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Important for who? Yes, maybe for people from Nevermindistan who manage to get into the tournament once, and now they have to convince the others that it matters to everybody, because it matters to me.
The fact that the Olympics football is practically an U23 tournament, drops the prestige tremendously. The overaged players are usually like Beckham, just for promo purposes. Most overaged players decline the offer.
Yes, there's some good players and rising stars in the Olympic football, but there's a lot of players that may score a goal in the quarter finals, but now struggles to even get on the pitch in the Japanese league, like a player called Kensuke Nagai.
And I didn't watch the damn thing at all in London. Couldn't care less.
Wow! Ok, it's too bad you did not follow it in London, you would be surprised with the quality of the games. The final between Brazil and Mexico was as good as this WC final and much better than the semi between Netherkads and Argentina IMO. Perhaps you or other Europeans don't see importance on it because Europe has not won it since 1992. But, interestingly enough, used to be quite the opposite. In fact, Spain winning in 1992 was the end of an hegemony of nothing less than 13 Olympic wins in a roll for an European team.
Another way to see it, say you root for the Netherlands and they can bring 3 major stars over 23 years to the tournament. Are there more than 3? In any team, except perhaps for Germany, for that matter?
I hate to be the one pointing this out, but you sounded like Americans who hate soccer: if we do not dominate it, it's not important.
Just saw five mins of the Great Britain vs Senegal Olympic game. Not what I would call the best football.
I would not call best football either the whole game of Nigeria vs Ira or 10 minutes of Netherlands vs Argentina in the WC. One game, or just few minutes of it, does not speak for the quality of a tournament. I'm not saying it is nice as the WC or eurocup, but you are missing it if you are a truly soccer fan. That Argentina Olympic champions of 2004 and 08 were very good.
Because I never looked at the stats. I had always know these events were popular but never knew they were THAT popular. I live in the States and coverage of football at all is like how citizens of North Korea get to hear about the outside world.
I didn't even know the EPL was popular in the states until I read an article about it a couple months ago. I thought it was just a small niche.
That's completely untrue. There's this new thing out, you may have heard of it, called the internet, where people here in the US can follow whatever sport they like around the world. Plus, the EPL has been broadcast on US TV for many seasons now and has quite a large following. The Euros are also televised in the US.
Just because it may not be on ESPN or on your local news doesn't mean you can't find it here in the US
But it's not as significant as the U23 WC (or other youth WCs), at least here in Europe. The Olympics are held in the same year as the Euro so the European Olympic teams tend to feature the players that weren't good enough to be selected for the national team. Compared to the other major international football tournaments in Europe (WC, Euro, CL, EL), the Olympics just aren't that relevant. People watch the Olympics for other sports, many even feel that football doesn't belong there because it doesn't feature the best athletes. The fact that Africa and Asia are way overrepresented and Oceania gets a guaranteed spot doesn't help the quality or prestige of the tournament.
Edit: to clarify, in the first sentence I meant significant as a gauge of the various countries' youth development.
Hey all, I was thinking about this last night. Do any of the big youth events (i.e. U20 World Cup) get televised where you live? I have never seen one, as they are not on TV here (that I am aware of). Just curious.
The most the U20's etc ever got in Ireland was a news piece, we where really good at youth level when I lived there too so it was surprising it got so little coverage. Sky Sports 2 and whatever did show youth football like that towards the end before I split. Maybe its moreso now.
The U23 world cups are typically not televised, at least not in the soccer channels in the US. They do have TV coverage somewhere else, but I usually follow it by the internet. Again, the best chance to check out the young stars is really in the Olympics but as pointed out before, a lot of teams don't make it with Europe being considered underrepresented.
That's completely untrue. There's this new thing out, you may have heard of it, called the internet, where people here in the US can follow whatever sport they like around the world. Plus, the EPL has been broadcast on US TV for many seasons now and has quite a large following. The Euros are also televised in the US.
Just because it may not be on ESPN or on your local news doesn't mean you can't find it here in the US
I know you can find it on the internet and that's how I've followed a lot of the games. My point was that I had no idea that the following was pretty mainstream. I figured it was a small niche of Americans getting into the EPL. I read an article last time saying some of the matches brought in as much as half a million American viewers. That's what impressed me.
Wow! Ok, it's too bad you did not follow it in London, you would be surprised with the quality of the games. The final between Brazil and Mexico was as good as this WC final and much better than the semi between Netherkads and Argentina IMO. Perhaps you or other Europeans don't see importance on it because Europe has not won it since 1992. But, interestingly enough, used to be quite the opposite. In fact, Spain winning in 1992 was the end of an hegemony of nothing less than 13 Olympic wins in a roll for an European team.
Or perhaps it's because we have a huge tournament just a few weeks before the Olympics in which all our best players participate? Why would we care about the Olympics when we don't send our best players there and half the teams are from Asia and Africa? It's like asking Brazilians to care about the Dutch second division because there might be a few Brazilians there.
There comes a point of oversaturation. In the same year of the Olympics, European football fans already watch the Euro, the Champions League, the Europa League and their national league (and perhaps even other major European leagues). People don't watch the Olympics to see yet another football game. The Olympics are popular exactly because they focus on other sports for once.
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Another way to see it, say you root for the Netherlands and they can bring 3 major stars over 23 years to the tournament. Are there more than 3? In any team, except perhaps for Germany, for that matter?
But all the major stars would be playing in the Euro, unless one happens to get injured and recovers just ahead of the Olympics (but then most players decline the invitation to play there).
The Netherlands was there in 2008. I didn't see any of our games but apparently we made it to the QF. Do you know who our "major stars" were? Kew Jaliens (age 29), Roy Makaay (age 33 - captain) and Gerald Sibon (age 34). Kew Jaliens played for the national team a grand total of 10 times and most of them were friendlies. Makaay was perhaps the best-known player but he was already well past his prime then and hadn't played for the NT since 2005 (he played 1 game for us that year). He was never selected for the WC team. Gerald Sibon never made it to the national team period, the Olympics were the highlight of his international career.
The young players that were selected then are all 26-29 years old now so they should be in their prime. The only one that was selected for this WC is Jonathan de Guzman and he's not in the starting line-up.
But if you want to believe that the Olympics is top quality football played by the cream of the crop youngsters + 3 major super stars, go right ahead.
To me the Olympics are boring, I dont watch many of the sports outside of the games and the one I really do is barely similar to the game in the real world. Football, meh. U23's just isn't interesting. After seasons and finals the Olympics having football with no real tradition in the games just isnt something that would interest me. If I was at a bar and it was on I would watch it and thats about it.
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