United States down North Korea

DRESDEN (AFP) - Two-time world champions United States lived up to their status as women's World Cup favourites on Tuesday, beating North Korea 2-0 in their Group C opener. Lauren Cheney opened the scoring for the Americans in the 54th minute and Rachel Buehler doubled the lead after 76th minutes for Pia Sundhage's team. The Americans top Group C with three points along with Sweden while North Korea and Colombia have zero points. The Americans next play Colombia on July 2 in Sinsheim while the Koreans face Sweden the same day in Augsburg. "It feels great to have played the first 45 minutes, to have made some changes at halftime and do very well in the second half," said Sundhage. "I am happy with how we scored the goals, how we played, and how strongly we defended. It's a good start." Her North Korean counterpart was happy with the Asians' first half display. "Today we played the American team and in the first half I think our team was pretty gutsy," said Kim Kwang Min. "In the second half we didn't have enough strength left and were unable to implement the tactics we wanted to use." In front of 21,859 at the Rudolf Harbig Stadium in Dresden American Carli Lloyd had the first chance after 10 minutes with a header off a free kick but Korean keeper Hong Myong Hui was well-placed. Hong made a better save a minute later from Cheney's long shot as the United States began building up pressure.