should have scored more but can't complain now Argentina will have an interesting 1/4 against France and Richardson will likely face his father's country representing his mother's in the country he was born in.
That's some pretty good match-ups. There are obviously favorites in each match but it would not shock me to see any of those favorites lose.
Wow! Marta receives a straight red near the end of the first half against Spain for a karate kick to Olga's head (she was going for the ball)! That could be her last action in a Brazil uniform.
^ Surprised it took 25 minutes, but Spain finally scores against 10-women Brazil. Brazil should still advance as Nigeria is losing 3-1 to Japan, so they would just need US to beat Australia. But it would probably be France v Brazil in the quarterfinal.
In total there were about 29 minutes of stoppage time (first + second half) of the Spain x Brazil match. Almost like a whole extra time period.
200 caps for Marta. Holy crap that's impressive, and that is the end of her career for the NT. Legend.
USA seem to be a level above everyone else in the women's tournament, with possibly Spain their only realistic challengers.
I don't know about that. Her foot was 4 feet up in the air and she connected with another player's head who was favored for the ball. Gotta have more awareness of your surroundings than that.
Despite the CAS rejecting Canada's appeal against their 6 point deduction by FIFA, they still qualify for the knockout stage by beating Colombia 1-0 to finish second behind France (Canada won all three games suggesting they and USA are probably the favourites to win the gold medal). Colombia and Brazil qualify for the QF as the two best third-place teams, while Australia is eliminated after finishing third in their group.
Personally, I wasn't impressed with the Canada team. I think Spain looked a lot better. Japan too. Germany look about the same level as Canada. Though I watched way more of group C than the other 2 groups, so my view could be slanted.
Japan were denied an equaliser by the (dreaded) VAR which found the most marginal offside possible and one which wasn't visible on the replay.
Since the expansion of the EURO in 1996 to 16 teams and then in 2016 to 24 teams and now that the Copa America is held simultaneously with the EURO, I was thinking about how to grade the strength of the men's Olympic tournament. Until about 2000 I thought that it fitted in the hierarchy like this: WC: 100 Men's Olympics: 80 EURO: 75 With the expansion of the EURO, the move of the Copa America to the EURO slot and the fact that a men's Olympic tournament limited to 16 teams preserves a higher quality, I'd now grade the competitions like this: WC: 100 EURO: 85 Men's Olympics: 75
Men's Olympics is WAY down the ladder in terms of quality. No way is it that close in quality to the World Cup or Euro. Even the Afcon is a way higher quality tournament than the Olympics, which is just a watered down U23 tournament.
I was also basing that grading on the fact that it only features 16 teams so is arguably the most difficult international competition to qualify for at world or continental level, perhaps together with the UNL Final Four. Also you see this year that despite the competition being held in Europe only 2 of the 6 Conmebol+UEFA teams have reached the semifinals. The Afcon at 24 teams I would put lower than the men's Olympics; probably graded at about 60.
Egypt and Morocco are in the semi finals with their U23 team. Neither of those countries made it beyond the 2nd round of the afcon with their full squads. The Afcon is far superior to the Olympics. It's not even close. Heck the Asian Cup is stronger as well, and I don't think that's a close call either.
Can/t agree with you here at all. The Olympics is a youth tournament and qualifiers in most areas don't even feature the very best under 23 players as they are busy playing serious club football.
Same here. For me the Olympics are well below all of the regional championships (i.e. Euro, AFC cup, Cup of Nations, etc.), except possibly the Gold Cup. Its also below the women's Olympic football. At least that features the best of the best.