South American Games hockey: Las Leonas won big in Santa Fe | OneFootball

The Argentine women’s national team, newly crowned world champion, played its first match of the tournament in front of a stadium packed with local fans. It was a 14-0 victory over Paraguay.

The stadium of the Santa Fe Hockey Association, located at 700 Raúl Tacca in the city of Santa Fe, was the setting for Las Leonas’ debut in front of their home crowd at the 2026 South American Games. The Argentine women’s national team claimed a 14-0 win over Paraguay on a day that produced one of the first great snapshots of hockey in the competition.

The match was Argentina’s first in the women’s tournament and marked the beginning of its journey in a single-group format, where every appearance will be important in determining the teams that will reach the long-awaited gold-medal final.

Las Leonas arrived in Santa Fe after being crowned world champions two weeks ago in the Netherlands. That recent triumph was, without a doubt, one of the main attractions of their appearance before the local crowd.

For Paraguay, the match marked its second appearance in the competition. The Guaraní team had debuted on Sunday against Chile, in a match that also ended in defeat, 16-0. Against Argentina, the Paraguayan side once again faced one of the region’s top hockey teams and once again finished without scoring.

The world champions

The Argentine coach kept a core group of 18 players for the tournament and called up seven of the recent world champions. Among them is Sofía Cairó, who played a key role in the last World Cup final by converting the penalty that gave Argentina the title, and who is serving as the flag bearer of the albiceleste delegation alongside canoeist Rubén Rézola at these Games.

With the 14-0 win over Paraguay, Las Leonas completed their first appearance at Santa Fe 2026 and delivered another standout image on a day that drew a strong crowd.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.