Olympic football

[Kitsondinho]

I will be at Old Trafford and will watch Mexico v Japan on the concourse before finding my seat for Brazil v S.Korea. I hope it is as good a game as Brazil v Honduras was on Saturday.

[paultheroyal]

USA score with thirty seconds left of extra time to win the football 4:3

[Tails]

Thanks for the update PaultheBBC

[Royal Rother]

Isn't it extraordinary that we, the biggest footballing nation in the world, are technically inferior to Korea, Honduras, Senegal and for Gawd's sake, UAE.

Just astonishing.

[RFCMod]

Enjoyed the Senegal v Mexico game at Wembley
Pretty empty in the concourses so for once it was quite nice to be in the new Wembley for a beer before hand

Not a bad game in the end when both teams started playing

[Pepe the Horseman]

Enjoyed the Senegal v Mexico game at Wembley
Pretty empty in the concourses so for once it was quite nice to be in the new Wembley for a beer before hand

Not a bad game in the end when both teams started playing

Had to lol at the amount of people who left at the end of normal time. Thought Senegal looked the better team going forward, but their defending was shocking.

[TBM]

I had to lol at all the people putting up umbrellas when it started raining

If i was sat behind them i would have been fuming

[Wax Jacket]

Isn't it extraordinary that we, the biggest footballing nation in the world, are technically inferior to Korea, Honduras, Senegal and for Gawd's sake, UAE.

Just astonishing.

we aren't the biggest footballing nation in the world though

[Royal Rother]

Let's not debate "biggest".

Point stands.

[Wax Jacket]

anyway to answer your question, to some extent I think your question answers itself - the assumption that we're amongst the best means that we don't need to worry about things like training, tactics, skills etc. we understand the sport already and don't need to improve ourselves.

[Green]

54 minutes in and getting tired of hearing "Team GB" already. "Great Britain" shurely, all the other nations are referred to by country.

And it's UK anyway isn't it?

Northern Irish olympians compete for us surely?

[cmonurz]

Re RR’s point, I’m sure we’d all like to play like Brazil or Spain, but that’s something that would require 20 years investment and a different mindset in our youth game and national setup.

But so we are ‘technically inferior’ to some teams – we are stronger than many teams, we defend better than many teams, we are fitter than many teams. We are England/Team GB, we have strengths and weaknesses like anyone else.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Have no idea why we expect to do better. Population size, how many people watch the game, wealth, history; none of these decide who wins. How you play is based on what you learn, and while we are a country which sees dance, beauty and expression as embarrassing, feminine and showboating, we may as well pitch our players in the 100m or the boxing if we want to win anything.

You can’t be a footballer without brawn or pace? One of very few countries who still retain those archaic criteria. Even us Reading lads are jumping at replacing Harte, possibly our most technically gifted players, on the account he lacks pace, before we’ve even kicked a ball in the Premier League.

We’ve wandered down a different path to many other nations, and the results show which path was right.

[Royal Rother]

[Green]

We’ve wandered down a different path to many other nations, and the results show which path was right.

Spain or Brazil I guess?

[Extended-Phenotype]

We’ve wandered down a different path to many other nations, and the results show which path was right.

Spain or Brazil I guess?

Dunno. What was the question?

[Big Foot]

54 minutes in and getting tired of hearing "Team GB" already. "Great Britain" shurely, all the other nations are referred to by country.

And it's UK anyway isn't it?

Northern Irish olympians compete for us surely?

The British Olympic Association has resisted the idea of changing the name. It simply states: "Team GB is the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team."

And even a change to "Team UK" would not embrace places like Jersey and the Isle of Man that contribute members. Team GB, NI and Crown Dependencies might prove too much of a mouthful for most commentators.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19047586

[Extended-Phenotype]

54 minutes in and getting tired of hearing "Team GB" already. "Great Britain" shurely, all the other nations are referred to by country.

And it's UK anyway isn't it?

Northern Irish olympians compete for us surely?

The British Olympic Association has resisted the idea of changing the name. It simply states: "Team GB is the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team."

And even a change to "Team UK" would not embrace places like Jersey and the Isle of Man that contribute members. Team GB, NI and Crown Dependencies might prove too much of a mouthful for most commentators.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19047586

Surely it would be just 'The British Islands' as an all encompassing moniker?

[Ian Royal]

54 minutes in and getting tired of hearing "Team GB" already. "Great Britain" shurely, all the other nations are referred to by country.

And it's UK anyway isn't it?

Northern Irish olympians compete for us surely?

Ireland got uppity about having to compete under UK in 1908 so it was changed to GB/Ireland. Things got more complicated from there. I think we've had the discussion already where it was said Norn Iron's can compete for either GB or Ireland.

[Green]

54 minutes in and getting tired of hearing "Team GB" already. "Great Britain" shurely, all the other nations are referred to by country.

And it's UK anyway isn't it?

Northern Irish olympians compete for us surely?

The British Olympic Association has resisted the idea of changing the name. It simply states: "Team GB is the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team."

And even a change to "Team UK" would not embrace places like Jersey and the Isle of Man that contribute members. Team GB, NI and Crown Dependencies might prove too much of a mouthful for most commentators.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19047586

It gets quite political doesn't it. FIFA stopped admitting members I think as places were applying (one of the last ones to get through were the Faroe Islands I think) chiefly to support a bid for political independence.