Gold medals

Olympic football is usually overshadowed by other sports and this did not appear much different this time in Tokyo, although it is surely interesting.

Canada took their first ever gold in women’s football, after taking bronze in the last two Olympic Games. They defeated Sweden after extra time and penalties, with the Swedes taking their second silver medal in a row. The world champions of the USA took bronze, which must surely have been a disappointment for the Americans.

On the men’s side there were not many surprises: the final was between the two favourites of Brazil and Spain faced one another in the final that became an intense affair, with both teams able to take the price, but the match ended 1-1 with goals by Matheus Cunha and Mikel Oyarzabal respectively. In extra time Malcom scored the winner for Brazil, giving them their second football Olympic gold in a row.

Brazil-Germany in the final

This would be a great title for anything, except for the Olympic games...
No matter what, this is what the Olympic final in football for men will be, with big expectations to Brazil to make their first Olympic gold medal in football ever.
Brazil are favourites, but Germany are good. If anyone should know how good Germans are at football it is the Brazilians, but this is an opportunity for Brazil to get a bit revenge from Germany for the defeat in the 2014 World Cup.

The best doesn't always win

One of the frustrations of football is also its beauty: that just like in life, it is not necessarily the best who wins. That is simply because football is such a varied sports that there are many ways of winning. An excellent example is Portugal's recent victory in the Euro 2016; hardly the best team, rather boring, but one cannot deny their achievement in reaching the title against teams that were better.
Every footballer knows this although it still frustrates them.
In the Olympic football tournament (for women) the defending world champions of USA were eliminated by Sweden in the quarterfinals after a 1-1 score in ordinary time, and then 4-3 on penalty kicks. This is a major setback for the USA, who had never not reached a semifinal. Sweden's victory was not pretty: they know that USA, with its amazing players, is a better side player for player (if anyone knows it should be the Swedish manager, Pia Sundhage, who four years ago coached the USA to Olympic gold). And to win against such a side they need to be defensive, disciplined, and for all that it is worth, cynical.
That is normally the way to win against better teams, as has been shown again and again. And it was that which the veteran US goalkeeper Hope Solo was sore about when she called the Swedish ladies "cowards".
Not very nice or fair-played said by Hope Solo, who was probably frustrated after the defeat.
I do think that Sweden will have it difficult in reaching the final, although of course they should not be underestimated. In the meantime it is sad to see the excellent USAmericans eliminated, but there is no doubt they will rise again from this setback.

Olympic football - women

The Olympic football tournament is only interesting because of women. Four years ago watching the men was a waste of time, but the women gave us some splendid matches, and this year we have all reasons to expect the same, if not better, after the fantastic Womens' World Cup in Canada.
Favourites are bound to be the defending Olympic and World Champions of USA, who are in group with France, Colombia and New Zealand. Among the team of USA superstars is the incredible Carli Lloyd, but also Ali Krieger, Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan.
Expect USA to make it all the way!
It is a bit disappointing that Japan, in full process of changing their team from the World Cup, did not qualify. Instead, the big challengers for gold will likely be Brazil and Germany.
Brazil is in group with China, Sweden and South Africa, where at least Sweden and China should also be considered contenders. Brazil nevertheless, captained by the legendary Marta, will be under pressure to take a gold medal home for Brazil. Other veterans, as Formiga and Cristiane.
Germany are in a  group with Canada, Australia and Zimbabwe, where Canada should be the one mostly considered favourites alongside the Germans. Germany is captained by the veteran superstar Anja Mittag, and Germany are sure to be contenders for the title.

No matter what, I would highly recommend to watch the womens' tournament rather than the mens', as I believe there will be much more entertainment, drama, and frankly, much better quality in the Women's football tournament.

