If you want to look at the silver lining, if Pato gets injured he'll get looked at by some decent doctors...

BTW, this is the only (relatively) big tournament Brazil have never won.

Really interested to see what the GB squad will be. Ideally Scotland/Wales decide to allow their players to take part, they have some good young talent who would make the squad.

I don't remember Pato getting injured while playing for Brazil, it's always happened with Milan as far as my memory serves me. it'll be interesting to see what happens this time around.

I bet he will go through all the games no problem, then next season in his 3rd game for Milan he will pull a muscle and miss 2 months.

Anyway, can't see Brazil winning it. maybe Spain.

No players that played at the Euros were going to be selected, so this is a pretty decent squad considering.

J Allen (Swansea), C Bellamy (Liverpool), R Bertrand (Chelsea), J Butland (Birmingham), S Caulker (Tottenham), T Cleverley (Manchester United), J Cork (Southampton), C Dawson (West Brom), R Giggs (Manchester United), A Ramsey (Arsenal), M Richards (Manchester City), D Rose (Tottenham), S Sinclair (Swansea), M Sordell (Bolton), J Steele (Middlesbrough), D Sturridge (Chelsea), N Taylor (Swansea), J Tomkins (West Ham)

---------------- Butland
Richards - Tomkins - Caulker - Taylor
---- Cleverley - Ramsey - Giggs
--- Sturridge - Bellamy - Sinclair

Front 6 is pretty good considering. Shame there's no Scottish or N.Irish representation, Bannan would've been a good selection in my opinion, not too sure of the N.Irish team though. Bale getting injured will hurt too. Overrated, but he's more than good enough for an U23 tournement.

How do you feel about Beckham not been included?


Argghhh! Please no.

Shame, really. Damn shame, in fact.


Argghhh! Agreed. Though I am cautiously hopeful Spain won't win the gold this time. Let's see! I'll of course watch the football games just for Pato and Silva.

Seriously??

Btw, why wasn't Lampard selected? is he still injured?

Awful decision. He worked hard to help us get the Olympics and it's not like Olympic football even matters.


Yes. It's a Britain and NI team, so I'd have liked there to be representation from all 4 nations.


I'm guessing he's injured/Chelsea refused.

Stupid decision just Pearce trying to get in the media... again. And to showcase himself as a 'no nonsense' manager - in the Olympics? Good job 'Psycho'

Agreed. It'd be like Balotelli causing trouble and Mancini 'putting his foot down' by not playing him in pre-season friendlies.

Rafael is injured so Gabriel was called up instead of him.

GB are going to be bad in this. If we get out of the groups, we'll definitely go out next round.

It's a weak competition (too many bullshit teams, they should really rethink this egalitarian split between continents) with little star power. Besides Brazil, Spain and maybe Uruguay you have nothing to worry about.

And we're in Uruguay's group! Mexico have a decent side and the Swiss are always underrated. Shame Seigrist won't get to play in goal for the Swiss.

So what? GB and Uruguay gonna qualify easily from this group. You are the third best team on paper in this tournament IMO.

I think you're overrating us a bit. We'll finish 2nd in our group. I thought we were matched up with Brazil's group for some reason, so we do have a chance of beating Mexico but I'm not sure we will. In the SFs whoever we play will beat us convicingly.

We're 4th/5th with Mexico, home advantage may give us the edge.

I think you underrate them. I might agree about Uruguay (50-50) but you are certainly better than Mexico.

Not really bothered by this, don't even think of GB as my team to be honest in a footballing sense.

Obviously I'd be happy if we win it, but I agree, it's not the same. Just a novelty thing.

First upset: Spain lost to Japan 1-0.

Yuki Otsu scored, Inigo Martinez got red, all in first half.

Japan were wasteful. Deserved victory.

No sheepers singing the anthem.

Come on GB!

3-0!Get Pato in!

Bellamy!

3-2..

Egypt stuffing Brazil.

And no Pato yet? damn you Menezes!

No penalty or red for that? For real?

No matter the tournement, no matter our 'name'. We'll get fucked.

FT 1-1.

We clearly won the football side of things. Sengal destroyed us in karate though.

EDIT: Jesus, that foul is worse everytime I see it IOC/FIFA/whoever's in control has to suspend that player for the rest of the tournement. Get this animal out of here.

YESU!!!! NIPPON RURES!!!


Was it that bad? Do you have a gif or a video link?

Twitter seems to have changed their video/picture gallery thing so can't find one right now.

And yes, it was very bad. Bellamy was lucky to not only continue, but to be able to walk. 2 footed straight in at his knee. A slight twist of a angle, a stud getting caught and his career's done. What makes it worse is that the player that did it already could've been sent off, he's made 3/4 very poor fouls at that point. How he lasted the game I'll never know.

2nd rate football competition. 2nd rate officiating is all I can say.

At his knee??? I was expecting to read shin!!

2nd rate officiating is the norm everywhere, it's the one of the reasons why I find football hard to watch these days.

Going through every 'Bellamy' related pic on twitter so will update when I get a better one, this seems to be the only pic I can find.



Even in that pic you can see his right leg shouldn't be bent in that way.

thanks!

Not a foul though.

Giggs has made a complain about the way Senegal play. Serious lack of protection from the ref and that is his most important job.

How did he not injure his knee? what a vicious challenge. is it the scene you were talking about being a penalty?

Yeah. Even if he didn't give a penalty (as you can see it's very close to the line) a red card is minimum, seeing as the guy was already carded.

I'm assuming he got the ball first?

No, he was incredibly late. Bellamy put a cross in before having that happen to him.

Full Match highlights here - Go to the 2nd video and to the 26:30 mark. It gets worse every time I see it.

You were robbed of a penalty and a red card for them. crazy.

See, I'm not some crazy complainer ALL the time.

Currently watching the Brazil game, Neymar has got to be the most annoying and abnoxious player around right now. Blehh

USA seemed to play the worst I've seen them for a while, yet still crushed France - great stuff.

Good to see GB get on the medals table finally too.

Is it me or is Brazil trying to play like Spain

He was the reason Brazil won..great goal,and assist.The thing I didn't understand is not why not pass the ball to Pato...he's supposed to be the focal point of the team.He got only one chance in the match,and slotted in.

Yes he scored the goal, but everything in between was sub-par, egotistic, selfish and self-serving.

His little dribbles and lobs are just ridiculous.

Yeah, I also noticed how Pato is seemingly ignored when he's in good positions. The rest of that Brazil team is very average though

He also lost the ball a lot!(Neymar).Yeah,I don't understand the hype about lots of Brazilian players..such as Hulk.But,I guess I can't judge from 1 match as well(although,I've seen the egypt match too).