India beat Argentina 3-0.

Sameer Dad (25, 60 min)
Mukesh Kumar (34 min)

INDIA - 5 penalty corners, 0 converted
ARGENTINA - 9 penalty corners, 0 converted

For the last 3 Olympics in a row, India lost their opening matches in the Olympic hockey competition. They lost 0-1 to Russia at Seoul (1988), 1-2 to Germany at Barcelona (1992) and 0-1 to Argentina at Atlanta (1996). India would have to break that jinx at Sydney.

The defeat to Argentina at Atlanta was a heart-breaker. India did not lose any other match in the league stage at the Atlanta Olympics. It was that one loss to the South American champions that sent India crashing out of the tournament.

Sameer Dad whacked in a penalty corner rebound with a tennis-style volley into the goal to open the scoring for India in the 25th minute.

With 40 seconds remaining in the first half, veteran Mukesh Kumar showed his sparkle by driving home a defence-splitting diagonal cross from Baljeet Singh Dhillon.

Sameer Dad wrapped up the proceedings by sending a stinging shot from top of the scoring circle into the boards in the 60th minute to make it 3-0 India.

For Argentina, Carlos Retegui in the 21st minute and Jorge Lombi in the 54th minute were given yellow cards for rough play and deliberate fouls. That left Argentina with 10 players on two different occasions - and on both occasions Sameer Dad scored a goal.

Cheered on by a big crowd of Indian supporters which included the star tennis pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, India ended the match 3-0.

It took 4 years, but the defeat to Argentina in the Atlanta Olympics was finally avenged.

India's toughest match in the pool is against the host country Australia on September 19. In addition, the late start of the game (8:30 pm local time) would mean India would have to play in chilly conditions.

The last time India beat Australia (3-1) in Olympics was 28 years ago in the 1972 Munich Olympics. After that, India lost to Australia 1-6 at Montreal (1976), 2-4 at Los Angeles (1984) and 0-1 at Barcelona (1992).