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Olympic Soccrer Thread

jeffbear

jeffbear

Mod Squad
Staff member
The Rio tournaments for men and women kick off on Wed August 3 ... here's a thread for collecting observations

Men's Groups

A
Brazil
South Africa
Iraq
Denmark

B
Sweden
Colombia
Nigeria
Japan

C
Fiji
South Korea
Mexico
Germany

D
Honduras
Portugal
Argentina
Algeria

Look closely and you'll notice FOUR teams from Asia/Middle East and the Pacific islands for reasons known only to FIFA. The US of course, got knocked out fighting Colombia for the third slot that was split between COMNEBOL and CONCACAF. The fact that those confederations only got 2.5 slots ... once again for reasons known only to FIFA. Argentina of course, are playing without a proper federation and are operating under direct FIFA control ... for reasons known only to FIFA. Remember that the men's side is basically an under-23 event with two overage exceptions.

You know what? This crap is so bloody corrupt that it's hard to even care. I think I might just give the men's side a complete pass until the medal rounds.

Women's Groups

E
Brazil
China
Sweden
South Africa

F
Canada
Australia
Zimbabwe
Germany

G
US
France
Colombia
New Zealand

The US, France, Germany and Brazil are the betting favorites and the US side is almost stupidly strong in all phases despite the retirements of Abby Wambach and Lauren Holiday and the pregnancy leaves of Sydney Leroux and Amy Rodriguez. Megan Rapinoe barely recovered from knee surgery in time to make the roster, and all but certainly will be used off the bench. But with a healthy, in form Alex Morgan leading the line and speedsters Crystal Dunn and Mallory Pugh ripping up the wings they actually look better without Pino. They have been absolutely bombing their way through their friendly schedule. Look for more of the same.
 
On the men's side, the top 2 teams in each group advance to the quarterfinals, 1A v. 2B, 1C v. 2D, 1B v. 2A, 1D v. 2C

On the women's side, the top 2 teams in each group advance to the quarterfinals, as do the 2 best 3rd place teams. The 3rd place teams are determined by points, with tiebreakers being goal differential, goals scored and then drawing by lots by the FIFA committee. The quarterfinals are organized as 1E v. 3FG, 1G v. 3EF, 1F v. 2G, 2E v. 2F. In that scenario, the US would play Brazil in the semifinals in Maracaña if both with their groups and win their quarterfinal.

In the group stage, the US plays New Zealand today and France on Saturday, both in Belo Horizonte. Then the US and Columbia drew the short straw and have to schlep all the way out to Manaus for their match while France and New Zealand play relatively close in Salvador. If the US wins the group, their quarterfinal is in Brasilia.
 
Even having that venue is Manaus is stupid. Requiring teams to travel up there to actually play is even dumber.
 
If you check out Google Maps or Earth, it's astounding. You can ferry the Amazon then drive 400 miles to the south just to connect to roads going to the rest of Brazil. Or drive 500+ miles to the north to get to Venezuela or Guyana. It's frigging remote.
 
HNIM said:
If you check out Google Maps or Earth, it's astounding. You can ferry the Amazon then drive 400 miles to the south just to connect to roads going to the rest of Brazil. Or drive 500+ miles to the north to get to Venezuela or Guyana. It's frigging remote.
Click to expand...

It was built for the 2014 World Cup and the US men's team had to play out there too, against Portugal. On the women's side, there are 2 matches in Manaus; US v. Columbia and South Africa v. Brazil. On the men's side, Group B is based there and the first 2 group games for each team are there. Then they move on to Salvador.
 
andyt said:
It was built for the 2014 World Cup and the US men's team had to play out there too, against Portugal. On the women's side, there are 2 matches in Manaus; US v. Columbia and South Africa v. Brazil. On the men's side, Group B is based there and the first 2 group games for each team are there. Then they move on to Salvador.
Click to expand...

And the only use between the World Cup and now? Yup. 4th division matches that draw 1,500 people and a couple of evangelical rallies.

See my previous comment. There was absolutely no reason to ever build that thing and even less reason to force people to actually go play in the middle of the freaking Amazonian rain forest. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Thanks FIFA ... you corrupt idiots.

Oh ... on the upside if you ever take a wild hair and want to fly commercial to pretty much anywhere in the 3rd World, the Doha airport in Qatar is one of the nicest airports on earth ... thanks to FIFA allowing the Qataris to outright purchase a World Cup ... and Qatar Airlines is absolutely top shelf. First thing they did was massively upgrade the airport including a ridiculous display of public art and absolutely top shelf restaurants and shopping. Oh, and when you land there at 5:30 AM local time after your long flight from the US ... yeah, it's 104 degrees.
 
