Cameroon Shocks Argentina, 1-0 : Soccer: Unheralded team, playing shorthanded, upsets the defending champion in World Cup opener.

In one of the most stunning upsets in World Cup history, Cameroon beat defending champion Argentina, 1-0, today as Francois Omam Biyick scored while his team was shorthanded.

It was a shocking start to the world soccer championship. It also was a fitting result, because the African champions outplayed the Argentines throughout and weren’t fazed by having two players ejected in the second half.

Cameroon’s counterattacks kept Argentina off-stride all game, and the Cameroon defense continually fouled Diego Maradona to keep him from dominating the way he did in leading Argentina to the 1986 title.

Biyick, who scored five goals in the qualifying rounds, including the goal in a 1-0 victory over Tunisia that put Cameroon into the World Cup for the second time, connected on a header off a free kick. The Argentine defense was sloppy in trying to clear the ball and Biyick’s header bounced off the hands of goalie Nery Pumpido and into the net at 66 minutes.

The goal came four minutes after Andrea Biyik was ejected for a rough tackle on Claudio Caniggia. That forced Cameroon to play a man down.

It went two men down in the 88th minute when defender Benjamin Massing made a rough tackle on a break by Caniggia down the right wing. Still, the Africans held on, and when the final whistle blew, they stormed onto the field and hugged each other as if the championship was theirs.

The Argentines left the field with heads bowed, wondering if they could survive the first round, let alone repeat as champions.

The Argentines, a pale shadow of the squad that won the World Cup in Mexico four years ago, were found wanting for speed by a team playing simple counterattacking soccer.

Cameroon, with Massing brilliant in fast breaks down the middle, wreaked havoc with the Argentine defense while Maradona and Jorge Burruchaga failed to inspire up front.

Cameroon, which tied its three games in the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain, displayed impressive soccer skills in showing the established soccer powers that the so-called “weaker nations” were not to be taken lightly.

French referee Michel Vautrot, following FIFA directives, was strict with Cameroon’s often rough handling of Maradona and Caniggia.

But the Argentines wasted several chances through uncharacteristic errors in attacking positions.

The lanky Abel Balbo, whom Coach Carlos Bilardo preferred to Caniggia as Maradona’s attacking partner, twice tripped over the ball in scoring positions.

The first chance, set up by Maradona in the fourth minute and with Cameroon still unsure how much respect to show the world champions, might have changed the course of the match had Balbo kept possession and scored.

Instead, Cameroon, quoted by bookmakers at 500-1 to win the World Cup, gained confidence in their ability to keep Maradona out of the action.

They kept at least two players on him at any one time and breached the Argentine defense with fast breaks, feeding the ball from midfield to the unmarked and wide-open wings.

Argentina failed to take advantage of their numerical advantage; the slowness of their midfield often made Cameroon look like the team with one extra player.

Veteran goalkeeper Thomas N’Kono, a hero of Cameroon’s three draws in the 1982 finals, made some vital saves, while Argentina’s Pumpido misplayed the only goal, failing to hold Biyick’s downward header, which hit his knee and rolled over the line.

A severe rainstorm that flooded parts of the Lombardy region overnight spared Milan’s Meazza stadium.