A major diplomatic incident marred the
first day of competition at the London Olympics on Wednesday when the North
Korea women's soccer team walked off after the South Korea flag was mistakenly
displayed before their match against Colombia.
The error occurred in Scotland at Glasgow's
Hampden Park stadium which was hosting one of the day's six matches kicking off
the women's tournament and led to a lengthy delay before the game eventually
started.
Kicking off almost an hour later than the
scheduled start time of 1845 GMT, North Korea were far more composed on the
pitch and went on to record a 2-0 victory.
In the day's other games, reigning Olympic
champions the United States, bidding for a third successive gold, came from
behind to beat France 4-2, world champions Japan defeated Canada 2-1 and hosts
Britain overcame New Zealand 1-0.
Brazil, among the favourites for gold,
thrashed Cameroon 5-0 and Sweden, another possible medallist, thumped South
Africa 4-1.
But the drama in Glasgow marked a day in
which sporting action began around Britain two days before the official opening
ceremony in London on Friday.
The trouble started when the South Korea
flag was shown on a giant screen before the kickoff of the Group G match at
Hampden Park, one of five venues hosting games outside London, and Olympic
organisers had to issue an apology.
"The South Korean flag was shown in
the video package on the screen before the kickoff and the North Koreans were
naturally very upset about that," Hampden Park media manager Andy Mitchell
told Reuters.
"We have made a full apology to the
team and the North Korean NOC (National Olympic Committee). A genuine mistake
was made for which we apologise. Steps will be taken to ensure it does not
happen again."
When asked if he thought it was an
accident, North Korea coach Sin Ui-gun was not so sure and said he would ask
the organisers the same question.
"We were angry because our players
were introduced as if they were from South Korea, which may affect us greatly
as you may know," he said.
"Our team was not going to participate
unless the problem was solved perfectly and fortunately some time later, the
broadcasting was corrected and shown again live so we made up our mind to
participate and go on with the match," he added.
"If this matter cannot be solved, we
thought going on was nonsense. Winning the game cannot compensate for that
thing."
UNFORTUNATE START
The U.S. also had an unfortunate start to
their match with France in the earlier match at Hampden but at least that was
only because of what happened on the field.
France raced into a 2-0 lead against the
title holders after only 14 minutes before the U.S. rallied to take all three
points with Alex Morgan scoring twice, Abby Wambach once and substitute Carli
Lloyd grabbing the other.
It was a memorable day for hosts Britain
who won the first ever Olympic match they have played, beating New Zealand at
Cardiff's Millennium Stadium in the first event of the London Olympics.
Steph Houghton, who missed the 2007 world
and 2009 European championships through injury, scored Britain's winner with a
second half free-kick.
"It was something special and I'm sure
my family are very proud. I don't think it will sink in for a while. I'm just
glad it got us the win," she told reporters.
Brazil, playing in the second match at
Cardiff, were highly impressive in demolishing Cameroon with Marta, World
Player of the Year five times, scoring twice including a penalty.
Cristiane, who came on as a substitute at
the start of the second half, also scored to take her overall tally of Olympic
goals to 11, the all-time women's Olympic scoring record.
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