PHOTOS – Pan Am Men’s Field Hockey semi-final

On the afternoon of Thursday July 23, Argentina (top-ranked at the Pan Am games and number six in the world) played Chile in the semi-final. Argentina dominated play but the tenacious defence of their western neighbours resulted in a half-time advantage of only 2-0. However, in the second half, the blue and white added another four goals. The Argentine goalkeeper barely had to play. Some of the photos were taken during the warm up, during which the Argentines used their own yellow balls. This is apparently a long-standing superstition, though there are artificial surfaces in the world which are blue in colour and for which yellow balls are the norm.