Olympics-Hockey-Argentina and Australia both win to share top spot in women's Pool B

By Forrest Crellin

PARIS (Reuters) - Australia scored in the third minute in a 3-0 win over the United States in women's hockey at the Olympics on Wednesday to move the Hockeyroos joint top of Pool B with Argentina.

The U.S. looked nervous early on as passes went wide and players had difficulty controlling the ball. The Australian defence was unforgiving, holding the U.S. to one shot from the field.

"We definitely build our base game around our defence. We work a lot on it, and it's a really good feeling to come away with only one goal against (in the tournament)," Australian captain Grace Stewart said.

"We had to filter through some of our reserve players as well due to injury, and one of them got on the scoresheet today, so I think having three different scorers really highlights the depth we have in our 19 girls that are here with us."

The U.S. will now need to win their next two games to stay in control of their hopes to advance to the knockout stages. The top four in each six-team Pool qualify for the quarter-finals.

In the other Pool B games, Argentina held on to beat Spain 2-1 after having to defend with two players down for several minutes in the fourth quarter, and Britain defeated South Africa 2-1 for their first win of the tournament.

Germany trounced hosts France 5-1 in the first Pool A game to bounce back after losing their last match to two fourth-quarter goals by top-ranked Netherlands.

(Reporting by Forrest Crellin; Editing by Christian Radnedge)