Argentina Captures Its First Soccer Gold
Argentina won the men's soccer tournament Saturday to claim its first Olympic gold medal in any sport in more than half a century.
Carlos Tevez scored the only goal after 15 minutes as Argentina beat Paraguay, 1-0.
The silver was Paraguay's first medal in any sport. Italy won the bronze Friday by defeating Iraq, 1-0.
Argentina won its third Olympic soccer medal. It finished second to Nigeria in 1996 and to Uruguay in 1928.
Argentina controlled the game but did not win comfortably because it could not add a second goal even after two Paraguay players were expelled. In winning all seven of its games in the Olympics, Argentina outscored its opponents by 19-0. Tevez, with eight goals, was the top scorer in the tournament.
A nation of 39 million people, Argentina had not won a gold medal since Tranquilo Cappozzo and Eduardo Guerrero won the double sculls in Helsinki in 1952. It added a second gold medal on Saturday when its men's basketball team defeated Italy in the final, 84-69.
The basketball final in the indoor hall closed the action at the main Olympic campus on Saturday. The soccer final opened the day at the main stadium next door at 10 a.m.
Such an early hour does not appeal to players, and evidently it does not appeal to fans. Although the attendance was announced as 41,000, which would have meant the stadium was half full, empty seats greatly outnumbered fans.
Although Argentina took an early lead, for much of the first half it seemed as if the players were trying to wake up. When they did step up a gear, they were able to create scoring chances almost at will but squandered nearly every one.
Paraguay collected seven yellow cards and two reds during the game, and all but one was for fouls against Tevez, striker Mauro Rosales or Andres D'Alessandro, an elusive and creative midfielder.
Tevez, a short, stocky striker who plays for Boca Juniors in Buenos Aires, has become the latest young Argentine star to be compared to another stocky former Boca player, Diego Maradona.
On Saturday, Tevez showed the Maradona-like ability to mesmerize defenders even when standing still. He scored with Maradona-like speed of thought and impudence. A cross from the right clipped a defender and suddenly dipped in flight. While two defenders hesitated and goalkeeper Diego Barreto bent to catch the ball, Tevez reacted. He sprinted in front of Barreto and squirted the ball into the empty goal.
But there are differences, too. Where Maradona was built like a barrel, Tevez is more of a box, and unlike Maradona in his youth, Tevez seems to be carrying some spare weight. Tevez is also slightly taller, 5 feet 7 inches to Maradona's 5-5.
Tevez is right-footed. And he is wasteful.
Though the Paraguayans knew that Tevez was the chief threat, he seemed to find space at will, and D'Alessandro and Kily Gonzalez found him with accurate passes nearly every time. Even when he had company, Tevez showed an uncanny ability to shed defenders.
According to the official match statistics, Tevez had seven more shots on goal, and while most were on target, none had quite enough venom to beat Barreto.
SUMMER 2004 GAMES -- SOCCER: MEN'S FINAL