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Fifty-two years comingTevez leads Argentina past Paraguay for long-overdue goldPosted: Saturday August 28, 2004 4:58AM; Updated: Saturday August 28, 2004 10:07AM  
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Now Argentina has something Brazil doesn't have: an Olympic soccer gold medal. For decades in the shadows of the five-time World Cup winner and a loser to the Brazilians at last month's Copa America, Argentina was tied with Brazil as a two-time runner up at the Olympics. Now it will be showing off its prize from the Athens Olympics when it gets home. Carlos Tevez scored his eighth goal of the tournament and Argentina captured its first gold medal in any sport since 1952 by beating Paraguay 1-0 in Saturday's all-South American final. "To be champion of the Olympic Games is quite an achievement and I'm obviously very happy," Argentina coach Marcelo Bielsa said. "There are other elements that fit in professional football, the feelings of instability and constant analysis. But what has just happened, it is something that fills me with happiness." A day after Argentina's basketball team scored a stunning victory to oust the United States in the Olympic semifinals, its soccer players grabbed the spotlight. Tevez, a 20-year-old Boca Juniors striker who is a likely transfer target for Europe's top clubs, beat two Paraguayan defenders to a cross from Mauro Rosales to score in the 18th minute before 41,116 fans at the Olympic Stadium. The win made up for two second-place finishes, in 1928 and 1996, for a nation that craves success in team sports. "Sports is very important for a large portion of our population at home," Bielsa said. "Football brings happiness to them. Therefore we are absolutely delighted for having contributed something." After the victory over the United States on Friday night, guard Manu Ginobili said golds in soccer and basketball would be "the happiest time ever for us." That joy was evident following the Saturday morning soccer match, as Argentina's players held hands and danced in a circle. Although Paraguay came close to scoring, Bielsa's team was an overwhelming favorite to win the title and take the gold medal back to South America for the first time since Uruguay beat Argentina 76 years ago in Amsterdam. Now Argentina has a title its big South American rival Brazil has never won. The Brazilians, who won five World Cups, failed to qualify for the Olympics after being eliminated by Paraguay. Already an underdog, Paraguay was reduced to nine men after Emilio Martinez was sent off for elbowing Andres D'Alessandro in the face in the 67th minute and Diego Figueredo was shown a second yellow six minutes from the end. "We were playing a very good side and with a referee who was a bit knit-picky," Paraguay coach Carlos Jara said. "I don't think he influenced the result, but he definitely affected our players psychologically, with so many yellow cards and the sendings off. "But we tried our best. We had a very difficult competition, five very tough games in 10-12 days."
But the runner-up medal was still Paraguay's first at the Olympics at any sport. Italy won the bronze Friday night by beating surprising Iraq 1-0 in Thessaloniki. "Obviously we had looked to win the gold, but we are heading home extremely happy -- we have won a medal. The first ever for sport in Paraguay." Argentina's victory was a huge relief for Bielsa, who had been told to come home with nothing but the gold medal. For Valencia defender Roberto Ayala, it also made up for the disappointment of the silver medal he collected when Argentina lost 3-2 to Nigeria eight years ago. If Paraguay didn't already have a tough enough job to stop the hot favorite, striker Jose Cardozo -- who had scored five goals including two in the semifinal beating of Iraq -- was ruled out because of an injury he suffered in the game in Thessaloniki. It didn't take long for Argentina to go ahead and it was no surprise who scored it. A break from defense by AC Milan's Fabricio Coloccini started the move when he ran 30 meters from his own area and released Mauro Rosales down the right. He crossed to the near post and Tevez ran between defenders Julio Manzur and Carlos Gamarra to prod the ball home from six meters. The Paraguayan defenders seemed terrified whenever Tevez was running at them, and both Gamarra and Manzur were shown yellow cards for hauling him down as if in punishment for his goal. Just before halftime, Tevez nearly struck again when he cut in from the left and aimed a low shot toward the far corner, but the goalkeeper fisted it away at full stretch. Paraguay was reduced to 10 men when Martinez was sent off by Greek referee Kyros Vassaras for felling D'Alessandro with his elbow to halt another promising Argentina move. Figueredo was the second Paraguayan to be sent off when he was shown his second yellow card for trying to use his hand to turn home a free kick by Ernesto Cristaldo. SummaryArgentina 1 Paraguay 0 Scorer: Carlos Tevez 18 Red cards: Emilio Martinez (Paraguay) 66, Diego Figueredo (Paraguay) 82 Halftime 1-0 Teams Argentina: 18-German Lux, 2-Roberto Ayala, 4-Fabricio Coloccini, 5-Javier Mascherano, 6-Gabriel Heinze, 10-Carlos Tevez, 11-Cristian Gonzalez, 12-Mauro Rosales, 8-Cesar Delgado (14-Clemente Rodriguez 76), 15-Andres D Alessandro, 16-Luis Gonzalez Paraguay: 18-Diego Barreto, 2-Emilio Martinez, 3-Julio Manzur, 4-Carlos Gamarra, 7-Pablo Gimenez, 9-Fredy Bareiro, 10-Diego Figueredo, 11-Aureliano Torres, 6-Celso Esquivel (14-Julio Gonzalez 76), 8-Edgar Barreto (15-Ernesto Cristaldo 72), 13-Julio Cesar Enciso (16-Osvaldo Diaz 63) Referee: Kyros Vassaras (Greece) Both the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. |
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