Olympic football - Men

The Olympic games will be starting this week in Brazil (frankly I think the Olympic games will be great, simply because of Brazilian people, who will make it great despite all the economic and political problems in the country).
As often is the case, men's football is not highly rated, although one country in particular, Brazil, must be considered favourites and will be eager to win at home: Brazil has never won Olympic gold and after the World Cup debacle two years ago, Olympic gold will be a small consolation. Brazil is also bringing Neymar along as one of the three over-23 players allowed. Brazil will be opening against South Africa in a group that also includes Denmark and Iraq.
There are certainly other interesting sides in the 16-team tournament: Argentina, Honduras, Algeria and Portugal are in the same group. Portugal is coming with a strong team, although with no players that were part of the Euro 2016 squad. Argentina has defender Victor Cuesta as one of the over 23, but is otherwise with a team of youngsters, where their highly talented attack will be interesting to see: Angel Correa from Atletico Madrid, Cristian Espinosa from Villarreal and Cristian Pavon from Boca Juniors. Both Honduras and Algeria are with full under 23 sides.
The defending champions of Mexico are in a group with Germany, South Corea and Fiji (one of the few good things about Olympic football is that you can have countries like Fiji participating). Germany comes with another talented sides with veterans Sven and Lars Bender to provide the experience in midfield.
Finally, Sweden, Colombia, Japan and Nigeria are in another interesting group.

All in all, expectations are not great. I thought the men's tournament was particularly boring four years ago, and the most interesting to see is if any new players come about.

Viva Mexico!

Mexico fully deserved their 2-1 victory against Brazil today in the Olympic final, and seals Mexico's strength in youth football, where they are U-17 World Champions and did well in the last Copa America with a team that looked very much like the one that won gold today.
But in spite of Mexico's superiority, what will be most discussed in this final is Brazil. A silver medal may not sound bad, but when you expect to win gold, it can only be a disappointment. With a strong team, they came to London to win gold, the only international title that they have never won. And when favourites Spain and Uruguay were eliminated, it seemed the path to gold was paved for Brazil.
However, Brazil's defense has looked shaky, and this was exposed by Mexico today. Rafael, Thiago Silva and Juan played like blind chicken, and all in all, Brazil did not look harmonious nor to really believe in their gold medal. The strong argument between Rafael and Juan towards the end of the match said it all about a Brazil side with some talented individualists like Neymar, but who, when it comes down to it, play more for themselves than for the team.
Brazil's goal is to be world champion in two years, and this Olympic side was to pave the way. But like this defense and attitude, it is impossible that Brazil will win the World Cup, and it is now even worth questioning whether Mano Menezes even has a future as coach of Brazil.

But all in all, congratulations to Mexico and their fans for a wonderful performance!

Girl power

Maybe this Olympic tournament is when women's football begins to get the respect it deserves. At least it has been much more entertaining, not to say dignified, than the men's, and it was topped today by two splendid semifinals which in terms of quality, technique, skills and drama were absolutely top level.
First, the outstanding French side played against the world champions of Japan. Both sides are relatively new additions to top level women's football, which in my view has previously been hampered by women too often trying to emulate men. Not these sides however. Japan plays a patient, organised but very technically skillful style, while France plays with power as well as skill. Japan won 2-1, but France put enormous pressure on the Japanese, and even missed a penalty that would have taken the match into extra time. France's goalkeeper, who made an appalling mistake in the first half to give Japan their first goal, will not be sleeping well tonight, but France will nevertheless have a good shot at bronze medals against Canada.
Canada is also a recent newcomer to top level women's football, and in this semifinal played their mighty neighbour, the USA. The north Americans are undoubtedly one of the most watchable sides in women's football, full of style, skills and charisma, as well as an admirable fighting spirit. Today they needed all these qualities against their northern neighbours. Three times the Canadians were leading, every time on a goal by their captain Christine Sinclair, but every time the USA managed to get back into the match, which thus ended 3-3. During the extra time, after half an hour of nerves and fight, everyone thought the match would go into penalty kicks when Alex Morgan scored the winner for the USA in the last second of the match.
Surely bitter for the Canadian ladies who nevertheless were splendid, and should be thanked by all football fans!
The final will be a repeat of last year's world cup final, where Japan surprisingly defeated the USA. One thing I will I am certain of though, is that it will be a splendid match between two splendid sides of ladies who could beat most men team's in the world!
Do not miss the final!

