London: Men's and Women's Soccer Group Stage Recap

The group stage has ended for both the men's and women's tournament in the Olympics. Some things panned out the way we expected but there were definitely a few shockers along the way. A couple underdogs extended their stay in London while one of the favorites found themselves already packing to head home. With that being said, we took a look back at some of the story lines of the group stage.

Pobre Espana

 Spanish soccer players and fans are probably hoping they have only been having one ridiculous nightmare this past week. There is no way the Spaniards are already out of the Olympics right? Well sorry Spain but your dreams of adding Olympic gold to the list of recent soccer achievements is not happening. After a draw with Morocco, the Spaniards concluded their disastrous Olympic campaign where they went 0-2-1, dead last in their group. To add insult to injury they failed to even score a single goal. How could this happen to a European giant that has been dominating the soccer world for the past 4 years? That's a tough question to answer but it's a question that the Spanish tabloids will be asking for a while. Spain will have to erase this from their memory as quickly as possible and begin preparations for 2014 World Cup qualifications to make sure a disappointment of this magnitude never happens again.

Uplifting their Nation

 Anyone who has been paying attention to any international news since January of 2011 will know that the country of Egypt has been in despair. The nation had overthrew their leader Hosni Mubarak in early 2011 during what could only be described as a revolution all across North Africa. Following the ousting of Mubarak things did not really improve. The country is suffering harsh economic times and is still struggling politically. Heading into the Olympics, reports broke out that the whole Egyptian delegation were wearing knock off Nike gear. Nike was nice enough to send them real gear but it was still an embarrassing situation for the country. Desperately in need of a lift, along came the men's soccer team. The Egyptian men signaled their intention to do something special in this tournament when they gave the mighty Brazilians all they could handle in a 3-2 loss. Even though it was a loss, Egypt exceeded all expectations in that game. After a 1-1 draw with New Zealand in their 2nd match it all came down to a meeting with Belarus to determine who would claim the 2nd qualification spot in group C. The Egyptians brought the heat against Belarus and dominated their way to a 3-1 victory. At this point it doesn't matter if Egypt wins anymore games, they have already made their nation proud.

Don't Forget About Canada

So here is the scenario...It is the 15th minute in their 3rd group match, the Canadian women's soccer team is already down 2-0 against a very strong Sweden team and they need at least a draw to advance to the quarterfinals. Sounds impossible right? Yea that's what I was thinking when I was watching the match. To the surprise of us all Canada got a goal at the end of the first half and another one at the end of the second half from Melissa Tancredi to force a 2-2 draw and earn the 7th seed in the quarterfinals. At times during this tournament things have looked bleak for the Canadians. They suffered a 2-1 loss to Japan, they did manage to beat up on South Africa but had a streaky match against Sweden. They were impressive in the second half against Sweden but they can't bank on coming back from 2 goals down in the knockout round. Canada was once a major juggernaut in the women's game but they have not been too impressive in their last few major tournaments. A country that was once able to defeat the United States on any given day now goes into a matchup like that as underdogs. Nevertheless they made a statement against Sweden "DON'T COUNT THEM OUT". They got a pretty favorable draw against Great Britain, which should be an evenly matched game. The Brits are coming off a victory against Brazil, which has them feeling nice so we shall see who's on their game in the quarterfinals.

Brazil Stumbles into Quarterfinals

 Before the women's soccer tournament started many looked at the U.S. Brazil, and Japan as the favorites to win gold. The Japanese haven't looked too sharp but they could argue that it is because their best player and captain Homare Sawa is not 100%. The Brazilians looked comfortable in their first 2 matches but Cameroon and New Zealand weren't exactly the toughest opponents. They were favorites in their matchup against Great Britain but it proved to be a disaster for them as they conceded an early goal just minutes into the game and never recovered. This was the game that would decide which team would have that 2nd seed heading into the quarterfinals. Great Britain managed to beat Cameroon and New Zealand but they didn't look as overpowering as Brazil did against those teams so it was only right to label Brazil the favorite in their matchup. However the Brits have been determined to not disappoint the home fans and they delivered by winning 1-0. You can tell the Brazilian coach and his players were shaken and disturbed by the loss to the point where they huddled around each other at the end of the game and had a long chat/scolding/pep rally to regain mental focus. A loss like that is unaccepted to Brazilians and with all the talent on tat team they should come out in the quarterfinals with fire in their eyes. 

The group stage of the soccer tournament served up some great action and we can't wait for the next round. The men gave us some surprises while the women gave us LOTS of goals. Prepare yourself for some intense action; this is what the quarterfinals will look like for both tournaments;

WOMEN

Great Britain vs. Canada (Friday August 3rd)

United States vs. New Zealand (Friday August 3rd)

Sweden vs. France (Friday August 3rd)

Brazil vs. Japan (Friday August 3rd)

MEN

Japan vs. Egypt (Saturday August 4th)

Mexico vs. Senegal (Saturday August 4th)

Brazil vs. Honduras (Saturday August 4th)

Great Britain vs. South Korea (Saturday August 4th)

Enjoy the games. Thanks for reading and don't forget to follow us on twitter. @EJPOnTheBeat @AGuleed


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