Favored Spain Gets a Shutout

Spain lived up to its billing as one of the favorites for the men’s soccer gold medal when it began its Olympic campaign Thursday with a 3-0 victory over South Korea at Adelaide, Australia.

A polished team that won the under-20 world title last year, Spain easily dominated the Group B match. Only some superb goalkeeping by Kim Yong-dae prevented a bigger Spanish victory.

With a team made up mostly of collegians, South Korea chose to pack its defense and look for its speedy forwards with occasional long balls, hoping to catch the Spaniards off guard.

But they couldn’t finish any attacks and Spain, made up of emerging stars who play for big clubs in Europe, was unchallenged.

Brazil 3, Slovakia 1--Brazil recovered from a surprising deficit to beat Slovakia at Brisbane.

Andrej Porazik gave Slovakia a 1-0 edge in the 27th minute, but Edu tied the score two minutes later. Brazil then went ahead on an own goal by Marian Cisovsky in the 67th minute, and Fabio Aurelio made the score 3-1 with only seconds to go.

Japan 2, South Africa 1--Naohiro Takahara got his second goal of the game 10 minutes from the final whistle as Japan rallied for a victory at Canberra.

After Siyabonga Nomvethe gave the South Africans a 32nd-minute lead, Takahara headed in the tying goal in first-half injury time. He took a defense-splitting pass from Hidetoshi Nakata to score the winner in the 80th.

Chile 4, Morocco 1--World Cup veteran Ivan Zamorano’s hat trick led Chile to a rout at Melbourne.

Morocco played most of the game with 10 players after Adel Chbouki was ejected in the fifth minute for a foul against Navia.

WOMEN

China 3, Nigeria 1--Sun Wen scored twice as China overpowered Nigeria at Canberra.

Zhao Lihong gave China an early lead, but the expected goal romp never materialized as the Chinese, silver medalists in Atlanta four years ago, were strongly tested by the Nigerians.

Eight members of China’s starting lineup played in the 1996 Olympic final when the team lost to the United States.

Barely 2,000 fans were scattered around the 24,000-seat rugby league stadium at kickoff for the game, which preceded the men’s match between South Africa and Japan.

The Chinese scored in the 12th minute. There seemed little danger when Zhao chased a ball on the left, but she neatly lobbed the ball over defender Yinka Kudaisi and, with goalkeeper Anna Chiejine racing off her line, produced a stunning lobbed volley over her head inside the far post.