Olympic football

Spain's youngsters might be excused for being too young to remember Honduras against Spain in 1982, when Spain, as huge favorites in the World Cup at home, lost 0-1 to the little Central American nation that most Spaniards might be excused not to be able to find on a map.
Today Spain should have been at least as big favorites as they had been in 1982 when the two sides played in the Olympic tournament. But after Spain's poor performance against Japan, it was obvious that Spain was beatable, although surely they could not lose to Honduras!
But they could.
Spain is out of the Olympic tournament, and although many may say it doesn't matter, it is surely a huge disappointment for a country used to winning everything, not only at senior level, but also at youth level.
Uruguay is one of the other pretenders for a gold medal, but have not looked strong in their opening 2-1 victory against the UAE. In their second match they were up against a Senegalese side, that although not talked much about, are surely also a team that have set their eyes on Olympic medals. And with their 2-0 victory against Uruguay Senegal have shown that they must be counted with. Uruguay have a very important match next Wednesday against the British hosts, who after defeating the UAE are looking at the quarterfinals.
Uruguay looks like another big exit to follow Spain.
Brazil on the other hand should now be the number one contenders for the gold, after their second victory of the tournament, 3-1 against Belarus. But if anything, the tournament has shown that no team can afford to underestimate their foes. This is what makes the Olympic football tournament so exciting!

Olympic upset

As the hangover from the recent Euro 2012 has passed, I have had somewhat of a football break just until today when the Olympic football tournament has started. Olympic football has often been looked down upon by European sides (unless they win themselves), but the tournament is largely admired by the rest of the world, and the youth sides, combined with three "extra" stars, are usually very strong indeed. In fact, Brazil and Uruguay are both going to the tournament with sides that will likely will be very similar to their 2014 World Cup sides, while Spain has a team of players that have all won a number of youth European championships, as well as three world champion players. So as the tournament begins, there is no doubt that Spain were favourites in their opening match against Japan. But this is also the beauty of Olympic football: usual favouritism counts for little, and in this match Japan was truly much better than Spain. Their 1-0 victory was too small against a Spanish side with a very weak defense and no attacking prowess. Passing the ball around (and in generally poorly) they simply did not create any chances, and they are not looking like a gold-winning team at all. Spain may still rise in their coming matches against Morocco and Honduras, but they must improve if Spain is not to be among the best, as they have otherwise been ever time over the last years.

Pelé versus Obama

Last week Rio de Janeiro was awarded the hosting of the 2016 Olympic Games in a close contest with Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago. All countries had brought leaders and celebrities to Copenhagen to promote their bids. The US President Barack Obama even came to promote Chicago, that nevertheless, to many people's surprise, were the first to be eliminated.
Prior to the decision, Pelé had said about the presence of the US president: "If they have Obama, we have Pelé."
Of course!!!! I would much rather meet Pelé (although I would probably not vote for him): Pelé is a King, a Legend, a living Star!!! In comparison to that, Obama is just another mediocre salesman.
I am personally delighted Pelé and Rio de Janeiro won.

Gold for Argentina

The Olympic final between Argentina and Nigeria was not an entertaining match: in fact, it was one of the worse matches Argentina played in this tournament, and while Nigeria was tactically sound, and managed to control the deadly Argentinean strikers, the heat in the stadium in Beijing seemed overwhelming for both teams.
Nevertheless, Argentina wins gold for the second time in a row (on a fine goal by the Benfica player Angel Di Maria) and emerge as one of the favourites in the coming World Cup.
I have never hidden my outright preference for Argentina, and I am of course delighted! I have to thank the Nigerians for a great tournament, and must add that the three best teams got the medals in the Olypic games of Beijing:

Gold: Argentina
Silver: Nigeria
Bronze: Brazil

Congratulations and thank you to these teams!

Gold for the USA

In truth in football it is not always the best team that wins. And I mean "best" in the sense that it is not the team that plays the nicest football, that creates the most chances, that attacks the most, that plays the most entertaining.
This was exactly what happened in the Olympic women's final between Brazil and the USA. I think the USA did not have a shot on target until the 85th minute, while the Brazilians were constantly in possession and attacking.
Here though, I must also say another truth in football: the more clever defeats the more naive. One must respect the discipline and defensive tactics which did that the Brazilian ladies, in spite of overwhelming superiority in possession, never really got a great chance. The North American ladies thus fully deserved the gold ahead of the naive (and unlucky in the end!) Brazilians.

