RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Argentina and Belgium gatecrashed the Olympic field hockey festival and reached their first men’s final together on Tuesday.
Nobody saw them coming.
Not Germany, the defending two-time champion, which was humiliated by a record 5-2 by the Argentines.
And not the Netherlands, which had never lost to its Belgian neighbor in major competition, but saw that 80-year streak terminated 3-1.
“This is crazy,” said Argentina midfielder Lucas Rey, who could have also spoken for Belgium. “We knew we could do this, but it’s still crazy.”