Jump to content
IGNORED

The Olympic football tournament


Guest Nikica

Recommended Posts

Guest Nikica

Anyone interested in watching this after the Euros?

 

The draw is tomorrow - Senegal are currently beating Oman in a play-off in Coventry to decide the final qualifier. They might take Ba and Cisse as over-age players should they win...

 

The seeds are GB in Group A, Mexico in B, Brazil in C, and Spain in D. Apparently two group D games are being played at Hampden in July, so I'd love to see Spain's youth team again, they were immense in Denmark last summer. I saw the full team at Hampden when they beat us there in Euros qualifying so I'd like to go again.

 

Will you be supporting Team GB? That's a political question. Personally, I won't be, but everyone has a different view.

Edited by Nikica
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Will you be supporting Team GB? That's a political question. Personally, I won't be, but everyone has a different view.

 

Probably will be....but it depends a little on who's picked...sprinkling of Evertonians always keeps me more interested than otherwise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Nikica

Probably will be....but it depends a little on who's picked...sprinkling of Evertonians always keeps me more interested than otherwise.

 

Yep, fair doos mate, I can understand that.

 

Senegal won 2-0. The draw will be good tomorrow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am looking forward to it, Team GB are playing Brazil in a friendly before the tournament at the Riverside, date to be confirmed.

 

The FA have said that anyone picked for Euro 2012 will not be picked for Olympics.

 

I'd like to see Rooney play at the Olympics (he's banned for 2 games at the Euros anyway), perhaps with Scholes and someone like Paul Robinson.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can bet your bottom dollar those game bans will be overturned before start of tourney this summer. dry.png

 

Not too interested in this Olympic tournament, it doesn't get the pulse racing or anything, but good luck to those involved anyway.

 

must agree i ain't too arsed about it either...would be nice to see some of great britain's young talent on show and hopefully a couple everton boys in there but beyond that i couldn't give a monkeys

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can bet your bottom dollar those game bans will be overturned before start of tourney this summer. dry.png

 

Why? UEFA favouring England?

 

It's already been through appeal...I'll happily relieve you of you bottom dollar (or as much as you like) if you to want to make the bet officialsmile.png .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Nikica

Yep, the Rooney ban will not be changed.

 

These tournaments are worth watching though, particularly with it being in this country. There are always some unearthed gems in these things (Angel Di Maria made the leap from promising young player to recognised star in 2008, and Lionel Messi had a fantastic tournament, then the next season Barcelona went on to win the treble and he hasn't looked back).

 

Not that I am suggesting that the Olympics was the beginning of his rise, as that would be preposterous as he was always destined to be the best player in the world, but you get my point.

 

This year, we will be able to see a lot of promising youngsters. Shinji Kagawa is still young enough to play for Japan, and then there's the likes of Abel Hernandez and Nicolas Lodeiro for Uruguay. Uruguay will take the tournament very seriously, and have said they will take three of their top four over-age players: Forlan, Suarez, Cavani and Lugano. Then there's the likes of Neymar and Ganso for Brazil, Shaqiri for Switzerland, and a myriad of promising young Spanish players.

 

The Olympic football tournament does have a great history, and it pre-dates the World Cup. Brazil has never won the gold medal, and apparently it's become an obsession over there, so it is worth watching. However, I can understand why people are underwhelmed, what with it being mainly under-23 squads.

 

The draw for the group stage (men and women) is at 11 am on BBC2 if anyone wants to watch it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Nikica

I f*cking love Abel Hernandez...always always buy him on FIFA for Everton. I've mentioned all this is the non-linked players thread (sorry to bore (again))

 

I will admit I have seen more of Lodeiro than Hernandez, but he seems to be highly regarded by some South American football writers, and that's good enough for me. Of course, he's very young and who knows how his career will turn out (like any promising youngster), but he certainly has potential.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Garth Crooks on the BBC earlier annoyed me, I can see why people mock him - he's just an airhead.

 

Mark Chapman did no better, he introduced an Women's England player as 'experienced' (93 caps) and then felt it necessary to clarify he didn't mean it sexually. Great Britain was referred to as England numerous times and Gary Lineker's jokes fell way short and Sebastien Coe bumbled along, if he was a horse he'd have been shot. It was car crash tv. The draw itself was stretched out and for some reason needed 5 people to make it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Group A:Great Britain, Senegal, Uruguay, UAE.

Group B:Mexico, South Korea, Gabon, Switzerland

Group C: Brazil, Belarus, New Zealand, Egypt

Group D:Spain, Honduras, Japan, Morocco

 

I'm guessing that the Olympics will take the format of 'Top 2' going through so here are my predictions for the tournement;

 

A - Uraguay & GB

B - Mexico & Switzerland

C - Brazil & Egypt

D - Spain & Japan

 

I can see us doing alright in this tournement actually. With Uraguay going into it with full strength they could be a problem but I'm sure we are good enough to beat both the UAE and Senegal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Nikica

I'm guessing that the Olympics will take the format of 'Top 2' going through so here are my predictions for the tournement;

 

A - Uraguay & GB

B - Mexico & Switzerland

C - Brazil & Egypt

D - Spain & Japan

 

I can see us doing alright in this tournement actually. With Uraguay going into it with full strength they could be a problem but I'm sure we are good enough to beat both the UAE and Senegal.

 

Agree with those predictions, interesting draw.

 

The banana skins which I see for GB are Senegal's potential overage players and the fact that UAE are an unknown quantity (fortunately for GB they play the latter at Wembley I believe, which should make the game easier in theory). If Senegal take Cisse and Ba, then there's the advantage of two physical and experienced strikers going up against a young GB defence. However, I still think Uruguay and GB will qualify.

 

Spain v Japan and Honduras Morocco look like two great games on the same day at Hampden.

Edited by Nikica
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Nikica

Sorry about the multiple posts there, the site went weird when I submitted my reply and I don't see an option to delete posts.

Edited by Nikica
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not overly interested s it isn't a true British team really. Scottish and Welsh FA's are not keen on joining up with England in case they loe their independance.

 

Load of bull. We still have the six nations in Rugby and we also have a British Lions for test matches. When the other nations are as interested in an Olympic squad as the English FA are then perhaps I may get a bit more interested.

 

(I know a few players are interested but they have not got the approval of their respective FA's)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Nikica

The Welsh FA boss told of how an Caribbean and African FA tried to pass a resolution to have Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland merged with the English team but did not gain enough support to take it to the executive committee.

 

Yeah, this is the worry - that the individual FAs will not be able to retain autonomy. You have to ask if it's really worth jeopardising that tradition for a two week tournament? You can certainly understand why Scotland, Wales and N Ireland don't want their players to play.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...