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Great Britain's Alex Scott in action against Sweden - Source: Reuters -
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Britain's women's soccer team, who take on the Football Ferns in the London Olympics' first event, drew 0-0 with Sweden in their first official match at the Riverside Stadium overnight.
The game - the first half of a double-header with the men's Olympic team due to play Brazil later - was full of fine technical play from two evenly-matched teams making their final preparations in a low-key encounter before the start of the soccer tournament next week.
The British team, whose only other match was a 3-1 win over South Africa behind closed doors earlier this month, came closest to a goal when Rachel Yankey, making her 120th appearance for England as a second-half substitute, hit a post with a well-taken left-foot shot after 70 minutes.
Just checked out Millenium Stadium. Lookin good for Wednesdays game #cantwait #GBvNZ #FootballFerns #London2012 twitter.com/HayleyMoorwood…
— Hayley Moorwood (@HayleyMoorwood) July 23, 2012
Sweden, who finished third in last year's women's World Cup and are fourth in FIFA's world rankings, threatened several times and Sofia Jakobsson, who plays professionally in Russia, wasted a good scoring chance just before halftime. Caroline Seger, winning her 93rd cap for Sweden, had her side's two best scoring chances, but failed to take either.
The two sets of players will be seeing plenty of each other over the next few weeks, whether they meet in the later stages of the Games or not, as they're sharing the same accomodation block in the Olympic Village.
Taking part in the Olympics for the first time, Britain face the Kiwis in Cardiff next Wednesday, then Cameroon and gold-medal favourites Brazil in their opening group matches, while Sweden are grouped with world champions Japan, Canada and South Africa, their first opponents in Coventry next Wednesday.
The soccer tournament traditionally starts before the opening ceremony to accommodate a competition programme that features 16 men's teams and 12 women's.