Olympic champions Australia turned on the heat and romped to a 4-0 victory over Argentina for their first win in two Pool A matches of the 11th FIH men's hockey World Cup on Saturday night.
Aussies, No.1 in the FIH world rankings, exhibited awesome pace and power on way to the runaway victory, with goals from Luke Doerner (24th), Russell Ford (25th), Michael McCann (31st) and Robert Hammond (55th).
Argentina just could not match the Aussies in pace and precision and were simply outplayed while sliding to their second defeat in three matches.
The loss ended Argentina's hope of finishing in the top two places in Pool A and with it a semi-final place.
Earlier in the day, Germany rallied from a two-goal second half deficit to hold the Netherlands 2-2.
Christopher Zeller (48th minute penalty-corner) and Moritz Fuerste (54th minute) scored for the while Matthijs Brouwer (37th) and Rob Reckers (42nd) scored for the Dutch.
Korea leads Pool B with a perfect two-win record followed by Germany and the Netherlands on four points. A Korea win against South Africa and a Germany victory over England on Sunday will leave the Dutch three points adrift of second place in Pool B with two matches remaining.
New Zealand continued their unbeaten run with a narrow 1-0 win over Japan, the goal being scored by Simon Child in the 43rd minute.
With seven points from three matches, the Black Sticks are in control of their World Cup.
In the opening match of day four, South Africa ended India's World Cup semi-final aspirations with a late goal that earned them a 1-1 draw and also helped keep their slender chances afloat.
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