MEN'S Olympic Soccer: ALL Games, ALL Spoilers

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Napoleon

2,500+ Posts
I wanted to start a thread that talks about all of the (men's) games in the tournament. And I wanted to be able to talk about finals right after the games finished, not at 11pm (or later) Argentina time.Scores will follow in the coming hours, days, weeks:GROUP A:

Round 1: July 7th
Australia 1 - 1 Serbia
Ivory Coast 1 - 2 Argentina


GROUP B:

Round 1: July 7th
USA 1 - 0 Japan
Netherlands 0 - 0 Nigeria


GROUP C:

Round 1: July 7th
Brazil 1 - 0 Belgium
China 1 - 1 New Zealand


GROUP D:

Round 1: July 7th
Honduras 0 - 3 Italy
South Korea 1 - 1 Cameroon

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For starters, I want to say
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!!!

We beat the ever-living-**** out of Japan... 1-0.

But that's the same score that Brazil won by against a Belgian team that finished with 9 players (after a horrible call on the second yellow->red card that saw Belgium go down to 9). I wonder if poor officiating will be the norm in this tournament.

Things I LOVE about living in Argentina during the Olympics:

1) I love that one of the guys in the office where I teach was watching the Argentina vs. Ivory Coast game on his computer so I could check the score in between students.

2) I love that I found out the final of the Argentina game, walked out the door, walked across the street and on the corner, in front of a store that sells TVs, there wa a crowd of 5 guys watching the highlights. (I was just in time to see all of the goals.)

The crowd grew from 5 to 7 to 8, then 9 or so before the highlights were finished and everyone could go on their way.
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3) I love that the 70-something year old lady in front of me at the grocery store asked why the streets were empty. The 20-something girl at the register explains that "the game" was on. ("el partido"... nada mas)

The old lady then wants to know who won and of course the check-out girl knows the final score!
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No one was asking about gymnastics, no one gives a **** about track & field or swimming. They'll probably take notice of basketball and maybe volleyball, but SOCCER! Men's Soccer is #1!! And everyone else is fighting for scraps.

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Pretty much the entire damn Olympics is on TV now, on the various NBC-related channels. There's even a dedicated Olympics soccer channel if you get satellite.
 
And the first American to score in the 2008 World Cup was...




Giuseppe Rossi (PK '45) for Italy.




The first Scottish player to score a goal in the 2008 Olympics...






Stuart Holden ('47)... for the United States.

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The age limit is 23; only 3 players over that age can compete for any team. FIFA doesn't want the Olympics to compete with the World Cup for status.
 
I like the Under 23 rule, it gives these young players a chance to compete in a major international tournament and the older players a chance to rest. I know there are U23 tournaments but they are no where near as high profile as the Olympics even though the Olympics is a minor tournament in the football world.
 
Really looked terrible right up through the goal, but they seemed to pick it up after that. McBride is a big bag of nothing right now. Still, I feel good going into the second half. I think we get a goal, but we'll see if we can keep them off the board as well.
 
What is the fascination Nowak has with putting Adu up top?

I never see his skills put to best use when he is put up there. Adu looks his best when he is put in the midfield and CF spot.....Which was done about the 25th minute into the game as he went out to the RM and Stewie moved in as the USA switched to a 4-5-1....Something Balboa and all his infinite soccer knowledge failed to notice or at least comment on. Another thing Balboa kept saying was that we lacked patience....If you ask me we were too patient in the early stages of the game.

Lastly...Edu has done a great job filling at CB but the goal he allowed had nothing to do with that position....He completely failed to find Babel on the service and then proceeded to somehow be behind Babel on the rebound.

Things looked better as the half wore on...Let's hope we can keep it up and get a couple goals.

USA!
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WOW that sucked. So much. Ugh. No Adu, no Bradley for the next game.

Maybe eventually teams will learn that you get scored on more frequently when you just boom the ball away every time you touch it. I would think both teams would take that lesson away from this game. Damn it.
 
F given to the USA for the last 10 minutes. Why on earth do you just keep knocking the ball down to the opponent? What has happened to taking the ball down to the corner and fighting off and hoping they kick it out?

Also...F to Bradley for being perhaps the biggest dumbass in the world at the end.
 
Wasn't Bradley. It was Holden. Unless you're correctly getting onto him for jumping on that set piece. THAT was stupid. If the lead guy is shooting, you jump. Having the ball laid off means that you're going to get a hard (no bend) shot 98% of the time. Therefore, as soon as that ball was touched, the wall should have sat flat-footed as anything struck above waist high - as it passes the wall - is going over anyway.

I don't blame him (Bradley) for the yellow. He was wasting time and ensuring that he missed the next game - which, at the time - was not an important one. As foul-prone as he is, it would have been better for him to miss the next game than one further down the road. Of course, it kind of back-fired.

I actually blame Novak for some of this. There is no reason McBride should have been on the field in the last 15 minutes. Nowak still had a sub. He should have subbed a defensive player in, say, the 85th minute. He could have wasted a minute AND had a more defensive game plan for the end. Stupid IMO.

