|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Brazil moves on Faces Cameroon in men's soccer quarterfinals
BRISBANE, Australia (AP)- An early goal by Alex gave embattled Brazil a 1-0 win over Japan on Wednesday for a berth in the quarterfinals of the Olympic men's soccer tournament. Brazil finished first in Group D and Japan placed second. Brazil, which had a better goal differential, will play Cameroon, while Japan faces the United States on Saturday. Brazil, coming from a stunning 3-1 loss to South Africa, needed a victory over the unbeaten Japanese to advance, and launched an all-out attack from the very beginning. The effort paid off when Alex outjumped two defenders to head in the only goal. It came off a centering pass by Marco Aurelio form the right wing. After the goal, Brazil continued to put heavy pressure on the well-organized Japanese defense, which did not crack. Japan launched several fast counterattacks and Shunsuke Nakamura came close to tying it, but goalie Helton made a difficult. In the final minutes, again Nakamura almost scored, but his shot went slightly wide. Japan missed playmaker Hidetoshi Nakata, who was suspended for the game with two yellow cards. Korea 1, Chile 0 Lee Don-gook scored in the first half Wednesday to give South Korea a 1-0 victory over Chile, but the South Americans still made the quarterfinals of the Olympic soccer tournament. Chile finished first in Group B with six points and will meet Nigeria on Saturday in the second round. Spain, which defeated Morocco 2-0, placed second in the group and will play Italy. Lee Dong-gook scored in the 27th minute with a shot from 15 yards on a rebound off Chilean defender Pedro Reyes. South Korea played with 10 men from the second minute after Slovak referee Lubos Michel ejected Lee Chun-soo fur fouling striker Sebastian Gonzalez. After the goal Chile, playing without veteran striker Ivan Zamorano, dominated the action, creating - and missing - several scoring opportunities and restricting the Koreans mostly to sporadic counterattacks. The Korean defense successfully stopped a number of Chilean attacks. Reinaldo Navia, Rodrigo Tello and Francisco Arrue missed good scoring opportunities. Spain 2, Morocco 0 Spain defeated Morocco 2-0 on Wednesday to squeeze into the quarterfinals of the Olympic soccer tournament. Goals from Jose Mari in the 33rd minute and Gabri in injury time put Spain into the next round against Italy in Sydney on Sept. 23. The vast Melbourne Cricket Ground that can seat more than 90,000 was less then one-third full on a dry but cool and windy evening, with the official attendance at 24,625. Spain was the first to produce a few dangerous moves and after 19 minutes should have gone ahead. Raul Tamudo sneaked behind the Moroccan defense to meet a perfect cross in front of the Moroccan goal. Unchallenged, the forward headed straight into the arms of goalkeeper Tarek El Jarmouni. With Spain building up strong pressure, El Jarmouni stopped an angled shot by Jose Mari, then Miguel Angel Angulo finished a swift 1-2 Spanish move by knocking the ball wide after the Moroccan defense had been left behind. El Hussaine Ouchla cleared a ball off the line after a header by Unai Vergara, but it was clear a Spanish goal was only a matter of time. And it came from Jose Mari, who slammed the ball home after a Spanish corner kick was headed down by Juan Capdevila. The Moroccan goalkeeper made a couple of more stunning saves at the start of the second half, including a point-blank attempt by Jose Mari. Later, Spain did little more than protect its lead. Gabri secured the victory in injury time as a Moroccan clear bounced off a Spaniard and allowed Gabri to head it home. Slovakia 2, South Africa 1 CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - South Africa threw away its chances of a place in the Olympic quarterfinals when it lost 2-1 to already eliminated Slovakia on Wednesday. The Bafana Bafana failed to follow up its 3-1 upset over Brazil, losing on two goalkeeping blunders by Emile Baron. Baron was beaten twice at his near post by Juraj Czinege (47th minute) and Jan Slahor (72nd), relegating Benny McCarthy's 75th-minute strike to little more than consolation. Apart from a few inaccurate long-range shots, the Slovaks did little to worry South African keeper Baron. But his blunder handed them a goal two minutes into the second half when the South Africans were unlucky to concede a free kick just outside and to the left of the penalty area. They were expecting a cross, but Czinege spotted that the keeper had left the near post unguarded and - after receiving a tapped free kick - fired a low, 20-meter shot through the gap. Baron made up for his mistake by racing off his line to block a shot from Andrej Porazik after the Slovak had broken through the defense while Slovak keeper Lipcak did the same to turn a shot from Buckley over the bar. It was an unfortunate miss for South African because Slovakia immediately broke away from the corner to score again. There seemed no real danger when Slahor collected the ball out on the right, but he fired in a powerful, low drive from an acute angle and Baron was beaten at his near post again.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
