Typically us football fans hate Summer as we have to miss out on the beautiful game for several months. This year however we were treated not only to the 2012 European Championship but also the 2012 London Olympics which featured a lot of football, much of which was excellent and showcased some of the young talented players from around the world.
For many the Summer Olympics is about the Athletics and the swimming, though for football fanatics it's another chance to watch our sport, this time however we had added interest. For the first time since 1960 Great Britain were going to be represented by a football team. Despite the fact much of the team were English (with a few Welsh Players) the squad were their to be part of GB and represent the whole of the British Isles, something that the Scottish FA sadly refused to be part of.
Like the Euro's which had taken place just weeks earlier the competition featured 16 teams split into 4 groups. In Group A you had the hosts Great Britain, the AFC–CAF football play-off winners Senegal, the 2011 South American Youth Championship runners up Uruguay and the AFC Preliminary Competition Group B winner the United Arab Emirates. From this Group both Great Britain (Group winners) and Senegal (Group runner up) qualified for the knock out stages. Sadly, Uruguay, who were one of the favourites really failed to turn up only managing to beat the lowly United Arab Emirates who came clear bottom of the Group.
In Group B we had the excellent Mexico who had qualified by winning the 2012 Qualifying Tournament, South Korea who had won Group A of the Asian Qualifiers, Gabon who had surprisingly won the 2011 CAF U-23 Championship and Switzerland who had qualified thanks to the 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship. The group started poorly with the opening 2 games resulting in draws (Mexico 0-0 South Korea and Switzerland 1-1 Gabon) though it took little time for Mexico's class to shine through as 2 goals by Giovani dos Santos saw them past Gabon and an Oribe Peralta goal saw them past Switzerland as they topped the Group. Mexico were joined in the knockout stages by South Korea who despite a draw with Gabon managed to defeat Switzerland who failed to win a game themselves (picking up a solitary point via a draw with Gabon).
Group C featured one of the tournament favourites in Brazil who managed to qualify courtesy of the 2011 South American Youth Championship (which they won). Brazil were joined by Egypt who had come 3rd in the 2011 CAF U-23 Championship, Belarus who had surprisingly qualified via the 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship and New Zealand who were the sole Oceanic representative. Brazil's dominance in the group was obvious from the off as they defeated Egypt 3-2 (going 3-0 up in the first 30 minutes before taking their foot off the gas), Belarus 3-1 and New Zealand 3-0. They were joined in the next round by Egypt who hammered Belarus in Group's deciding fixture 3-1.
Whilst it was a shock that Uruguay didn't qualify from their Group the biggest surprises were kept for Group D which featured Spain (who's full squad had just retained the European Championship), Asian qualifier Japan, CONCACAF qualifier Honduras and 2011 CAF U-23 Championship runners up Morocco. It was expected that Spain would look to add the Olympic title to their European and World title's however they were upset 1-0 by both Japan and Honduras before taking their solitary point by managing a 0-0 draw with Morocco. Spain's failure, which saw them leaving the tournament with out scoring a single goal, left the door wide open for Japan and Honduras who both managed to qualify for the knock out stages.
In the knockout stages Japan managed to coast past Egypt in a surprising 3-0 victory whilst Mexico struggled past Senegal 4-2 (AET) and Brazil limped past Honduras 3-2 (having been behind twice). In the biggest surprise of the knockout stages Great Britain were knocked out by South Korea 5-4 on penalties (after a 1-1 draw) after Daniel Sturridge had his penalty saved. This left us with two intriguing semi finals, South Korea v Brazil and Japan v Mexico.
The first of the Semi Final's saw Japan, who hadn't conceded a goal in their first 4 games taking an early lead against Mexico. Sadly for the Japanese they soon found out that Mexico were a special team and the Mexicans managed to over-turn the scoreline before taking an impressive 3-1 victory to book their place in the final. They were joined in the final by Brazil who had taken South Korea to school in an impressive 3-0 victory. This left us with just 2-matches, the Bronze medal match, an all Asian affair between Japan and South Korea and an All Latin American final between Brazil and Mexico.
The Bronze medal match saw South Korea bouncing back from their beat down by Brazil to secure the Bronze medal and 3rd place by defeating Japan 2-0, with a goal from Arsenal's Park Chu-Young. This match was marred somewhat by the post match antics of Park Jong-Woo who walked around with a banner that contained a political statement regarding the Liancourt Rocks (also known as Dodko or Tokto islands) which are claimed by both Japan and South Korea.
In the final Mexico got the upper hand over Brazil taking the lead in the opening minute before doubling their lead in the 75th minute. Brazil stuck back late in extra time but couldn't force the equaliser to take the match to extra time as Mexico team secured the countries only Gold Medal.
The competitions top scorers were:
Leandro Damião (Brazil, 6)
Pape Moussa Konaté (Senegal, 5)
Oribe Peralta (Mexico, 4)-Including 2 in the final
In regards to the Premier League player's Giovani dos Santos (3), Park Chu-Young (2) and Daniel Sturridge (2) were the only ones with more than 1 goal (Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy, Aaron Ramsey, Scott Sinclair and Oscar each scored 1).
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