So congratulations to the USA for their gold medal!

That said, there is a deeper problem here for the sake of women's football.
I have before said that I do not find women's football too exciting: it is too mechanical and with too little flair. The Brazilian ladies have been the first to add flair to women's football, thus making it more entertaining to watch. But if teams that play like the USA did today continue winning, women's football will always be too boring to watch! With all due respect for the tactical prowess of their victory, it is more exciting to watch someone count grains of sand than to watch someone play like the US ladies did today!

Argentina in the Olympic final

I do not think that the game was played harshly: in fact, I feel that the Brazilian red cards were way too harsh! Nevertheless, the Argentinean victory was fully deserved in this semifinal between Argentina and Brazil which should have been the final.

3-0 for Argentina on two goals by Kun Agüero and one penalty by Juán Román Riquelme, and they are now ready to face Nigeria in a repeat of the Atlanta 1996 Olympic final, where the Nigerians ran away with a not entirely deserved victory.
But thank you to the wonderful Brazilians; I hope they win the bronze medal against the poor Belgians, and well... GO ARGENTINA!

Goodbye and thanks for nothing

Cameroun and Italy, in the first round of this Olympic tournament, played some of the most boring football ever, and now, both teams are out, in the quarterfinals: farewell to both, and thanks for nothing.

I did not see Italy lose 2-3 to Belgium, but I am happy they did: every time Italy is out in football it is a reason to be happy!

What I did see though, was Brazil's extra time 2-0 victory against a Cameroonian team who did not seem to have gone to China to kick a ball, but rather to kick the men. This should not surprise about Cameroun though: they have always played physically, bordering on the outright violent, and are one of the teams ever with most cards in the world cups. And today they lived up to their style: destructive and boring football, nothing to do with that so-called "Olympic spirit".
While Brazil was not impressive, very slow and lacked fighting, they did the whole world a favour by eliminating Cameroun. And I hope Cameroun doesn't come back to the Olympics.

Olympic quarterfinals

The first round of the Olympic football tournament is over without major surprises: Brazil and Argentina have lived up to their aspirations with three straight wins each, and are ready to the quarterfinals. It has not been amazing though: Brazil seems to have eased their way through Belgium, New Zealand and China, while Argentina had to fight a bit more against Ivory Coast and Serbia, but looking awfully strong nevertheless.
The three European teams in the quarterfinals, Belgium, Netherlands and Italy, have been efficient, but an absolute bore of the kind that makes one want to watch paint dry rather than them. In their last match, Italy and Cameroun played for the 0-0 draw that would take them both through in some of the worse football ever seen.
Not really Olympic spirit there.
Finally, besides Cameroun, we have two other African teams in the quarterfinals, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, who will in fact each other in an all-African quarterfinal.
As it is now, the four quarterfinals on Saturday are as follows:

• Argentina-Netherlands
• Ivory Coast-Nigeria
• Brazil-Cameroun
• Italy-Belgium

I make no discrestion that I want an Argentina-Brazil final: it would be best for the Olympics and for football fans in general.

PS...

On a completely different note, I am missing some countries from the Olympics: Western Sahara, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar and Tibet.

Cheers to them, because they belong in the Olympics!

2008 Olympics

The football tournament has started and today I watched my first match: Brazil destroyed New Zealand 5-0, and one could really see the different levels! Brazil was sooooo superior to New Zealand that it was almost sad! And Ronaldinho played excellently, although the background was a poor New Zealand side.
I guess that is one of the down-sides of the Olympics, even more than world cups (where it nevertheless happens as well): too many teams of a very low level...
So until now, the predictions are holding: Brazil and Argentina (with an incredible Messi) have won both their games until now.

On a different note, I also watched a woman's game: the USA defeated Japan. I don't have much positive to say; the game was a bore, and the atmosphere was irritated by continued high-pitch screams throughout the match....

I need a life.

