USA already won too many Olympics... Time for a new script! Hollywood's ones are annoying and repetitive! I can totally see USA being out of the medals, if they happen to meet Japan in the quarter finals...
i hope i won't be accused of being viscerally anti-american (that would be difficult, as my guts would then be hating themselves), but i see a truth here that's perhaps unintentional. at the start of a big tournament, there are teams that have big reputations, and from whom much is expected. think of france in 2002! but football matches aren't won by reputations; they aren't even won wholly on talent (denmark, greece...). focus, desire, psychology and just blind luck all play a big part. the final against japan, the magic jack brouhaha, dancing with the stars, the algarve cup... you can say none of that has any bearing on this tournament and you're right. but all could be signs of something underlying that is tremendously important. just how much does the USWNT really care about another gold medal this summer? certainly they care to an extent; and they'll obviously say that it's all they care about. but will they care more than france, sweden, GB or japan? because that is the crucial question, and the answer couldn't be less certain.
Ohhhh K, now your thoughts on DPR Korea sound like increasingly famous last words , and especially so, when your only talking about a national team that's qualified for the Olympics within a tough, and always competitive, AFC region . I personally think it's not out of the realm of possibilities that the U.S. could find themselves in a similar position to '08, having only managed 3 point's going into the final group match, but this time facing a dogged North Korean team just needing a positive result to qualify ahead of one of the perennial podium finishers. The experiences of the WWC should iron out the major glaring tactical issues with teams like France, but with a national program packed with the kinds of youth level success of Korea DPR, I wouldn't be surprised to see a totally different side turn up for them at the Olympics. Neither Canada or Korea DPR are my favourite teams, but they fit the bill for national programs with enough ability to cause problems for the others if everything comes together correctly at the right time. Like you though, I also have a feeling New Zealand could finally make the knockout rounds too, but that's mainly due to also knowing very little about the new to the scene African sides. Germany aren't around this time to sleep walk their way to another bronze, in the process mind f*cking Sweden out of another tournaments medal contention , but I don't see Germany's Olympic absence being the only major change to the medal rounds this year either. So Korea DPR medaling? Maybe not, but they may be the side to bounce a major scalp out of the competition, or into a far tougher path to success.
12 months is rather a short period to judge consistency, particularly at the level of major championships. If it were written by Bollywood, Brazil and Sweden would make the final -- with each goal dance celebration stretched out to five minutes and accompanied by singing in Hindi.
You heard it here first. New Zealand will draw against Brazil (1-1). (yes they will celebrate more than when they drew against Mexico in the 2011 WWC). Ali Riley will be the best overall player of the group stage (in all groups). She will have the tournament of her life. New Zealand will make it to the Quarterfinal.
LOL she's a quality player, but Riley would have to take the game to new heights if she's going to over shadow Marta from a wide position . New Zealand are a decent team, but 1-1 versus a fully mobilized Marta Brazilian attack ! . It sounds like your either looking at Brazil being very very bad, or New Zealand being very very good at the Olympics then? Cameroon are the better of the two African sides, so who knows what that will look like, but I can't really see New Zealand getting 4 points in a group featuring the tournament hosts, and the always impressive creative talents of Marta.