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Olympic Football Tournament
Topic Started: Apr 20 2008, 07:29 AM (2,347 Views)
Nkono
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As Supereagle wrote, Cameroon did enough to defeat Honduras which ended up being a very good reuslt with Italy rlling over korea. Cameroon next plays Italy and they may take it easy with first place locked up. At the very least one would expect they won't be as attack minded as they were against Korea and Honduras. Cameroon are not playing pretty but they wear their opponents down with physical play and a high work rate. In the end that has been effective so far. A tie or even a narrow loss with Italy woudl be sufficient to send Cameroon through. In 2000 when the Indomitable lions won the Gold, they began slowly in group play and then accelerated once the knockout competition began.

John B, I'm trying to understand what you mean by "undo" them. If it is would a Japan tie help Nigeria and the US? Yes it would because Nigeria and the US top the table with 4 points, Holland has 2 and Japan 0, a draw between Japan & Holland qualifies both US and Nigeria.
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Johnbuildr
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Nkono,Aug 11 2008
08:43 AM
As Supereagle wrote, Cameroon did enough to defeat Honduras which ended up being a very good reuslt with Italy rlling over korea. Cameroon next plays Italy and they may take it easy with first place locked up. At the very least one would expect they won't be as attack minded as they were against Korea and Honduras. Cameroon are not playing pretty but they wear their opponents down with physical play and a high work rate. In the end that has been effective so far. A tie or even a narrow loss with Italy woudl be sufficient to send Cameroon through. In 2000 when the Indomitable lions won the Gold, they began slowly in group play and then accelerated once the knockout competition began.

John B, I'm trying to understand what you mean by "undo" them. If it is would a Japan tie help Nigeria and the US? Yes it would because Nigeria and the US top the table with 4 points, Holland has 2 and Japan 0, a draw between Japan & Holland qualifies both US and Nigeria.

Sorry, what i meant was that the Netherlands would fail to finish in the top two in the group if Japan tied them, so Japan does not even have to beat them to put the US & Nigeriua through.... But, I am not certain if that is true?
(So many others are usually all over the "getting out of group" permutations, so I don't even try to stay on top of all the possibilities.....)
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum



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raconteur
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Yes John, a Japan win or tie against Holland automatically qualifies both United States and Nigeria irrespective of the result of their game.

Italy, Brazil and Argentina are the three teams which have already assured a quarterfinal spot. No surprise those are the three leading medal contenders but one thing this tournament has shown is that there are many teams which are capable of challenging. Just look at what the US did against Holland, Belgium against Brazil or Ivory Coast against Argentina.
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Yogi
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We're getting our first controversy following the CAS ruling as Hamburg want Vincent Kompany abck for the start this weekend of the Bundesliga but he is refusing to leave Belgium's Olympic team. This will be something to follow.
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SuperEagle
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While Japan could help both Nigeria and the US out by obtaining a positive result against the Dutch, the truth is both Nigeria and the US would like to avoid Argentina who will play the second place team in the Nigeria-US-Argentina group. The group winner likely gets Ivory Coast, who while not a bad team are certainly preferable to playing Argentina!

I am a little disappointed Nigeria haven't used Chinedu Ogbuke much in these games but he still remains a potential game changing player in attack. I'd prefer not to miss any starters for this game but if given a choice I'd rather miss Nigeria's 2 defenders than the US playing without Adu and Bradley, two of it's most influential players.
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alabastergremlin
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What a finish! WTF was Nigeria thinking playing like that the second half? They just about gave the game back to the US.

The red card in the 4th minute killed us. I think a straight red was a bit harsh in the first few minutes however I can certainly see where that is debatable. What isn't debatable is how stupid the foul was and how much it hurt the US.

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Yogi
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SuperEagle,Aug 12 2008
06:59 PM
I am a little disappointed Nigeria haven't used Chinedu Ogbuke much in these games but he still remains a potential game changing player in attack. I'd prefer not to miss any starters for this game but if given a choice I'd rather miss Nigeria's 2 defenders than the US playing without Adu and Bradley, two of it's most influential players.

Good call Supereagle, Ogbuke was the difference maker for Nigeria. Great turn on Parkhurst to set up the first goal for Isaac and he was a danger throughout until tiring late in the game. As alabaster writes, the US' red card killed them and amazingly Nigeria didn't put them away and almost paid the price at the end. A little better finishing and Nigeria can be a pretty good team, when they play on the counter they are hard to stop.

I only saw the highlights but Holland beat Japan 1-0 on what I thought was a soft penalty, a slight push but a kind of harsh PK to give which decided the group. Makes the US' late collapse against Holland all the harder to take.

Cameroon and Italy drew 0-0 in a game where Cameroon missed a PK, Korea beat Honduras 1-0 but Italy and Cameroon advance out of their group.
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rosarino
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The dangers of not putting away an opponent almost came back to haunt Nigeria. The US nearly pulled out a draw. That group was the one with the most drama on the final day and the eventual group winner, Nigeria, came within a shot off the crossbar of being eliminated. I agree that Holland's penalty looked soft but watchout for them in the quarterfinals. Often teams which barely make it out of the groups end up being strong in the elimination rounds.

