One-nil leaves "snow lotuses" no Olympic hockey medal

Chinese women's hockey team, nicknamed "snow lotuses", failed to win the first Olympic hockey medal for China in the bronze medal play-off in Athens on August 26.

Both China and Argentina, finished an uneventful first half of the bronze medal play-off, as they seemed not to be recovering from the penalty stroke defeats in their semi-finals.

World champion Argentina made more shots and circle penetrations, while China, unhappy with its failure of not converting ten penalty corners into one score during the semi- final against weaker Germany, played great defense in the first half.

There was a consistent pattern emerging in this half, with Argentina looking dangerous if they have the ball up front.

However, the Chinese women managed counter-attacks on Argentina 's turnovers and then they succeeded in holding the ball at the opponents' field for three or four minutes at a time.

The performances of both teams improved in the second half with faster attacks.

Chinese women won their first penalty corner in the half, however, they failed to make it a score, and held a 0-0 tie till the last minute.

Argentina was lucky to penetrate the solid defense in the last minute, with Aymar's powerful shot.

She trapped the ball from a free hit on the right, ran into space and hit the ball past Nie high into the net, winning the whole match for Argentina.