and Argentina will be eliminated if they can’t defeat Spain, regardless of the Australia-Egypt result
I haven’t been watching France’s games, but it seems Gignac has been scoring for fun. Is it the age/experience difference, or is he just really on form?
If Spain play like they did today that will be a tough ask. Their only fault is that they haven't scored enough goals. They really should have put 3 or 4 past us the way they dominated. We ended up effectively parking the bus, but not I think from a deliberate tactic. We really struggled to get any possession at all against them.
There's a possibility France could be eliminated even if they beat Japan and finish with 6 points. Looks like they'll need to win by 2 goals.
Good illustration of how good the 16- and 32- team formats are in soccer. In the men’s tournament, 14 of the 16 teams basically have a do-or-die game on Wednesday. Only one team eliminated (Saudi).
On the women's side, its been a great tournament so far. Now its basically a waiting game as there are dead rubbers galore tomorrow. But knockout stage is setting up to be quite intriguing
South Korea pummeled Honduras 6-0. Why are Honduras always on the receiving end of blow outs? Remember how they lost on double digits to Norway when Haaland scored eight!!! on them a few years ago. Other big news is that Germany are out. France might join the Germans. They got a tough task at hand against hosts Japan. Saudi Arabia failed once again to register any results. Their resume at the Olympics is a nightmare. Nine losses in nine games.
The round of 16 will have 3 former Olympic champions (Brazil, Mexico, and Spain) and 2 former bronze medalists (Korea and Japan). The teams from east Asia have been on a roll. Korea has 2 wins and 1 loss with 2 consecutive routs (4-0 and 6-0), although both saw the opponent lose 1 player due to a red card. Japan is the only team with 3 wins in 3 matches, with 7 goals scored and 1 allowed. The Japanese are playing well-rounded football. Could they reach the final at least? The farthest an Asian team has gone in men's football at the Olympics is bronze (Japan in 1968 and Korea in 2012). Mexico is another team to watch for - they look good as well.
Gignac is arguably the best 9 on the entire Americas continent and has the numbers to back it up. Top goal scorer for Tigres, top Club World Cup scorer, scored anywhere he goes etc…
New Zealand aren't very good. They're a team that relies solely on Chris Wood on counters. Yea I like Japan's path to medaling.. it bodes well for them compared to the other side of the bracket
I am familiar with Gignac, after all he was completely nullified by my club team in a two leg Libertadores final in 2015. If you want to learn how to tame him, just consult Jonathan Maidana My question was more along the lines of whether it was the age/experience difference allowing him to score so freely (most players in the Olympics are mediocre U-23 players, while he is an accomplished veteran), or if he was simply just having a very good tournament regardless of the opposition. In the end though I guess his tournament wasn’t that great if his team got squashed by both Japan and Mexico. I was expecting more from France with him commanding the attack, but man they got thrashed.
We'll see. All it takes is some anti-futol here, a good bounce there, maybe a penalty shootout and they are in the Medal round. I am not counting out any of these teams in a strange tournament like this.
They lost to Honduras and played very little futbol doing so. If Japan resembles anything like Korea, then yea ig they have a chance, but I think Japan is a much better finisher of their chances than Korea, so yea idk.. I guess even 0.09 percent is a chance..
In a tournament like this what happens in the Group stage really is swept aside and is meaningless to me. Just survive and advance and you have a shot to medal. Heck even from the first match to the second match to the third match we see some real Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde type of teams.
Japan are undefeated so far and have been the most consistent performers at this year's tournament. If there's one game that I can phone in, it's probably this one. But to each their own
As I said, what happens in the first round to me is over. I do favor them though. I agree. Phoning in, not so much.
I almost called it but Japan survives via the penalty shootout. Spain looking good. In the Semis too.
Semis: Japan-Spain Brazil-Mexico In any other situation I would say Spain in a route but Japan is at home so they have a chance. Mexico usually is a stone in the shoe of Brazil as Scolari put it. That match I am favoring Brazil but knowing the history it can be a coin flip.
Expecting a tough match against Brazil, but a win for Mexico. The match for the gold medal will be Mexico vs Japan.
A Mexican fan coming into this thread for the first time and predicting Mexico to play for the Gold Medal. I am shocked!