Rio De Janeiro: Kookaburras coach Graham Reid is hopeful his side's shock loss to Spain will serve as a "wake-up" call for the remainder of the Olympic hockey tournament.
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Having scraped past New Zealand on Saturday, Australia were stunned 1-0 on Sunday night by a team placed 10 positions below them in the world rankings.
It puts Australia under early pressure ahead of tough matches against Belgium (Tuesday) and Great Britain (Wednesday). Australia still look likely to finish in the top four of their group - which also features Brazil - and qualify for the quarter-finals, but Reid and captain Mark Knowles both acknowledged the Kookaburras would need to lift.
"Hopefully it's more of a wake-up than a confidence [dent]," Reid said.
Knowles said the team was sloppy. "Tonight we were down on our skills and that hurt us," he said. "I'm very disappointed. We're frustrated.
"It could be a little wake-up call but we're better than that. We don't need a wake-up call. We're the world's best team for a reason and that was below our standards."
But he denied the side's confidence would be affected by the upset. "No, not at all. This team's very confident in what we can do."
Spain broke the deadlock early. A seventh-minute fast-break ended with Alex Casasayas deftly putting away a Marc Salles cross.
The Kookaburras steadily worked their way into the game, and had a penalty corner late in the first quarter.
Australia continued to control general play after the opening break, and almost levelled the scores as Glenn Turner dribbled deep into attack to create a chance early in second quarter, but terrific scrambling defence from Spain thwarted the advance.
A penalty corner late in the half presented Australia with another chance, but Blake Govers' powerful shot was just wide.
Spain started the third quarter well, providing a rare test for the the Kookaburras' defence. They survived the underdogs' pushes, but still couldn't penetrate the opposition goal, with Govers' lunging attempt midway through the quarter a rare opportunity.
Daniel Beale probed the Spanish defence in the final stanza, but even Spain went down to nine men briefly after a pair of players received green cards, Australia were unable to capitalise.
Goalkeeper Andrew Charter was pulled late in a last-ditch attempt to grab something from the game, but it was to no avail, as the Spaniards enjoyed a famous victory at the sparsely populated arena in Deodoro.
The Kookaburras matches are scheduled for 9.30am AEST Wednesday (v Belgium) and 9.30am AEST Thursday (v Great Britain).
