No Winners, But No Losers Either

Fans watching Olympic soccer in Harvard Stadium the last two days were beginning to wonder it they would ever see a goal. They waited two days more than a game and a half, finally, Canada's Gerry Gray put one in at 25.30 of last night's game to end the scoring drought.

But Gray's goal was not enough, as the Iraqis rallied to tie the game, which ended deadlocked at 1-1. In Sunday night's Olympic opener. Norway and Chile played a cautious game for 90 minutes which ended scoreless.

After last night's action, group. A has four teams tied in the race for a trip to the second round in Los Angeles. While Norway and Chile danced in Boston. Qatar held a heavily favored French team to a 2-2 tie to deadlock the tournament in Annapolis.

In group B. Canada and Iraq are tied for second place behind Yugoslavia, which beat Cameroon 2-1 last night in Annapolis. After a round robin series, two teams from cash division the two groups splitting their time between Massachusetts and Maryland and two more playing all their games on the west coast will move on to the quarter finals Los Angeles next week.

Olympic style soccer is a much more disciplined game than the kind played in North America: spectators noticed the difference in the cautious play and low scoring of the last two nights.

In the first half, the teams traded possession, with Iraq holding only a slight advantage, causing, for awhile, the most exciting action to come from the Iraqi cheering section.

Hundreds of screaming Iraqi fans donated the crowd, waving flags and pictures of President Saddam Hussein Beating drums and tambourines and blowing horns, the Iraqi throngs greatly outnumbered the three Canadian flags on the opposite side of the stadium.

The second half began faster with both teams exiting the locker room pumped up and ready to plan harder. At the five minute mark, Canada had the nearest most of the night when Randy Reagan he also from 25 feet out hit the cross her and Gray smashed the rebound into the goalpost.

"We're really not very far away from becoming a very good team and in this case, we write about a goal post's width away," said Canadian Coach Tony Waters.

The bill moved up and down the field with both teams running and tackling hard for the next 20 minutes but neither was able to establish a great advantage and the crowd was beginning to grumble about the lack of scoring. Then forward Dale Mitchell beat an Iraqi defender, pushed the ball deep into the right corner and chipped a perfect pass to Mike Sweeny on the other side of the net.

Sweeny, who has played with Gray for several years, blocked the ball back to his charging teammate, who booted it into the corner of the net from just outside the penalty box.

The goal was set up by action at the opposite end of the field 30 seconds earlier, when, after beating his man and charging in alone from the left side, Iraq's K.H. Awali tripped and fell just in front of the Canadian goal.

Iraq initially controlled the rebound but was unable to attack because Awali remained injured on the ground offsides in front of the net. Bottled up in the middle of the field, Iraq lost the ball, with Canada capitalizing on their advantage.

After the goal, Iraq quickly regained their composure and pushed the pace, struggling to regain the advantage. Iraq had been pressing the middle of Canada's defense all night and with seven minutes left in the game, Hussain Saeed Mohamed slipped between the defense off a free kick, set play and beat Lettieri to tie the game.

The goal was a special one for Mohammed. Going into the game he and the Iraq coach, Ammoud Baba, shared the country's record for most goals scored in the Olympics but Mohammed's score last night pushed him ahead.

"I'm proud that my player became better than me. I hope he will get some more goals, that's what I want him to do," laughed Baba, who captained the Iraqi team in the 1960 Olympics.

As the clock ran down, both sides played fiercely for the win and with only 1:40 remaining it looked like Canada had won the game, but Gray scooped up a Regan header and slipped the ball into the net. Seconds earlier Mitchell had been flagged for knocking down Iraq's goalie, causing the score to be disallowed.

After the foul the teams were content to run out the clock and escape with the tie, which gives them one point each in this first qualifying round.

In Sunday night's game Norway clearly dominated the play, but was unable to capitalize on its advantage, settling for a 0-0 tie.

The Norwegians, however, appeared to walk away with their morale boosted, as they were not even scheduled to play in the Olympic tournament after failing to qualify last fall. But when Czechoslovakia and East Germany joined the Soviet boycott of the Games the Norwegians were invited to represent their division.

The Chileans, on the other hand, are a respected challenger and were expected to dominate first round play, so the tie was somewhat of a disappointment to them.

The young, aggressive Norwegians continually controlled the midfield, sending the ball into the opposing zone time after time.

The Chileans countered, however with a patient, defensive game, holding off the Norwegians. They were reluctant to be caught upfield and waited for the opportunity that would bring victory.

Although Norway's Leif Seland headed the ball into the net at 36:32 of the first half the score was disallowed by an offensive penalty. But Seland, the youngest player on the team at 20 years old, later challenged the referee's judgement, saying the call frustrated him.

Eduardo Fourniel, the Chilean goalie, sparkled in the net, tallying 11 saves and warded off defeat numerous times.

It was luck, however, that saved the Chilean team at 20:13 of the first half when Norway's Egil Juhansen's 35-footer from the left side deflected off the cross bar and bounded back into play.

Despite Fourniel's outstanding effort, Norway's coach Roeste Fossen said the goalie was lucky. "The reasons we didn't score were our lack of accuracy and aggression."

The Chilean coach, despite the tie score, conceded that the Norwegians had outplayed his team. He said his players have "a long way to go to gain more experience."

Tonight's action will play heavily in determining who in group A goes to Los Angeles. With all four teams deadlocked in the standings after Sunday's ties, tonight's matches between France and Norway at the stadium and Chile vs. Qatar in Annapolis are pivotal in the tournament.

In Sunday's west coast soccer action, the U.S. team is tied for first place in group D after blanking Costa Rica 3-0 on Sunday.