FIELD HOCKEY : FAT MAN SINGS FOR ARGENTINA.

Byline: MICHAEL VENTRE

I'm staring at the sweaty back of a fat man from Argentina.

He keeps jumping up and celebrating after every goal. It wouldn't be so bad, except his team is beating the U.S. men's field hockey team soundly. It isn't attractive.

His back, or the game.

``Argentina! Argentina!''

Shut up, already!

He does. Apparently, he's too winded to continue. He probably hasn't had this much reason to get out of his chair since the Falkland Islands war.

The U.S. team is in danger of not winning a single match in these Olympic Games. That wouldn't be so crushing in and of itself, except that the U.S. has never won a game.

It is now 0-21-4 in Olympic competition and counting after dropping a 5-2 decision to Argentina.

In the 1932 Games in Los Angeles, where the U.S. first fielded a men's field hockey team, the Americans won the bronze. In a three-team field. By going winless. They didn't even have to compete. They could have just gone to the podium and waited.

Inside Herndon Stadium on the campus of Morris Brown College, the U.S. had perhaps its best chance in years Monday night, and certainly its best chance of these Olympics.

Back in May, you'll recall, the U.S. squad won a four-team tournament in Barcelona. It was in all the papers. And one of the vanquished was this very same Argentinian assemblage, the one with the puffy partisan who no doubt went along on the trip and ate well. The U.S. captured that game 2-0.

But these are the Olympics. I was hoping to be there when the Americans broke through. I wanted to be there when history was made.

I wanted to walk down in front of the sweaty fat man from Argentina and yell, ``Mix in a salad!''

Alas, it was not to be.

When the Argentinians were not scoring off penalty corners - what seems to the layman like a combination of a penalty shot in hockey and a corner kick in soccer - they were zipping through the defense like motorcycles through stalled traffic.

Jorge Lombi is probably the Michael Jordan of Argentinian field hockey. He sure looked like it. He dashed his way toward two first-half goals, and the deluge began. Argentina had a 12-1 edge in shots in the first half, and the Americans didn't manage the one until 25 seconds left before intermission.

In the second half, coach Jon Clark must have turned into the Vince Lombardi of field hockey, because the Americans came out looking like the Argentinians. They were aggressive and efficient. Most important, they kept the fat man in his chair for a reason other than poor conditioning.

The U.S. scored two goals in short order and suddenly there was no more talk of ending the game on a mercy rule. But that was all. Two goals, after the U.S. trailed, 5-0. It's like birdying the last two holes in a round of golf after you've already shanked your way to 25 over par.

``We give them goals,'' said Clark, the 32-year-old Briton, ``and then we say, `Oh, my goodness, now we can play hockey because we're not gonna win this game.' ''

I snagged Ventura's Ben Maruquin, one of the team's best players, and asked what went wrong.

``A few of the more inexperienced guys on this team are struggling with the atmosphere,'' he said, ``and to be perfectly frank, they're getting wrapped up in all this outside stuff instead of just playing hockey.''

He had essentially the same assessment as Clark: that the Americans wait until ``the pressure's off, then go for it, because things can only get better.''

``It's a reflection of this team at times that a lot of the players don't play shoulder to shoulder with the other players,'' Maruquin added. ``That's what experience gives you.''

Scott Williams of Thousand Oaks, who came into the game as a substitute in the second half, was frustrated but far less pessimistic. ``If we come out with fire and play two consistent halves,'' he said, ``we can beat anybody here.''

But trouble lies ahead. The Americans have India, Spain and Germany ahead in Pool A play. The U.S. also beat Spain in the aforementioned May tournament, but Spain spanked traditional power Pakistan, 3-0, Monday.

Spain improved since May. The Americans have yet to show they have done the same.

Of course, there's still time. As they say, it isn't over until the fat man sits down and stops annoying the guy behind him.

MEMO: Michael Ventre's column appears daily during the Olympic Games.