Sydney, September 14: The United States launched their defence of the Olympic women’s football title on Thursday with a 2-0 defeat of Norway, while Atlanta silver medallists China beat Nigeria 3-1.The two countries, who also finished one-two in the inaugural women’s World Cup, wasted no time in setting the tone for preliminary Group F.The States had first-half goals from strike pairing Mia Hamm and Tiffeny Milbrett, and only the woodwork prevented Norway from suffering a much heavier defeat in front of 16,043 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.Milbrett opened the scoring after 16 minutes, slotting the ball into an empty net after her original effort had been blocked by goalkeeper Bente Nordby.Seven minutes later Hamm a veteran of 209 International games doubled the lead with a crisp right-foot shot after springing the Norwegians’ offside trap.In Canberra, Chinese skipper Sun Wen showed why she is regarded as arguably the finest female player in the world with a brace of second-half goals.The first came in the 57th, when Jin Yan lofted a sweetly flighted ball over a static Nigerian defence for Sun to dart in and hook a deft shot past keeper Anna Chiejine.In the 83rd minute she curled in a textbook freekick from near the edge of the penalty area. Zhao Lihong had given China the lead in the 12th minute.Two minutes later Nigeria’s Perpetua Nkwocha converted a late consolation penalty, but the match was lost.
