Argentina's footballers claim gold
ATHENS, Greece -- Argentina's footballers beat Paraguay 1-0 in a bad-tempered Olympic football final to win their country's first gold medal since 1952.
Boca Juniors' 20-year-old forward Carlos Tevez scored the only goal of the game -- his eighth of the tournament -- just 18 minutes into the final at the Olympic Stadium.
Paraguay had Emilio Martinez sent off on 66 minutes for elbowing Andres D'Alessandro and Diego Figueredo saw red with seven minutes left for his second bookable offence.
Argentina's victory gave the two-time world champions their first Olympic football title, improving on their silver medals in Atlanta in 1996 and in Amsterdam in 1928.
The result may also save the job of Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa, who has been under pressure since his side's shock first round exit as favorites from the 2002 World Cup.
"I feel extremely happy," said Bielsa.
"I haven't cried but not crying does not mean I am not very satisfied. To be Olympic champions is very special, a unique feeling you can't compare to anything else."
"I would like to thank my coach for believing in me," said Tevez who wears the No. 10 shirt once worn by legend Diego Maradona.
"This win is for him. Winning the gold medal is a great feeling because we are a great team and we believe in each other."
Argentinian playmaker D'Alessandro said the victory compensated for their penalty shootout loss to Brazil in last month's Copa America final.
"We were all very disappointed by losing in the Copa," said D'Alessandro who plays in Germany for Wolfsburg.
"But this has made us very happy. We got into the game quickly and we scored easily inside the first 20 minutes. This is history, and we dedicate this gold to the people of Argentina."
The winning goal came when Fabricio Coloccini found Cesar Delgado with a throughball and Delgado crossed for Tevez, a target for some of Europe's biggest clubs, to sidefoot the ball past Paraguayan goalkeeper Diego Barreto.
But Argentina should have won much more comfortably, with Barreto twice denying Tevez later in the half. Luis Gonzalez also went close, but his long-range effort flew just high of the bar.
Paraguay, missing injured top scorer Jose Cardozo, struggled to get into the match and their best effort came in the second half when Argentine keeper German Lux pulled off a flying save from Aureliano Torres' freekick.
But the best chance of the second half fell to Argentina on the hour, when Luis Gonzalez tried to take the ball around Barreto only for the Paraguayan keeper to somehow deflect his shot onto the bar.
Paraguay's frustrations boiled over shortly afterwards when Martinez was dismissed for his brutal elbowing of D'Alessandro.
They could have had an equalizer six minutes later however when Argentina were caught out by Pablo Gimenez's throughball to Diego Figueredo but Lux pulled off a one-handed save.
Figueredo earned the second red card of the match when he collected his second yellow card after attempting to sweep a freekick into the net with his hand.
"I thought the referee was pernickety," said Paraguayan coach Carlos Jara. "He didn't influence the result but giving us so many yellow and red cards upset the players psychologically."
Jara dedicated Paraguay's medal to the nar-400 victims of a supermarket fire in Asuncion last month.
"The people have suffered a terrible loss and if this first medal for our country can do something I hope it eases the suffering for them and gives some sympathy to the next of kin and the families involved," he said.
"But in reality I don't know if it can do much for them."
