Qualifying for this tournament recently began in the CONMEBOL region. CONMEBOL has 1.5 spots plus hosts Brasil. Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile, Peru and Paraguay have been eliminated. On Saturday, Brasil play Colombia followed by Uruguay hosting Argentina. If Colombia loses or draws then: The winner of Uruguay - Argentina qualify automatically. If its a draw then Argentina qualifies automatically. The other team goes to the playoff against a CONCACAF team. If Colombia wins then: If Uruguay win, they qualify automatically and Argentina goes to the playoff. If Argentina win, they qualify automatically and Colombia goes to the playoff. If URU-ARG is a draw then Argentina qualifies automatically and the playoff is decided by goal difference between Uruguay and Colombia (in other words, Colombia has to beat Brasil by 2 goals and score 2 goals more than Uruguay scores on Saturday)
The pressure is on Brazil to win their first ever Gold medal. The 7-1 match at the WC Finals probably added more pressure!
Is the Olympics 23 and under age limit? Also who are some past greats to play in the olympic soccer tournament? I beileve Messi dominated in 2008?
The qualifying tournaments are U23, except for CONMEBOL, which is U20. At the Olympics each team has a squad of 18. 15 of them most be u23 and 3 can be overaged.
bump The 4 UEFA teams to participate at the Olympics with Brasil and Argentina will be determined in the next two days. 2 matches today: Czech Republic x Germany Denmark x Serbia Two of these 4 teams will qualify. Of course Germany in the best position. Anything other than a German loss and a Danish win will mean Germany qualifies. Meanwhile, Denmark is in the second-best position. They need at least a point and must match Czech Republic's result to qualify.
Denmark beat Serbia 2-0 to win the group, while Germany managed a draw against the Czech Rep and took the second spot ... so Denmark and Germany are ready for the Olympics
ha! yeah, Sweden qualified thanks to an 89th minute goal today to draw Portugal and eliminate Italy. But the Olympics cover the first 3 weeks of August so no-way will PSG and Madrid let those players participate and miss the start of the club season, especially since they will have played in the Euros in June-July.
Summary: HOST: Brasil UEFA: Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Portugal CONMEBOL: Argentina CONCACAF: look below CAF: look below AFC: down to 16 teams: Qatar (hosts), Australia, South Korea, North Korea, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Iran, China, UAE, Yemen, Japan, Vietnam, Iraq, Jordan, Uzbekistan CONMEBOL vs CONCACAF: Colombia vs 3rd team from CONCACAF OFC: Down to 8 teams: Fiji, Micronesia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea (hosts), Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Vanuatu ---------------------- CONCACAF: final round in October with USA, Mexico and Canada + 3 Central American teams (to be decided in August) + 2 Carribbean teams (to be decided in August, down to 4 by the end of June) CAF: 8 man qualifying tournament will be held in November - December with hosts Senegal + 7 more teams. Qualification round being played July and August (H&A): Nigeria vs Congo Algeria vs Sierra Leone Gabon vs Mali Cote d'Ivoire vs Zambia Egypt vs Uganda RSA vs Zimbabwe Morocco vs Tunisia
Sweden are the champions of the Euro U21 for the first time. Congrats to them. Could be a team to watch out for in Brazil. Especially if they bring in some good overage players.
Saw the final. I think Portugal is just as much a team to look for. Thought they were a bit unlucky to lose against Sweden. Combine this with Portugal's performances in the U20 World Cup... Portugal look to have a bright future at senior level. May even go that extra step that the famous Golden Generation couldn't quite achieve.
Very true. The British commentator even went as far as saying the best team might have finished second. I don't know if I would go that far but they are also a very good team. Add in Germany and Denmark and possibly 3 good South American squads, and Whoever comes out of Africa and this could be on paper the best Olympics Futbol tournament ever.
The OFC qualifiers are underway. Micronesia is off to a rough start. After their first 2 group-stage matches they have a minus 68 goal difference! Semifinals will take place on Friday. It's looking like Micronesia will not be part of them. I guess Tahiti and New Caledonia are not IOC members so they are not eligible. This makes it even more of a walk-in-the-park for New Zealand.
Reminds me of when I was playing FIFA on Xbox and some sore loser decided to just kick the ball into his own net for an hour. I won 61-0.
CONCACAF: final round in October with USA, Mexico and Canada + 3 Central American teams (to be decided in August) + 2 Carribbean teams (to be decided in August, down to 4 by the end of June) Carribbean teams are down to 4: Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Final game finished 46:0. Bill Nichols scored 10, while Jean Kaltack scored 16. On a side note Jean Kaltack with 17 goals is the tournament topscorer and could break the world record for most international goals scored in a year.
lol I can't even visualize such a game! How is it possible to be that bad? I mean, its not like Messi and CR7 are buzzing around the edge of the box for 90 minutes. They're playing Vanuatu!
LOL. But Jean Kaltack steal a record from Messi and CR7 (both scored 25 international goals in one calendar year)... He's on 17 and plays at least one more game (vs New Zealand). Then Kaltack plays the Oceania Champions League, where he scored 4 goals last season. All records may be non-FIFA recognised (including the 46-0 scoreline) as these are Olympic type tournament and Micronesia isn't even a FIFA confederated team.
^ Yeh, New Zealand were clearly superior but fielded an ineligible player in the semifinal. So their 2-nil win was overturned and Vanuatu played Fiji in the final.
This OFC result is probably heading to court. The player deemed ineligible, Deklan Wynne, was born in South Africa but has lived in New Zealand for at least 15 years and is a NZ citizen. He has represented NZ at full international level and recently participated in the U20 World Cup with no issues. Technically he is in breach of FIFA statute on the Eligibility to Play for Representative Teams if assuming a new Nationality (NZ from SA) He must has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association. Otherwise he should have applied to FIFA for a change of Association, despite living in NZ for 80% of his lifetime, being a NZ Citizen and never representing any other nation. So by the letter of the law, he is an ineligible player, but you think this would have come up at the U20 World Cup just played.