BEIJING: Angel di Maria provided the finish to another piece of magic from Lionel Messi yesterday, helping Argentina win its second straight Olympic football title with a 1-0 victory over Nigeria.
Di Maria collected Messi’s expertly timed through ball in the 58th minute and nonchalantly lobbed it over the Nigeria goalkeeper to give defending champion Argentina another gold medal and leave the 1996 champions with silver.
“This group deserved this,” Messi said. “We knew coming in that we may never have this experience again, so we are lucky that everything went well and we got what we wanted.” Brazil, which has never won Olympic gold, earned the bronze medal Friday by beating Belgium 3-0 in Shanghai. After the final, Ronaldinho and his teammates stood on the field to collect their bronze medals and see the title go to their biggest rivals.
Messi, however, almost didn’t play in the tournament because FC Barcelona won a ruling that it could pull him from the tournament. The Spanish team still allowed him to play.
“I think he has played very well in the Olympic tournament,” Argentina coach Sergio Batista said. “He’s played very well today as he normally does in his position and I knew that he could probably be the deciding factor.”
Di Maria’s strike was a goal to lift a final that was badly hit by searing temperatures of 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees Fahrenheit). The referee took the rare step of twice allowing players to stop and take drinks.
“Maybe the heat was a factor,” Batista said. “I think if the game had been played in another part of the day it would have been very different.” The game was the only one to be played in Beijing’s main Olympic stadium, and it was watched by a crowd of 89,102 that included former Argentina great Diego Maradona. But the fans had to wait a long time to be entertained.
Not surprisingly in the searing heat, the game was poor quality in the first half with too many mistakes, misplaced passes and players trying to move slowly around the field to conserve energy.
“We tried to make sure that we didn’t get uptight, just too play our own game,” Batista said. “We wanted to play with intelligence and move the ball around and not run around so much. We wanted the ball to do the work.” After Peter Odemwingie’s free kick forced Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero to make a diving save in the sixth minute, Juan Roman Riquelme sent one over the bar.
Messi had a penalty appeal turned down when he tumbled over Dele Adeleye’s challenge.
Nigeria almost went ahead shortly after the first drink break when Odemwingie crossed from the left and Promise Isaac just missed the ball in front of goal. The ball came back and Isaac’s looping header was saved by Romero.
“No team has actually played at noon since we started this tournament,” Nigeria coach Samson Siasia said when asked about the heat. “It affected both countries and most players didn’t perform to their level because of the heat.
But we didn’t make the rules. They said play the game at 12 o’clock which I don’t think wasn’t a good idea.” Argentina, and Messi in particular, were very disappointing in the first half but Di Maria almost made the breakthrough with a 30-meter shot which goalkeeper Ambruse Vanzekin pushed around the post at full stretch.
Messi produced one of his special moments in the 50th when he spun past a defender just outside the area and sent a left-footed drive which Vanzekin punched away.
Victor Obinna had a chance to level in the 63rd when he had a clear shot at goal, but he sent it straight at the goalkeeper.
Hesitancy by Javier Mascherano in his own area gave Ebenezer Alijore a shot at goal, but it rolled wide of the post and then Sani Kaita shot over the bar from the edge of the area.
