Defending champions Australia opened their quest for gold by routing Canada 6-1, while the world No. 2 Germany defeated China 4-1 on the first day of men's Olympic hockey here Monday.
The Aussies dominated the match from the whistle to the end, only conceding one goal to Canada when Peter Short found the net with a shot in the 38th minute.
Forward Des Abbott scored three times for Australia. The other three goals came from Fergus Kavanagh, Eddie Ockenden and Grant Schubert.
Unfortunately, Australia suffered two casualties with Bevan George and Jamie Dwyer, two experienced scorers, which coach Barry Dancer said they would make a decision after their injuries being assessed.
Ranked top in the world, Barry noted they were confident in defending their title for good preparations, but it's difficult to play Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and South Korea.
Germany showed their power against China as Zeller Christopher scored a penalty corner in the 21th minute, Keller Florian scored twice, and Nevado Carlos added another in the last three minutes.
The bottom-ranked China, participating in the Olympic Games for the first time, got the only goal from Na Yubo.
China's head coach Kim Sang Ryul said Germany were more experienced and organized, and took good chances at their mistakes, but he was satisfied with the result. After all, it's their first Olympic game and played the world top team.
New Zealand came back from a 1-0 down to beat South Korea 3-1 when Hayden Shaw made a hat-trick in the second half. South Korea got the goal from Lee Nam Yong in the 12th minute.
Great Britain gave Pakistan a lesson by taking a 3-0 lead at halftime and finally winning 4-2.
Also Monday, Spain beat Belgium 4-2 and the Netherlands blanked South Africa 5-0.
(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2008)