Argentina start Olympic quest with win - Soccer
The Men`s Olympic soccer competition kicked of yesterday, and after all the fuss over weather Leo Messi would play for Argentina in the Games, he finally turned out for the national side and produced a match winning performance in their 2-1 win over the Ivory Coast.
Messi got the first goal midway through the first half and an Argentinian side that included Juan Riquelme and Javier Mascherano looked set to dominate. However the Ivory Coast fought back and equalised throgh Cisse early into the second half.
The game looked like it was heading for a draw till Acosta finished another Messi move.
The other game in group A saw Australia draw 1-1 with Serbia.
Group B saw only one goal in the 2 games played with the USA coming out 1-0 victors over Japan and Holland drawing 0-0 with Nigeria.
Group C the one containing host nation China and tournament favourite Brazil was more eventful with the much vaunted Brazilians who include in their ranks Ronaldinho,Robinho,Lucas,Diego,an Rafinha struggled to overcome Belguim 1-0 in a game which saw 2 Belguim players sent off.
New Zealand produced something of a mini shock in the other game in this group drawing 1-1 with China after leading till late on in the match.
The final group saw Italy make short work of Honduras 3-0 and South Korea draw 1-1 with Cameroon.
