Some nations see the Olympics as a good opportunity to send young players to do some experience but for Brazil this is much more important and they are desperate to get gold after they have had several misses. For most people in Britain, Olympic football remains an oddity. This will be the first Games since 1960 at which a Great Britain team will be competing. Even tough this will probably be the first time since 1920 that Great Britain will take this competition with any degree of seriousness.
Having said that 11.5 for Team GB to see gold looks too short even with the home advantage. I was shocked to see that David Beckham wasn’t included in the team especially after how much he has done to win the bid: if this decision was surely controversial we need to remember tough that this is a sign that Team GB will be serious about this tournament. Beckham wasn’t selected as he was judged not good enough for the team’s ambitions. In Brazil Olympic football has been always taken extremely serious. Whilst most nations had to engage in negotiations to secure the release of key players during the tournament, Brazil’s coach Mano Menezes was given free hand to pick whoever player he wanted. Brazil want to exceed in any football competitions and the fact that they have never won any Olympic football gold is something that cause some distress.
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They went close as they had two silvers in 1984 and 1988 and two bronzes in 1996 and 2008. What makes it even worse is that Argentina have dominated this tournament as they have won gold at each of the last two tournaments. The Argentineans have failed to qualify this time tough and the other South America slot has gone to Uruguay who will play with Edison Cavani and Luis Suarez and look decent value at 8.00.
Brazil will also use this tournament to do some tests in official matches. The main disadvantage for a World Cup hosting nation is the lack of qualifiers: aside from next summer’s Confederations Cup those will be the last competitive games for Brazil before the main tournament. This will be a good opportunity for Menezes to see which are the young players that could force their way into the World Cup squad.
Brazil have a very strong young team who managed to win the Under-20 World Cup in Colombia last year and although Spain have the better structure in the World, Brazil surely have the better players. Thiago Silva, arguably the best central defender in the world, Marcelo, the powerful Real Madrid left-back and Hulk are the three overage players but the main interest will be on the youngster.
Oscar, who scored a hat-trick in the U-20 final, will be preferred to Ganso as the main central playmaker behind the muscular Leandro Damiao and Pato. Neymar and Marcelo on the left side could really cause trouble with Tottenham’s Sandro who will probably have the role of sitting in front of Thiago Silva.
In summary I think that Brazil is a gifted and well-balanced squad and in my opinion they will get the gold. They have also been lucky to been drawn in a very easy group who include New Zealand, Belarus and Egypt. It is the time for Brazil to finally break their hoodoo.
Tags: Brazil, edison cavani, football competitions, Gold, london olympics 2012, luis suarez, Neymar, Olympic football, Olympic Football Betting, soccer, sports, Team GB