These were the complete scores today:

Argentina 2-0 Serbia
Ivory Coast 1-0 Australia

Nigeria 2-1 United States
Holland 1-0 Japan

Brazil 3-0 China
Belgium 1-0 New Zealand

Italy 0-0 Cameroon
Korea 1-0 Honduras

So these will be the quarterfinal matchups:

Argentina-Holland
Brazil-Cameroon

Nigeria-Ivory Coast
Italy-Belgium

Argentina-Holland is the real titanic battle and that is not an eays game at all for Argentina. Nigeria-Ivory Coast means at least one of the 3 African quarterfinalists will make it to the semifinals. Brazil has to be content with getting Cameoron and the same can be said for Italy with Belgium. Now the fun should really begin with this tournament!
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Johnbuildr
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rosarino,Aug 13 2008
07:42 AM
The dangers of not putting away an opponent almost came back to haunt Nigeria. The US nearly pulled out a draw. That group was the one with the most drama on the final day and the eventual group winner, Nigeria, came within a shot off the crossbar of being eliminated. I agree that Holland's penalty looked soft but watchout for them in the quarterfinals. Often teams which barely make it out of the groups end up being strong in the elimination rounds.

These were the complete scores today:

Argentina 2-0 Serbia
Ivory Coast 1-0 Australia

Nigeria 2-1 United States
Holland 1-0 Japan

Brazil 3-0 China
Belgium 1-0 New Zealand

Italy 0-0 Cameroon
Korea 1-0 Honduras

So these will be the quarterfinal matchups:

Argentina-Holland
Brazil-Cameroon

Nigeria-Ivory Coast
Italy-Belgium

Argentina-Holland is the real titanic battle and that is not an eays game at all for Argentina. Nigeria-Ivory Coast means at least one of the 3 African quarterfinalists will make it to the semifinals. Brazil has to be content with getting Cameoron and the same can be said for Italy with Belgium. Now the fun should really begin with this tournament!

If Nigeria plays like it did against the US, Ivory Cost will shock them and the world.
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum



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Manzanares
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What a battle ahead of us between Argentina and Holland. That matchup has the potential of becoming a great one. Argentina picked up probably the toughest of all the group runners up but it is still hard to imagine Argentina losing at this stage. Ivory Coast and Nigeria should be familiar with one another and that too could become a good game. I think Nigeria is better playing on the counter but against the 10 man US team they weren't able to play as they normally would like. They still controlle dmost of the game except for a few mental lapses when up 2-0. But IC has speed and a good passing game.
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raconteur
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I was away this weekend so didn't get the opportunity to see any of the quarterfinals but these were the scores:

Brazil 2 Cameroon 0 aet
Argentina 2 Holland 1 aet
Nigeria 2 Ivory Coast 0
Belgium 3 Italy 2

I wanted to watch Italy's game but didn't know when it would e sown on TV so I couldn't record it. Looking at the result maybe that wasa good thing? I would be interested in reading an account of the game from anyone who watched it.

Argentina vs Brazil should be a fun one to watch. Too bad that is only a semifinal.
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Johnbuildr
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raconteur,Aug 17 2008
02:05 PM
I was away this weekend so didn't get the opportunity to see any of the quarterfinals but these were the scores:

Brazil 2 Cameroon 0 aet
Argentina 2 Holland 1 aet
Nigeria 2 Ivory Coast 0
Belgium 3 Italy 2

I wanted to watch Italy's game but didn't know when it would e sown on TV so I couldn't record it. Looking at the result maybe that wasa good thing? I would be interested in reading an account of the game from anyone who watched it.

Argentina vs Brazil should be a fun one to watch. Too bad that is only a semifinal.

I missed it too, but the Belgians must be in 7th freakin' heaven....
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum



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dafyd
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And the Italians are in the 9th level of Hell. I do not envy their players and coaching staff's return home.
Leper In A Stange Land
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rosarino
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raconteur,Aug 17 2008
01:05 PM
I was away this weekend so didn't get the opportunity to see any of the quarterfinals but these were the scores:

Brazil 2 Cameroon 0 aet
Argentina 2 Holland 1 aet
Nigeria 2 Ivory Coast 0
Belgium 3 Italy 2

I wanted to watch Italy's game but didn't know when it would e sown on TV so I couldn't record it.  Looking at the result maybe that wasa good thing?  I would be interested in reading an account of the game from anyone who watched it.

Argentina vs Brazil should be a fun one to watch.  Too bad that is only a semifinal.

I am with you raconteur, it is a shame Argentina-Brazil isn't the final. With all respect to Belgium & Nigeria, Argentina-Brazil is the game people around the world would love to see for the title. Brazil have had the better of Argentina these past few years as they've successfully used a counter attacking strategy but with Messi, Riquelme, and company this is an Argentina team which can produce scoring opportunities and has a defense strong enough to resist Brazil's counters. Should be a fun game, as usual between the two.

Belgium-Nigeria is a surprising semifinal, I think most expected Italy-Ivory Coast but maybe Belgium's opening game draw with Brazil wasn't the surprise we all thought at the time?
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libero
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Argentina-Brazil later today should be a great game but with the way Nigeria looked today in beating Belgium 4-1, they will give either South American team a difficult game. Nigeria are so fast and strong but they also play well, moving the ball around sharply, pressing the opponent when they're in possession. And they can shoot from long distance, two goals from Ogbuke today, one of them a shard a shot as you will ever see. Nigeria have just seemed to improve each game and they will come inot the final on a high.

As for Belgium, well it makes me even more disappointed Italy lost to this team, even more so when belgium were down to 10 men for a good portion of the game. Of course it helepd that the Belgians scored a phantom goal in that game but Italy had a bad game at the worst time possible.
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