2020 Tokyo Olympics: Non-U.S. team and tournament news [R]

It's really early going in CONMEBOL, with not all teams having played twice yet. But so far, Brazil and Chile have, and they've both won twice. Argentina plays Chile tomorrow which could turn out to be an important one since they're in the same group as host Colombia, and both Colombia and Argentina are 1-0.

 

Indeed. Not sure how I got that wrong but I'm sure I'll get more things wrong tomorrow!

 

The Aussies are off to Tokyo

 

Argentina is 2-0 with a game tomorrow against Ecuador, which has already lost three games without scoring a goal. They're looking pretty safe to advance to the four-team final stage, from which two teams advance to the Olympics. But it seems like the rest of the group (Venezuela, Chile, Colombia) is still in play.

The other group seems slightly more open. It plays again Tuesday. Brazil seems safe to move on though I guess that's why they play the games.

 

Just two teams from Conmebol is utterly ridiculous.

 

Argentina, unsurprisingly, beat Ecuador to book advancement to the next round. Host Colombia, which beat Venezuela yesterday, plays Chile on Thursday in what will determine the other team from that group to advance. That should be a fun one.

 

Brazil won its last game and will advance. The group finishes play on Friday, and I'm too lazy to work out the tiebreakers in advance, but I can see that the only non-Brazil team with a head-to-head win over Uruguay (which is in second place and done playing) is Bolivia, which plays Peru. If a surprise is gonna happen in CONMEBOL, I guess this is where you might find it.

 

And the games start tomorrow! At present, alphabetically speaking with no games played, Argentina and Brazil are in. That may change, however.

Anybody have particular knowledge of the Romanian team that qualified out of Europe? They advanced out of a difficult (on paper) group -- though apparently 96s were eligible for the European qualifying competition, so those guys will have to go unless brought overage. And they didn't qualify for either of the four-year cycle's FIFA U20s.

 

Argentina is qualified. Brazil, Uruguay, and Colombia are all still in it for the 2nd spot on the final matchday (Sunday).

 

Feb 3
Argentina 3-2 Uruguay
Brazil 1-1 Colombia

Feb 6
Brazil 1-1 Uruguay
Argentina 2-1 Colombia

Standings
Argentina 6 (5/3) +2
Brazil 2 (2/2) 0
Uruguay 1 (3/4) -1
Colombia 1 (2/3) -1

Final round Sunday Feb 9

Colombia v Uruguay
Argentina v Brazil

Argentina has advanced.

Brazil advances with a win (over qualified Argentina), or with a draw or even (perhaps) with a high-scoring one-goal loss, if Uruguay and Colombia draw (in the early game, so Brazil will know exactly what result they need).

Uruguay advances with a win if Brazil does not win, and (perhaps) with a draw if Brazil loses (badly or by the 'right' score).

Colombia advances with a win if Brazil does not win. I don't think Colombia can advance with a draw.

I will allow Dave the pleasure of definitively determining which team advances if Brazil loses to Argentina by one goal and Uruguay and Colombia draw their game, leaving those three teams on two points and -1 GD. Uruguay currently has an important edge in goals scored, but I don't know what the tie-breakers are.

Alternatively, we can simply enjoy watching how the final two games play out ...

 

I always like to help, though to be clear I believe the definitive determination rests in the hands of CONMEBOL officials. I'm leaning toward your idea about letting them, and the teams, handle things from here.

 

Brazil beat Argentina and booked its spot.

CONCACAF is now the only confederation left to play its qualifiers.

Looking ahead a bit, qualifying teams will have to submit provisional rosters of up to 50 players, including 4 GKs. The provisional roster is binding for purposes of choosing the final 18, including 2 GKs, and up to 3 overage players. We also get to pick up to 4 alternates. I don't believe the deadlines for these have been circulated though I might've missed something.

 

Cross post, sorry. Here’s the schedule..

https://www.concacaf.com/en/olympic...ic-qualifying-championship-schedule-confirmed

 

You have seemed a bit cantankerous recently, but thanks for the information.

 

I’m in a better place at the moment... ha..

 

Here are the full FIFA tournament rules for both qualifying and the Olympics.

https://concacaf-cloudinary.corebin...d/assets/Olympic_RegulationsEN_1563953052.pdf

 

Meanwhile:

TOKYO (AP) — Organizers plan to exercise extreme caution when the Olympic torch relay starts next week, knowing any stumble could imperil the opening of the Tokyo Games in just over four months.​

https://apnews.com/article/sports-japan-coronavirus-pandemic-tokyo-30bb7e541f87ba4ac05bce2245585197

 

⚔️ The draw for the Men's #OlympicFootball Tournament has thrown up some intriguing clashes!#Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/aWBvZJw3Zq

— FIFA (@FIFAcom) April 21, 2021

Not saying it will be easy for them, but one sort of figures Honduras has to be happy to be in the one group without an obvious global superpower in it.

https://www.fifa.com/womensolympic/news/draws-set-path-to-tokyo-2020-gold#olympic-draw

Romania is maybe an interesting team though. They beat England and Croatia in their qualifying group stage, then tied France, but I'm pretty sure that last match was academic. Germany blew them out in the semis. (The knockout stage started at the semis at this particular tournament.) Anyway, that competition was a while ago.

 

Evidently Olympic rosters were expanded to 22 players, with matchday rosters staying at 18. The games start in a couple of weeks.

 

Interestingly Spain is taking five members of their Euro team, including Pedri to the Olympics. https://theathletic.com/2706817/202...-to-win-spains-first-olympic-gold-since-1992/

I didn't realize this but apparently the Spanish FA mandates that players be released for the Olympics.

 

Mexico 4-1 France highlights here. France cleared one off the goal line in the first half and France's goal, a PK, was savable.

 

The first set of matches was fairly interesting. (These are four-team groups and two advance from each.) Mexico is of course in the driver's seat and faces Japan next. Honduras lost and has some work to do in its game against South Korea, which also lost 1-0.

Meanwhile, watching the "big teams" -- Argentina lost to Australia and Spain was held by Egypt. That group might be wide open. Germany lost its opener, but it was to Brazil.

Looking ahead, from a CONCACAF angle, the top 2 teams from the Mexico and Honduras groups will tangle in the first knockout stage, so it's theoretically possible they'd play each other.