Fri, Aug 13, 2004 page24

• Soccer kicks off the hunt for medals

  EARLY START The first competitions in the Athens Olympics, the men's and women's soccer tournaments, delivered the first drama two days before the opening ceremony

  • AP
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  Argentina began its quest for a long overdue first ever Olympic soccer gold medal with a 6-0 beating of Serbia-Montenegro on Wednesday while Germany's world champion women demolished China 8-0.

  Carlos Tevez of Boca Juniors scored twice in two minutes as Argentina, twice runner up, outplayed the Serbs in Patras. After its senior team lost in a penalty shootout to arch rival Brazil in the Copa America a month ago, this victory by mainly an Under-23 team took some of the pain away.

  

  Greece's goalkeeper Georgios Amparis, left, safely blocks the ball during a men's Group A preliminaries soccer match between Greece and Korea at the Karaiskaki stadium in Thessalonika on Wednesday.

  PHOTO: AP

  Cesar Delgado and Cristian "Kily" Gonzalez put Marcelo Bielsa's team 2-0 up inside 17 minutes and, when Tevez struck twice just before half time, the game was virtually over. Gabriel Heinze, recently signed by Manchester United, and Mauro Rosales scored twice in three minutes late in the game to complete the scoring and Argentina will look forward to its other group games against Tunisia and Australia.

  The fact that those two rivals tied 1-1 in Iraklion, Crete, makes Argentina's job a little easier.

  "It was an easy victory but I don't want to make an evaluation about what we did today because the rival was clearly inferior to what we had expected," Bielsa said. "I don't want to make any forecasts about the coming games because all rivals are different.

  "But Argentina played very well. It was an exemplary match."

  John Aloisi gave the Aussies the lead in the final minute of the first half but Ali Zitouni leveled in the 69th.

  The two games in Group A also were tied.

  Mali and Mexico missed chances in a 0-0 tie at Volos and host Greece came back from 2-0 down to tie 2-2 with South Korea.

  After their surprise Euro 2004 triumph in Portugal, the Greeks were hoping from a big performance from their Olympic squad. When Loukas Vyntra's own goal in the 64th minute added to Kim Dong-jin's first half strike for the Koreans, it didn't look good even though Korean defender Kim Chi-gon had been sent off in the 31st minute.

  But Ioannis Taralidis hit back in the 78th minute and, four minutes later, Dimitrios Papadopoulos, made it 2-2 from the penalty spot. The point was even more satisfying because Papadopoulos was the lone Greek squad player who was on the successful Euro 2004 roster.

  The other eight teams were in action yesterday -- Italy vs Ghana and Paraguay-Japan in Group B; Portugal vs Iraq and Costa Rica-Morocco in Group D.

  Women's competition

  Birgit Prinz hit four goals as World Cup holder Germany overwhelmed declining force China 8-0 on the opening day of women's play.

  The US began its bid to win back the Olympic title with a one-sided 3-0 victory over host Greece while Japan upset World Cup runner up Sweden 1-0.

  Brazil edged Australia 1-0 in the other women's group game while the thousands of empty seats at all four games were a big disappointment to the organizers.

  The Germans were rampant against the Chinese at Patras although they only led 2-0 at halftime against a team which has declined since the retirement a year ago of star Sun Wen.

  Prinz scored the first two in the 13th and 21st minutes and the third didn't come until the 65th through Pia Wunderlich. From that point the Chinese defense caved in and the Germans scored five more -- Prinz adding two and Renate Lingor, Conny Pohlers and Martina Mueller also hitting the target.

  Mia Hamm, one of seven Americans who were on the team that won the 1996 Olympic title in Athens, Georgia, scored one goal and made another as they beat the Greeks at Iraklion on the island of Crete.

  Her pass gave Shannon Boxx the 14th minute opener and, after Abi Wambach had made it 15 goals in 16 games, Hamm scored the third eight minutes from the end with a 15m shot that went in off the post.

  Marta scored a 36th minute goal for Brazil against Australia in Thessaloniki in the other group game but the Americans top the standings on goals differential.

  Sweden, beaten by Germany in the World Cup final last year, was fortunate to lose only 1-0 to Japan in Volos where Eriko Arakawa punished a goalkeeper's blunder for the only goal of the game.

  Swedish 'keeper Caroline Jonsson fumbled the ball on the ground after racing off her line and Arakawa rolled it into an empty net 25 minutes into the game.
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