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Look ... I know I pretty much swore off the men's tournament, but ... dang it ... it only took one evening to get me hooked back in. Nigeria/Japan ... so free flowing, so very fun to watch. I forgot that, as annoying as age group soccer can be, this is Under 23s ... not the normal Under 19 nonsense. These guys are old enough to have serious skills and young enough not to have had the joy beaten out of them by expectations and iron fist coaching.
 
jeffbear said:
Look ... I know I pretty much swore off the men's tournament, but ... dang it ... it only took one evening to get me hooked back in. Nigeria/Japan ... so free flowing, so very fun to watch. I forgot that, as annoying as age group soccer can be, this is Under 23s ... not the normal Under 19 nonsense. These guys are old enough to have serious skills and young enough not to have had the joy beaten out of them by expectations and iron fist coaching.
Click to expand...

And Nigeria walked into the stadium with only a few hours to spare, after being stuck in the US in transit.
 
The ladies wrapped up Group play Tuesday. The US slogged to an iffy looking 2-2 draw with Colombia but managed to win their group anyway. The US did manage to at least partially rest some starters and probably would have won without a Hope solo howler in the 1st half. Colombia's other marker was a screaming late free kick by Usme through chaos in front. Those happen. Canada and Brazil won the other two groups, and the Canadians managed to be the only side to go 3-0 with impressive wins over Germany and Australia. Here's the brackets for the quarter finals ...

US/Sweden
Brazil/Australia

Canada/France
China/Germany

Tough draw for Canada considering their record. They get IMO the best 2 seed in France. For my money, pick between the US, Brazil and the Canada/France winner. Nobody else has done anything compelling.

The Men wrap up groups today. Thus far the story is the TWO nil-nil draws thrown out by Brazil. They have been absolutely dire in front of net. On the other hand, Nigeria and Portugal have been fizzing along.
 
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Brazil finally scored then the floodgates opened in the second half against the Danes, who moved on anyway thanks to the draw between South Africa and Iraq. Brazil looked like Brazil are supposed to look in that match - hope the senior men were paying attention.
 
Here's the brackets for the Men's Quarters

Brazil
Colombia

So. Korea
Honduras
________________

Nigeria
Denmark

Portugal
Germany

There were no undefeated teams through group play and this tournament has been a fair amount more scrappy than a lot of people expected. Brazil took forever to get going and I seriously doubt anyone thinks they're in the clear now. The pressure has just squashed that team. Hopefully they ride the wave from the last match and get going but I certainly wouldn't bet the farm. Nigeria has looked really good to me at times, as has Portugal. But everybody has holes and no lead has been safe. Other than in Brazil's group A, the goals have been flying in thick and fast. I think this thing is absolutely wide open. I'm calling a Portugal/Brazil final but really not much would surprise me aside from the dire Denmark attack getting them to the final.

The disappointments had to be Mexico and Argentina, albeit an Argentina in federation crisis mode. Still, with their attacking talent they HAD to figure on getting out of groups at a minimum and they bumbled along to go a meek 1-1-1 with their only win over an Algerian side that couldn't break glass. Mexico? Other than bombing Fiji like everybody else, they were just a hot mess. Again, there's just too much talent there to be going 1-1-1 with your only win over by far the worst team in the tournament.
 
If the South Koreans medal, they get out of compulsory military service. Talk about an incentive...
 
USWNT bomb out in the Quarters to Sweden in PKs. They just never got it out of 2nd gear in this tourney for whatever reason.
 
Results through the weekend turn ...

Men
Nigeria 2 Denmark 0
Germany 4 Portugal 0

Brazil 2 Colombia 0
Honduras 1 So Korea 0

So much for the teams that actually looked good in group play. South Korea and Portugal flamed out bigtime, and against teams that had been ho hum at best. That Brazil game ... looked like it was a good thing there was a weapons check before entering the stadium. Talk about aggro.

Women
Sweden over the US in PKs
Brazil over Australia in PKs

Germany 1 China 0
Canada 1 France 0

Sweden and Brazil won't have much in the tank physically or emotionally and that Semi could be a real mess. The other two were both technical beauties. With the short subs benches, I give the edge to the Germany/Canada winner barring any critical injuries. And I'm rooting for Canada.
 
Look ... I'm done with Rio. My interest level just waned to lethargy levels.

Neymar scored 15 seconds in and Brazil are through to the finals to face a German team that honestly played like they didn't care in groups. Go figure.

Sweden's women did the same trick to Brazil that they did to the US ... defensive brilliance followed by a win in PKs.
 
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