Summer Olympics 2000 Games begin before opening ceremony

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Tuesday, September 19
Games begin before opening ceremony
Reuters

SYDNEY, Australia -- Olympic soccer champions Nigeria take a first step towards a second successive gold medal on Wednesday when they meet debutantes Honduras in the first match of the men's tournament at Adelaide's Hindmarsh Stadium.

But while that game signals the start of what should be a superb soccer competition, most of the attention will be focused on the Melbourne Cricket Ground where a 92,000 sell- out crowd will see host nation Australia face gold medal prospects Italy later the same day.

Two other men's matches complete the first day of competitive action at the 2000 Olympic Games, 48 hours before the official opening ceremony in Sydney.

In Brisbane, Cameroon plays Kuwait while the United States meets the Czech Republic in Canberra. With two games also set for the women's competition, a total of six matches are scheduled for opening day.

Although Olympic soccer does not make global headlines the way the World Cup and big club championships do, Sydney Olympic Games Organizing Committee (SOCOG) officials estimate that at least 1.2 million people will watch the 32 matches in the men's tournament.

Add perhaps another 100,000 watching the 16 women's games and soccer will have the highest overall attendance of any sport at the Games, including athletics.

And the competition will certainly be fierce with the 16 teams in the men's tournament facing off in four groups of four before heading straight into the knockout phase.

Brazil coach under pressure
Brazil starts as favorites to win Olympic gold for the first time in its history and their coach Wanderley Luxemburgo, who also coaches the full international side, is under massive pressure at home to win the tournament for both personal and professional reasons.

Brazil has had an average start to their World Cup qualifying campaign, and failure in Sydney -- which means anything less than gold -- could signal the end of Luxemburgo's reign. He is also facing a possible prison sentence for alleged tax evasion and has been summoned for a court hearing on Oct. 16.

But he was a happy man on Sunday after Brazil strolled through its final Olympic warm up with a 4-0 win over local side Marconi with two goals from Lucas and one each from Ronaldinho and Geovanni.

Afterwards Luxemburgo repeated that he saw the main threat to Brazil's title chances coming from Australia, Italy, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain and Chile, while Slovakia could not be discounted either.

Australia and Italy struggling
Australia's chances took a knock in the last two weeks with injuries ruling out Harry Kewell of Leeds United, Paul Okon of Middlesbrough, and goalkeeper Joe Didulica of Ajax Amsterdam.

They suffered another setback on Sunday when Derby County's newly signed defender Con Blatsis was ruled out of Wednesday's opener against Italy with a thigh injury. Coach Raul Blanco is hoping Blatsis will be fit in time for the side's match against Nigeria in Sydney on Saturday.

Australia though has been boosted by the arrival of Leeds' striker Mark Viduka, and Blanco is delighted he is now on board.

"He's looking awesome as usual," he said. "His mere presence here just lifts everyone around him. He's an immense talent and we have not seen the best of him yet."

Italy, who are taking the Olympics so seriously that the start of Serie A has been delayed until Oct. 1, had a shock over the weekend when half the team fell ill with flu and fever.

Coach Marco Tardelli said sweeper Marco Zanchi of Juventus was among five players unable to train on Sunday but he was optimistic they would all be fit for Wednesday's high-profile match against the hosts.

Also ailing were Massimo Ambrosini, Luca Mezzano, Roberto Baronio and goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis.

Spain, bidding to repeat their 1992 Olympic gold medal success in Barcelona, kicks off its campaign against South Korea in Adelaide on Thursday.

The Spaniards, also among the tournament favorites, warmed up with a 7-0 win over South Australia State at the weekend with Barcelona's Gabri and AC Milan striker Jose Mari scoring two each. Espanyol's Raul Tamudo marred the victory by getting sent off 16 minutes from time although that won't keep him out of the Olympics.

Nigeria faces tough campaign
Four years ago Nigeria became the first African nation to win a global soccer title when they took Olympic gold, but their chances of repeating that success have been hit by club-versus-country wrangling.

Nwankwo Kanu, the inspiration behind their 1996 final success against Argentina, pulled out of the Games last week, preferring to play for his club side Arsenal, while VfL Wolfsburg refused Jonathan Akboporie permission to play.

Midfielder Garba Lawal, one of the gold-medal heroes of '96, predicts a tough ride for Nigeria this time around.

"I am not a prophet of doom, but defending the Olympic gold will not be easy," said the Roda JC Kerkrade midfielder.

"Our team is not bad, but we have to have a real belief in ourselves and know that we can fight back if we go behind as we did against Brazil and Argentina in 1996.

"When we won four years ago we took the world by surprise. Nobody expected it. Now it's different -- we are the team everyone want to beat," Lawal said.

Unlike four years ago when Atlanta Olympic organizers staged matches everywhere but Atlanta, FIFA insisted that, while other venues could be used, soccer must be played in Sydney as well.

Matches are being held in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra but the host city is staging a number of matches including the final in the main Olympic Stadium on Sept. 30.