Open Mike Monday: Spanish Flop, Brazilian Scare, Great Britain's Golden Oldies
The Olympic football tournament is only a few days old, and already it has claimed its first big casualty.
But that's not the only story from what was a thrilling week in world football.
Sure, Spain struggled, but so did Brazil. And anyway, the host nation is still alive and getting great performances from some of its most recognizable players.
And don't forget about the women. After last year's exciting Women's World Cup, the Olympic tournament is shaping up to be a grudge match of heavyweights.
All that and more inside this week's edition of Open Mike Monday.
Biggest Flop
1 of 5The men's Olympic football tournament has already served up its share of thrills, upsets and drama.
No more so than with Spain.
Considered one of the favorites—along with Brazil—heading into the tournament, the Spaniards are the current World Cup holders and two-time defending European champions at the senior level. They're also the reigning European champs at the U-19 and U-21 levels.
At the U-23 level, they've played two, lost two and already been eliminated.
Spain crashed out of the tournament after Sunday's 1-0 loss to Honduras—a disappointing defeat that followed Thursday's disappointing defeat to Japan.
Spain played much of their opener with 10 men after Inigo Martinez drew a first-half red card. Against Honduras, however, they trailed early and never found the equalizer.
Possession and chances abounded both times, but Spain never did find an effective combination until half a dozen players or so accosted the referee angrily following the loss to Honduras.
To sum up, then, Spain's players embarrassed themselves against two supposedly inferior opponents and then embarrassed themselves with their actions toward the referee. Yes, the referee was poor in the Honduras match, but that didn't change the fact that Spain couldn't score once through two matches.
So now the showdown with Brazil won't happen, and Spain won't add Olympic gold to their recent run of glory. Thus one of Europe's great underachievers returns to form—at the U-23 level at least—and deprives the Olympics of a potentially mouthwatering clash of heavyweights in the latter rounds.
The level of parity on display through two rounds of matches has made the group stage exciting. But with one heavyweight already gone, will the parity make the knockout stages less interesting later on?
Worst Scare, in Two Parts
2 of 5With Spain eliminated prematurely, all the front-runners and bandwagon jumpers must be staring lustily at Brazil.
Led by world-famous attacking talents like Neymar and Hulk, the Brazilians must be considered heavy favorites—if they weren't already—to win gold. And yet even the Samba masters themselves have ridden out a couple of storms already.
In their opener against Egypt, Brazil stormed to a 3-0 first-half lead and looked almost invincible along the way. In the second half, however, Egypt dominated, scored two goals and had Brazil on the ropes for a time.
Brazil won that one 3-2 but then promptly fell behind Belarus on Sunday. That one ended 3-1 to Brazil, but the scoreline probably flattered Brazil somewhat.
Make no mistake: For all their talent and all the sexy football on display so far, Brazil have not yet played the role of favorites with full conviction. Neto presents a glaring question mark in goal, and the defense doesn't seem fully equipped to stop crafty forwards and basic man-marking.
In between all the silky stepovers and gorgeous golazos, there's just enough doubt to make things interesting.
Oldest Goalscorer
3 of 5Ryan Giggs on Sunday became the oldest goalscorer in Olympic football history.
The relevant data: 38 years, 243 days and the opening goal for Great Britain against United Arab Emirates.
Team GB went on to win the match 3-1, and the victory owed a large debt to Giggs and a fellow golden-oldie, Craig Bellamy. The two Welshmen inspired GB in the midfield—Bellamy barreling up and down the flanks ominously, and Giggs directing traffic in the middle.
GB drew a number of solid performances—notably that of enterprising midfielder Tom Cleverley—but Giggs and Bellamy stood out. The two Welsh wizards have been among their team's best players so far, and for Team GB to go anywhere in this tournament, both will have to keep it up.
Best Black Eye
4 of 5Following the United States women's win over Colombia on Saturday, a picture of forward Abby Wambach circulated around online social networks like Twitter.
The picture showed Wambach wearing a black eye and a curious half-smile. The black eye came during the Colombia match, and the curious half-smile must have something to do with the USWNT's performances so far.
The American women came from two goals down to beat France 4-2 in their opener. Then they dominated Colombia 3-0 on Saturday. Wambach scored one goal in each game.
So even with a black eye, there's plenty to smile about in the U.S. camp right now.
Especially a potential rematch with Japan.
Last Goodbye
5 of 5Finally this week, we honor the sterling career of an Italian legend.
Italian forward Filippo Inzaghi retired last week, calling time on a career that made him AC Milan's greatest European goal scorer. Inzaghi, 38, had played professionally for 22 years and had scored 10 hat tricks in Serie A competition.
Inzaghi always seemed to pop up at the most crucial moment, often scoring decisive goals late in important matches. Now he leaves the game at just the right moment, moving on to work with Milan's youth program.
We wish him the best.
