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U.S. Goes Winless In Field Hockey

ATLANTA -- The U.S. men's team will have to wait at least four more years for a chance to win in Olympic field hockey.

Malaysia got two goals from Lim Chiow Chuan to beat the Americans 4-1 Thursday. The United States went 0-7 in these games and are now 0-26-4 in Olympic history.

Nick Butcher of Simi Valley, Calif., averted a shutout by scoring with 2:48 left in the game, which was played in a steady drizzle.

The victory was the first of the tournament for Malaysia (1-4-2). The U.S. team, plagued by a punchless offense throughout the games, scored only four goals in finishing last in the 12-team field.

Lim scored the game's first goal with 1:09 left in the first half. Malaysia stretched the lead to 2-0 three minutes into the second half on a penalty corner goal by Minawan Nawawi, and sealed another U.S. defeat with another goal from Lim with 26:31 left.

The United States had lost to South Africa, 3-0, on Wednesday.

``Every time we dominate, we fail to score a goal and it's a waste of all their hard work,'' U.S. coach Jonathan Clark said after that game.

``We seem to take the intellectual approach to goal scoring, which at the moment hasn't paid off as the IQ in front of the goal seems to be less than room temperature.''

Spain and the Netherlands advanced to the gold medal game with victories Wednesday. Spain handed Australia its first loss, 2-1, on a penalty stroke conversion by Juan Escarre in the 53rd minute. The Netherlands defeated Germany 3-1 on three goals by Taco van den Honert.

Australia will play Germany for the bronze in a rematch of the 1992 gold-medal game, which the Germans won.

In other games Wednesday, Argentina won a 3-0 shootout with Malaysia after they tied 4-4 in regulation; Pakistan beat Britain 2-1; and South Korea won a 5-3 shootout with India after a 3-3 regulation tie.