I also don't like seeing Altidore on the bench for the majority of the first two games. The first two teams we have played have laid off of McBride knowing full well he's not going anywhere. McBride is only successful with service. He's not getting it. McBride is almost killing the attack in the role he's been put in. If a team has to face a combo of Adu, Altidore, Kljstan, Rogers and Holden --- that's pretty tough. With McBride, they're laying off and keeping the wings in front of our quicker players.

I guess we'll see what happens next game. If I'm not mistaken, we only need a tie. I think we have an advantage over Nigeria on goals scored. By my math, all three teams have 4 points and are tied on goal differential. Currently, the US sits on top as we've scored 3 goals and Nigeria and The Netherlands have 2 goals. Therefore, regardless of what happens to The Netherlands, any win or tie would put us through over Nigeria.

Napoleon probably knows more about the above scenario than I do so I'll let him jump in here if I'm wrong. I think in the above scenario, we would also advance assuming The Netherlands loses and we don't get our *** beat. In other words, a 1-0 victory by Japan and a 1-0 loss by us would put us over Holland.
 
Knoxville...The Dutch have 2 points while the USA and Nigeria have 4 points a piece....Although for the most part the scenario still holds true as if the Dutch lose we move on or if we tie/win we move on. The main difference is that we can also hope Japan ties the Dutch.

I have to think with Adu and Bradley out you will see Jozy and Feilhaber move into the starting lineup. Someone mentioned Nigeria will be missing people...I'm wondering who those players will be.
 
I just woke up. Missed the game. I actually woke up at halftime, but the local feed was showing powerlifting. (Not really interested, so I went back to sleep.
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I just got a call to go to the Boca season opener, so I can't ***** more than to say-

1) If we had stopped that ball, we would be in the quarters.
2) I still think that McBride is ******* our team from the comments above.
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3) If Japan ties or better, we advance.
4) If we tie or better, we advance.
5) I'm glad we'll be missing Bradley. He ALWAYS pisses me off when he plays for the US.
6) If we had Heath Pearce, we would have Orozco in the middle and Edu could play CM like he normally does. (McBride continues to **** us.)
7) Most of the Boca fans who go to the game are scum and I may be switching my allegiance to River this year, but a last minute invite, is a last minute invite. (We'll see if I see an unconscious security guard lying in the street, bleeding from his head, while another person is fanning him with a t-shirt... like the last Boca game I went to.
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8) Brazil looks like they are clicking. (I still think that since his surgery was unsuccessful, Kaka should have gone ahead and played with the Brazilian women.
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If we make it to the Quarters, maybe I'll actually get to see the games.
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Chau chicos, necesito ir ahora.

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Hey now, River is where a fan was stabbed last year. I felt, well, mostly safe at the Bombonera. I also had a very fine steak sandwich before the game for about 2 dollars, so that helped too.
 
I with you about being pissed. I've calmed way down about sports in the past few years, but this one set me off. I was slamming things against the floor, screaming...it was ugly.
 
After talking to the girlfriend, I need to edit my last comment. It was actually two separate stabbings at River games last year.
 
There was ONE death of a head of one of the "River Plate Fan Clubs". And one stabbing of a security guard (I think).

The "Fan Clubs" are really gangs that buy up all of the cheap tickets and then scalp them for 3 to 5 times the amount. The different gangs hate each other because it's like dealing drugs. It's all about turf and money. So one guy, who was in his late 20s to early 30s got killed in front of his home.

The stabbing was strange. But no one ever says "Cuidado! Cuidado! When you go to a River Game." You can leave and walk through the neighborhood like I did after the Argentina vs. Ecuador qualifier. (I've heard several stories of people being mugged in La Boca one street off of a main street.)

Again today there were riot police all over, but not anywhere near were group after group of local scumballs would just cut through 20 to 30 meters of the line at a time like they were entitled.
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But today I sat in the 3rd row (one level ABOVE "El 12"... the 12th Man!!!... and they don't give props to the ags) and had many foreigners around me. The Americans behind me paid AR$240 (US$80) to be picked up by taxi, taken to a bus, and then escorted in and out of the game. The face value of the tickets is around AR$30 (or US$10). Mine were free.
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I wish Maurice Edu's father were the coach of the USMNT because Maurice would be the first choice in the USMNT games and for the US Olympic team as well. And HEATH PEARCE would be on the Olympic team and Bradley would be on the BENCH!!!!

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I'll admit, the River stadium is in a much better part of town. Still, for as shady as Boca is, I never felt unsafe walking to and from the game from the main street down there. That probably would have changed if I'd seen a bleeding security guard...
 
Well, my wife had to rush in from the kitchen and rescue my 20 month-old from my tantrum at the end. I've calmed down as well watching sports; however, one thing I can't take is losing to an inferior team (Kansas State last year) or choking at the end because of something stupid (this morning).

I read somewhere that Nigeria lost two defenders to red cards today so that may help.
 
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