KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9: Argentina struggled to a 2-1 win over Japan — an important win despite their coach’s description of the performance as “poor”.

The South Americans achieved the victory largely without star player Jorge Lombi, who played only the closing stages of the match.

Lombi, who pulled his hamstring in Argentina’s opening 3-2 defeat at the hands of South Africa on Friday, struggled to keep up with the game, showing none of his usual darting runs and venomous penalty corners.

Japan shocked the favourites by going ahead in the 13th minute through Kenichi Katayama.

But Argentina hit back in the 22nd minute with Santiago Cappuro, who was deputising for Lombi at penalty corners, beating Jun Takahashi in the Japanese goal.

Barely four minutes into the second half Argentina took the lead when Cappuro pounced on a cross to slam the ball home.

Despite Japanese protests that a high ball was played into the semi-circle, umpire Stinder Kumar from India stood firm and the goal stood.

Japan’s late pressure was to no avail and the team suffered their second straight defeat after going down 1-0 to hosts Malaysia on Friday.