Football: Milan striker steers Spain into final

The Spanish soccer coach, Inaki Saez Ruiz, singled out the Milan striker Jose Mari for a brilliant display which saw him score once and create two more goals as his side defeated the United States 3-1 to reach the men's Olympic final On Tuesday.

Their opponents at Stadium Australia on Saturday will be Cameroon, who maintained their eventful progress through the tournament with a 2-1 win over Chile in the other semi-final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

"Jose Mari was involved in everything, scored one goal and made the other two and really had a brilliant match," said a delighted Ruiz as Spain reached the final for the third time.

"We want the gold," said Ruiz, "but it is going to be tough. We know more about Chile than we know about Cameroon, who clearly are a very good side, having beaten Brazil and now Chile."

The 21-year-old proved just why Milan paid Atletico Madrid £12m for him last year with a commanding performance of powerful front running, passing and finally a welldeserved goal four minutes from time that sealed Spain's victory.

He earlier set up Tamudo for Spain's opener after 16 minutes and Angulo for the second just before the half-hour.

Cameroon defeated Chile following a dubious last-minute penalty.

The match was scoreless until the 78th minute when Chile took the lead through an own goal from Patrice Abanda, after a shot by the substitute Sebastian Gonzalez rebounded off the goalkeeper.

The Africans drew level six minutes later when Patrick Mboma shot in from the edge of the penalty area.

Then Arsenal's Lauren won the match with an 89th-minute penalty coolly placed to the right of the Chilean goalkeeper after Mboma stumbled dramatically in the area under a challenge from the Chile defender Pablo Contreras.

"The gold medal has always been our objective, like it was with Nigeria," said Cameroon's coach, Jean-Paul Akono.

"Nigeria paved the way four years ago for African football [by winning gold in Atlanta] and Cameroon is heading for the same achievement."

Cameroon's victory, in front of a crowd of 64,338, came without the services of the key players, Aaron Nguimbat and their captain Geremi Njitap.

Both were sent off in their side's memorable golden-goal victory over Brazil in last Saturday's quarter-final.

The Chile coach, Nelson Acosta, said his team wasted too many chances. "Most of it was our fault," he said.

"We did not know how to turn our chances into goals."

His side will now face the United States in the bronze medal play-off match to be played at the Sydney Football Stadium on Friday.

- INDEPENDENT