Olympic Soccer Predicitions

[Shootmaster_44]

Here's how I think the Olympic Soccer tournies will go down:

Men
Gold Italy
Silver Greece
Bronze Portugal
4th Mexico
5th Argentina
6th Korea
7th Serbia and Montenegro
8th Australia
9th Japan
10th Paraguay
11th Costa Rica
12th Tunisia
13th Ghana
14th Morroco
15th Iraq
16th Mali

Women's
Gold USA
Silver China
Bronze Brazil
4th Germany
5th Sweden
6th Australia
7th Japan
8th Mexico
9th Nigeria
10th Greece

[Pounder]

For the men, hasn't an African country medalled in each of the last 3 or 4 Olympiads? Ghana is the usual suspect in this regard. 13th is way low. Unfortunately, they're in something of a group of death here, and Paraguay has some talent. Italy and Paraguay out of that group.

I know Greece just won Europe, but this is U-23 and three ringers, and teams like Argentina and Mexico actually have players who can dribble the ball. I do not think Greece will repeat their feat here. Now, well, they're in the kind of group that Mexico can win. Mexico and Greece. (This means that Italy and Greece would meet in a quarterfinal. Bye Greece.)

Argentina and Serbia from Group C, easy call.

Portugal and, hmmm, I'll say Costa Rica (Morocco has a shot, Iraq could have some serious emotion) from D.

Argentina Gold, Italy Silver, and I'll take a shot at Paraguay over Portugal for Bronze, though I do have new respect for Cristiano Ronaldo.

Who did the women's group draw? China in Germany's group, while Sweden gets to play around with Japan and Nigeria? Greece draws USA AND Brazil (and Australia, calendar girls they are)? Somebody ate the script, apparently. BTW, Et tu, Norway?

(SIDE NOTE: Anyone see USA v China on Sunday? 8 yellow cards, at least two of which should have been red. Talk about love at first sight!)

Groups in order of predicted finish:

E- Sweden, Nigeria, Japan
F- Germany, China, Mexico
G- USA, Brazil, Australia, Greece

Quarters: Germany beats Nigeria, USA beats Japan, China beats Brazil, Sweden beats Australia.

Semis: I think Sweden beats China. I've seen a couple improvements (old guard replaced with new guard) from WWC '03 that USA MUST use against Germany, but I think April Heinrichs won't use them in the semis. The knot in my tummy tells me that this decision means Germany for Gold, Sweden for Silver, USA for Bronze.

[Shootmaster_44]

Olympic soccer is U-23? I didn't realize that when I made my predictions. I figured it was the same as the rest of the sports. Greece will probably fall lower than I have then. I really don't know U-23 soccer so I won't revise my picks. Is the women's draw also U-23?

[Pounder]

Full women's national teams.

Men: U-23 and three overage players.

FIFA and the IOC have this tug-o-war going on constantly. FIFA doesn't want the Olympics to really compete with the World Cup (TV viewership around the world is stronger for World Cup than for the Olympics; note that 9 of the 11 main IOC sponsors through Salt Lake are American companies), but doesn't mind having a foothold at the Games. The IOC really does want the best players, to which FIFA always threatens to pull out, to which the IOC capitulates with the U-23 format.

Another thing: the IOC wanted to mandate that any participating sport ban athletes who test positive for banned substances for a minimum two years on first offense. Imagine how the NBA would be now, much less NHL and MLB. FIFA actually brought out the "we'll drop out" trump card before 2000 over that issue, and with NBA and MLB assistance, IOC kind of caved. However, we haven't heard the last of this issue.

[Pounder]

Did you see, did you see?

MEN

Argentina 6:0 Serbia
Ghana 2:2 Italy
Iraq 4:2 Portugal
Greece 2:2 South Korea

WOMEN

Germany 8:0 China
Japan 1:0 Sweden

I just listed the good ones. USA should have thrashed Greece much more than 3:0, but April Heinrichs seems to have a policy against forwards who score with their feet. Go figure.

Anyway, DAMN! China is apparently trying to dig a hole through the earth and find Kansas. Or is Germany THAT good? Probably has more to do with missing Sun Wen dearly.

Argentina- yes, they're that good. With this tournament playing so fast, that doesn't guarantee them gold... but they're that good.

[Shootmaster_44]

Did you see, did you see?

MEN

Iraq 4:2 Portugal


What happened here? I didn't see the game but I saw the score. I can't believe Iraq actually won this game. I'm not 100% sure about the Iraqi team, did some players who defected during Saddam's reign come back now that he's been deposed?

[Pounder]

No Uday or Sassay (or whatever the other guy's name is) probably helps, in answer to your Iraq question. Being the wholly unknown quantity didn't hurt, either. Soccer is funny that way.

BTW - http://sports.yahoo.com/oly/news;_ylc=X3oDMTBpNmMycHNjBF9TAzk2Njc0NDI1BHNlYwN0 aA--?slug=reu-soccer&prov=reuters&type=lgns

Looks like I made good on the Argentina call, though I have my share of muck-ups in my prediction list. Paraguay and Iraq should be at half at this writing.