Olympics Football

[mrpotatohead]

Well the olympics are about to start, and like it or not, 3 reds will be there plying their trade for their countries in China: Babel, Lucas and Mascherano.

Argentina have probably the strongest squad, but there is still doubts over Messis participation after the injunction of Barcelona and the courts!Mascherano is a man on a mission saying "Hopefully I will go to Beijing and win the gold for my country and come back and win the title with Liverpool"

Brazil of course are having a dodgy enough spell lately with results, but will look to their young guns for inspiration, and the next batch of young lads looking for moves to bigger european clubs.

Other teams to keep an eye out for will be Nigeria and of course the hosts china and the Netherlands, who have Roy Makaay and Babel in their squad.

Hopefully the football is entertaining and pray our 3 men return safely, injury free and full of energy!

[Fowler's God]

FT: Brazil 1-0 Belgium (Hernanes)

Belgium ended up been down to 9 men.

[mrpotatohead]

did you get to watch it? any good?

[jaza]

messi just scored for argentina against ivory coast

[south]

Javier Mascherano and Lucas Leiva have both enjoyed opening match victories in the Olympics - but Ryan Babel's Holland have had to settle for a disappointing draw in their first game.
Mascherano played all 90 minutes of Argentina's 2-1 victory over Ivory Coast in Group A of the competition.

The Liverpool midfielder picked up a yellow card in the second half of the match as goals from Lionel Messi and Lautaro Acosta secured a hard-earned win.

Earlier in the day Lucas helped Brazil to a 1-0 victory over nine-man Belgium.

The Liverpool midfielder played the entire game as the South Americans left it late to secure victory.

Hernanes opened the scoring on 79 minutes shortly after Belgian defender Vincent Kompany received a second yellow card.

The Europeans went down to nine men on 88 minutes when Marouane Fellaini was dismissed by the Saudi Arabian official.

Meanwhile, Ryan Babel started and finished the game for Holland but was unable to inspire his country to victory over Nigeria, with both countries having to settle for a goalless stalemate.

The next round of fixtures is on Sunday when Brazil face New Zealand, Argentina play Australia and Holland meet the USA.

[Dub13]

How is started already...?

[STEVE1978]

How is started already...?

Exactly, thought the openin ceremony was tomorrow??:confused:

[south]

with so many games to be played i think they had to start it early

[south]

Drawing of lots for the Olympic football competitions (men's): Group A: Cote D'Ivoire (A1), Argentina (A2), Australia (A3), Serbia (A4)
Group B: Netherlands (B1), Nigeria (B2), Japan (B3), USA (B4)
Group C: China (C1), New Zealand (C2), Brazil (C3), Belgium (C4)
Group D: Republic of Korea (D1), Cameroon (D2), Honduras (D3), Italy (D4)

[mypost]

The football tournament is always the first event, 2 days early, and among the last to finish

[sean]

Watched Argentina earlier and they were a joy to watch, very justified favourites for the tournament. Watching the Holland v Nigeria game was just plain demoralising, one of the worst games I've seen for a while.

Most games are on British Eurosport if you are wondering.

[Phil!]

Is there a reason why Ireland never attempted to qualify?? We prob wouldn't...but we could try!!

[Aido82]

Ryan Babel scored today for holland, he played really well for the part of the game i saw

[sean]

Is there a reason why Ireland never attempted to qualify?? We prob wouldn't...but we could try!!

At the moment it all depends on how you perform at the under 21 championships. Last year the four semi-finalists were meant to qualify, but when England got that far it caused a few complications (seeing as they would be required to enter a GB team).

To answer your question - we have not been all that successful at qualifying for the under 21 tournaments lately, never mind getting to the last four and hence our lack of success at qualifying.

[mrpotatohead]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/football/7551635.stm
Bit of a non-story, but a bit daft all the same!

[pjwhyte]

Hope he carries it through next season so

[sean]

Looks like we'll have Babel or Mascherano back for the Boro game as Argentina and Holland are expected to meet on Saturday in the quater-finals, provided Argentina don't lose to Serbia at lunch time.

[D-Red]

LFC Official Site:

Ryan Babel is likely to face clubmate Javier Mascherano in the quarter-finals of the Olympic Games after helping Holland to a 1-0 victory over Japan this morning.
Babel played 90 minutes as the Dutch qualified from Group B, meaning he'll now go head to head with his Liverpool colleague so long as Argentina avoid defeat against Serbia this lunchtime.

Meanwhile, Lucas Leiva is set to face China at 12.45pm BST. Brazil have already qualified for the quarter-finals.

[wonit5times]

LFC Official Site:

Ryan Babel is likely to face clubmate Javier Mascherano in the quarter-finals of the Olympic Games after helping Holland to a 1-0 victory over Japan this morning.
Babel played 90 minutes as the Dutch qualified from Group B, meaning he'll now go head to head with his Liverpool colleague so long as Argentina avoid defeat against Serbia this lunchtime.

Meanwhile, Lucas Leiva is set to face China at 12.45pm BST. Brazil have already qualified for the quarter-finals.

Looks like all the red men are doing very well with their teams.
Just hope they all come back injury free and can add to the squad straight away.

Babel and Masch will be very important players for us this season
and hope they will have a better season than last especially Babel

[Phil!]

Brazil knocked out today so Lucas on his way back...also got red card for tackle on Macherano!!

[mrpotatohead]

The tackle ofn Mascherano was bit daft, as was Thiegos a few minutes later, ploughed in blatantely from behing both times. 2 red cards for tackles on Mascherano.
On the positives, Mascherano looked really sharp and flying it fitness wise from the highlights i seen.

[sallycinnamon]

I read about that this morning I thought that was mad him lunging in on Mascherano any one else ok but shudn be doing that to a club mate, although its an emotional game he probably just got a bit carried away

[Aido82]

tackle wasnt malicous in fairness, i think the mascher made the most of it.

[Phil!]

Yeah tackle wasn't malicious at all just a stupid lunge

[Wicklow Red]

Good to have Babel and Lucas back for selection, man the Brazilians just cant seem to win the Olympic football tournament

[D-Red]

Good to have Babel and Lucas back for selection, man the Brazilians just cant seem to win the Olympic football tournament

It was funny to see Ronaldinho sulking at the end. he was completely useless for the whole match (one free-kick aside) and then sulks at the end. What a great example for the under 23's in the side...