Mexico Can Only Tie With Mali

Mali held Mexico to a 0-0 tie at Volos, Greece, on Wednesday, the opening day of men’s soccer competition at the Olympics.

Mali, along with Tunisia, Morocco and Ghana, will try to keep alive Africa’s bid for three consecutive gold medals at the Games.

Mexico’s Omar Bravo twice came close to goals and Rafael Marquez missed an open target, and then Mexico repeatedly was turned back by Mali’s offside trap. Teneme Ndiaye was wide on a shot, missing what would have been a huge victory for Mali in Group A.

Nigeria won the men’s tournament at the 1996 Atlanta Games and Cameroon won at Sydney in 2000.

Argentina 6, Serbia and Montenegro 0 -- Carlos Tevez scored twice in two minutes in a Group C game at Patras.

Cesar Delgado and Cristian “Kily” Gonzalez put Argentina ahead, 2-0, and Tevez struck just before halftime. Gabriel Heinze, recently signed by Manchester United, and Mauro Rosales scored in the closing minutes.

Greece 2, South Korea 2 -- Ioannis Taralidis scored in the 78th minute and Dimitrios Papadopoulos scored four minutes later to help Greece rally for a tie in a Group A game at Thessaloniki.

After their surprise victory in last month’s European championships, the Greeks hoped for a big performance from their Olympic squad. But after Kim Dong-Jin’s first-half goal for the Koreans and Loukas Vyntra’s own goal in the 64th minute, it didn’t look good for Greece.

Tunisia 1, Australia 1 -- Ali Zitouni scored in the 69th minute to give Tunisia a tie at Heraklion on Crete in a Group C match that featured 42 fouls and seven yellow cards. Australia scored in the last minute of the first half on John Aloisi’s six-yard header.