nation Tournament (photo attached)

The men's team of Argentina demolished Chile 7-2 to win a Three-Nation Tournament at the CENARD in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Sunday.

The three teams are preparing for the Pan-American Games, which will take place from 13 until 29 July in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Games will qualify the champions for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Argentina was superior throughout the match, though Chile – which started to train just two weeks ago and suffered the absence of several key players – produced some good advances to net twice.

A hat-trick by Tomas Argento, in the ninth, 12th and 45th minutes; two goals from Pedro Ibarra, in the 15th and 38th, one from Rodrigo Vila (20th) and another by Juan Manuel Saladino, a minute before half-time, gave the hosts a deserved and clear victory.

Alan Stein had netted the provisional equalizer, in the 11th minute, while Pablo Khulenthal scored again, in the 49th minute.

Argentina trounced Trinidad & Tobago 9-0 on Saturday, while Chile also beat the Caribbean team 3-0 on Friday.

"This tournament is very important to increase competition and to practice which we did in the training sessions," said the Argentine coach, Sergio Vigil.

Argentina will face also a busy calendar before the Pan-American Games, a four-nation tournament in April in the Netherlands, where the players based in Europe will take part; the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia, in May, and The Champions Challenge in Boom, Belgium, in June.

Meanwhile, Chile's coach, Alfredo Castro said: "we came here with only two weeks of training, but we give priority to train for the Pan-American Games".

"These matches are useful because Argentina have a superior speed and are placed among the top ten in the world. So they help us to improve our rhythm", added the coach from Argentina.

Chile will travel to Canada in May to play a series of test-matches and they will also visit Cuba for 15 days, while they are trying to fix some friendly matches against the Netherlands Antilles, all rivals at the PanAm Games.

(Credit: FIH. Click here for further information.)