Olympic football

The Olympic games in Berlin are about to start, and football is one of the sports where the country's will be competing.
The history of olympic football has always been rather awkward, and still today, the position of olympic history is very strange: something in between a semi-youth tournament supplemented with some star players.
For the first Olympic games, when there was no world cup, the Olympics were considered like the world cup, dominated by Europeans. This was just until unknown Uruguay in 1924 blew all Europeans away, and the groundwork was laid for the first world cup in 1930 in Uruguay. Then, for many years, olympic football became the ground of amateurs, dominated by Eastern Europeans, who had "state amateurs".
In general, it was a bore, and no competition with the World Cup: one can also see this in relation to countries that were the best in the world, were not to be seen in the Olympics: Brazil, England, West Germany, Argentina... (with only possible exception of some Eastern European countries).
Over the last years this has started to change, and the allowing of new players has made the tournament a bit more interesting, although some participating nations still only show off with a secondary youth team.
The great exceptions for these Olympics in Beijing are Brazil and Argentina. Argentina are defending champions from 2004, and Brazil is keen on winning its first gold ever in football. They therefore have shown up with very strong teams, and are by far the favourites to win the whole thing.
Nevertheles, because olympic football is such a bore, one doesn't know what may happen. However, I may add that it is not really worth bothering with games in the first rounds, until the semi-finals, unless you are from one of the countries playing.

Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1900 Paris	Great Britain	France	Belgium
1904 St. Loius	Canada	United States
1908 London	Great Britain	Denmark	Netherlands
1912 Stockholm	Great Britain	Denmark	Netherlands
1920 Antwerpen	Belgium	Spain	Netherlands
1924 Paris	Uruguay	Switzerland	Sweden
1928 Amsterdam	Uruguay	Argentina	Italy
1936 Berlin	Italy	Austria	Norway
1948 London	Sweden	Yugoslavia	Denmark
1952 Helsinki	Hungary	Yugoslavia	Sweden
1956 Melbourne	USSR	Yugoslavia	Bulgaria
1960 Rome	Yugoslavia	Denmark	Hungary
1964 Tokyo	Hungary	Czechoslovakia	East Germany
1968 Mexico City	Hungary	Bulgaria	Japan
1972 Munich	Poland	Hungary	USSR
1976 Montreal	East Germany	Poland	USSR
1980 Moscow	Czechoslovakia	East Germany	USSR
1984 Los Angeles	France	Brazil	Yugoslavia
1988 Seoul	USSR	Brazil	West Germany
1992 Barcelona	Spain	Poland	Ghana
1996 Atlanta	Nigeria	Argentina	Brazil
2000 Sydney	Cameroun	Spain	Chile
2004 Athens	Argentina	Paraguay	Italy
2008 Beijing

Argentina King of the Olympics!

The Argentine victory against Paraguay in the Olympic final was expected. Although a boring game against a brutal Paraguayan side, Argentina crowned an awesome tournament with their first ever football gold medal in the Olympics.
Later the same day, and much more surprising, Argentina won the gold medals in basketball defeating Italy 84-69. This came after the great Argentinians had defeated the USA in the semifinal!
In the Olympics, there seems to be a strange focus on the amount of medals won by a country. People get overly happy about winning a medal in a sport nobody has ever heard about...
I would rather win these two gold medals than all other together. Who cares about all other sports? Basketball and football are the two greatest sports in the world, and in my humble view Argentina has swept up as the greatest nation in these Olympics!

Paraguay-Iraq

Sensationally, Iraq has reached the semifinals of the Olympics. They will face a very strong Paraguayan side for one spot in a final.
I have little knowledge of Iraqi football, besides the many stories about the dominance of Mr. Hussein's son in the football association.
Notwithstanding the for me pretty irrelevant political-historical context, I do know that in Mexico 1986, Iraq participated in their only World Cup ever. Back then, they were paired with a group with hosts Mexico, Belgium and Paraguay. They lost every game.
So, meeting Paraguay is not a first for the Iraqi's. In 1986, Paraguay won 1-0, on a goal by the great Paraguayan player Julio Cesar Romero - a.k.a. "Romerito".
Although I haven't seen any of Iraq's matches, I assume that their strength should be a good fight and spirit. However, I think that like in 1986, Paraguay will have the edge, and win a close fight. This doesn't take away that it is great for Iraqi football to be back on the World stage, where they belong.