Sem Água, Obrigado - Rio 2016 Olympics

[Zososoxfan]

The Rio Olympics are getting underway and hey, there's a soccer competition!

For the Olympics, all players must be 23 years old or younger, with each team getting 3 exceptions to this rule. The format is 4 groups of 4 teams each, with a single round robin group stage, with the top 2 teams in each group qualifying for a single elimination knock out round (yay symmetry!). All group games will occur on August 4 (tomorrow), August 7, and August 10.

Group A
Brazil
South Africa
Iraq (!)
Denmark

Group B
Sweden
Colombia
Nigeria
Japan

Group C
Fiji (!)
South Korea
Mexico
Germany

Group D
Honduras
Algeria
Portugal
Argentina

I'm amazed that Iraq was able to play games, let alone qualify. I will be rooting hard for the Fijians, considering they're the only competing nation with a population under 1M. Mexico are the defending champs. There should be some exciting young talent on the field, so should be fun to watch.

 

[soxfan121]

Germany v. Fiji might result in the most lopsided score since Mexico last played in a Copa America match.

 

[Titans Bastard]

I'm amazed that Iraq was able to play games, let alone qualify. I will be rooting hard for the Fijians, considering they're the only competing nation with a population under 1M. Mexico are the defending champs. There should be some exciting young talent on the field, so should be fun to watch.

You will be particularly amazed to learn that Iraq qualified for and won the 2007 AFC Cup!

 

[The Price Is Wrong]

Fiji qualified but its imperial overlord, the US, did not. We really should switch our conference to OFC.

Seriously. Fiji. Wha tha faaaa?

 

[Titans Bastard]

Fiji qualified but its imperial overlord, the US, did not. We really should switch our conference to OFC.

Seriously. Fiji. Wha tha faaaa?

New Zealand was disqualified from the OFC competition for fielding an ineligible player.

 

[candylandriots]

Fiji qualified but its imperial overlord, the US, did not. We really should switch our conference to OFC.

Seriously. Fiji. Wha tha faaaa?

 

[Bosoxen]

Germany v. Fiji might result in the most lopsided score since Mexico last played in a Copa America match.

God damn it

 

[Infield Infidel]

New Zealand was disqualified from the OFC competition for fielding an ineligible player.

It's so weird that OFC gets .5 spots in the 32-team World Cup but 1 full spot in the 16-team Olympics

 

[Titans Bastard]

It's so weird that OFC gets .5 spots in the 32-team World Cup but 1 full spot in the 16-team Olympics

It's a similar story in the U20 and U17 World Cups. There is a clear slant towards spreading spots around equally by geography rather than by a merit-based system. For their part, the Europeans don't seem to care very much. They have annual U17 and U19 tournaments and biennial U21 tournaments within UEFA, so there are plenty of decent games for their youth teams.

 

[Zososoxfan]

Argentina looking pretty fluid against Portugal early on, but Portugal has had a few moves that looked solid too. Should be an open attacking game.

 

[Zososoxfan]

There's a lot of...subpar talent out there for both teams. From what I understand, the Portugal FA is only slightly better than Argentina's, leading to some pretty bad omissions.

 

[Joe D Reid]

Brazil draws 0-0 with a South Africa team that had a guy red carded after an hour. That can't be going over well.

 

[Ale Xander]

Not sure that not scoring against SA (with Neymar) is less embarassing than allowing Deutchland to score 7 (without him).

That was horrible

 

[Zososoxfan]

Vino Tinto Junior put 2 in against Argentina in the second half and take 3 points 2-0. Inauspicious start for Albiceleste Junior.

 

[Bosoxen]

And Mexico spit the bit twice after taking the lead against Germany. Sure would have liked the three points but walking away with the draw against one of the favorites is better than nothing. They were a little soft in the midfield and were unbelievably vulnerable to Gnabry (holy fuck, that guy looked like a man among boys) but they looked pretty good on the attack. They're raw, which is to be expected, but I can see this group walking away with a medal again this year.

 

[Bosoxen]

I still can't believe Mexico is sitting on 4 points, a +4 goal differential and 7 goals scored after two games and are in very real danger of not advancing. Fucking Fiji.

 

[Zososoxfan]

Argentina had a gutty win yesterday after playing ~20 minutes down a man. Correa scored Argentina's first goal after which Algeria had a very pretty team goal. Shortly after that, Algeria had a player rightfully sent off and Argentina was able to capitalize on a defensive zone turnover to take the lead for good. Vino Tinto is already through on 6 points in group D, and Argentina and Honduras will fight it out for the second spot since both teams are on 4 points. Honduras has the goal differential tiebreaker in its favor, so Argentina will need to win the game to advance.

 

[Titans Bastard]

Argentina heard the dull roar of CONCACAF Thunder today, as they could only tie Honduras on a last-gasp equalizer. Consequently, they finished 3rd behind Honduras on goal difference and won't advance.

 

[Bosoxen]

And Mexico is done. It was partially the function of a very tough group but when your survival requires scoring double digit goals on a hapless minnow, shit can go wrong. And it did. Germany's last-second goal against South Korea set Mexico up on a collision course with a must-win game. But losing two forwards to freak injuries in the game against Fiji - with one being the unquestioned leader of the team - made it extremely difficult to pull off the feat. They had a handful of chances against the Koreans but not nearly enough in a do-or-die situation.

Not going to lie, it hurts to go from winning the gold medal to not getting out of the group stage. And with the taste of the Copa America debacle still lingering, this became even more difficult to stomach. The FMF have a lot of soul searching to do but rest assured that they're too busy counting their money and sorting through political favors to give a shit.