Mistakes cost US first-game chance

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(BEIJING, August 6) -- Athens 2004 gold medalist, the US women's football team fought a whole game to make up for its mistakes in the first four opening minutes of its match against Norway, but failed to do so.

Norwegian Leni Larsen Kaurin took advantage of the chaos in the US box when an overhead pass saw US goalkeeper Hope Solo run into US defender Lori Chalupny, which gave Norway a goal in the second minute. The goal was the fastest goal in the history of the Women's Olympic Football tournament, eclipsing the previous record of four minutes by Germany's Pia Wunderlich at Atlanta 1996. Two minutes later, the US team made another horrible mistake. A pass to the goalkeeper went directly to Norway's striker Melissa Wiik, who put the ball into the net beyond Solo's reach.

China won 2-1 over Sweden in another game between two highly-rated teams. China's first goal came early too. At the sixth minute, China's striker Xu Yuan seized upon a deflection from the goalpost and scored. Swedish Lotta Schelin dribbled past China's goalkeeper Zhang Yanru at the 38th minute to goal and level the scores at 1-1. A powerful shot beyond the box from another Chinese striker Han Duan, curved past the Swedish defense and found the net, thus giving China a 2-1 victory.A one-goal game between Nigeria and the People's Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) saw the DPRK come away with a first-game victory.

Norwegian Leni Larsen Kaurin celebrate scoring with teammates (Photo credit: Xinhua)

Source: http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sp ... ll/n214510293.shtml