Brazil warm up the samba band whilst Mexicans celebrate crazy-go-nuts!
08/08/14 01:07
Footcall VIII Day 5...
Just three days on from Super Saturday and Team GB hauls in a truck more medals in the Olympics as we pay tribute to stars of the velodrome in particular Victoria Peddle-ton and Sir Chris Yo-Ho-A-Hoy, both of whom finish their Olympic careers today. They have represented our nation with tremendous credit and proved to be fine role-models and ambassadors whilst elevating their sport to a new level. We've already exceeded our medal tally from Beijing and we've still got a few days to go yet. Rumour has it now that Sir Chris Hoy has the most British gold medals, Sir Steve Redgrave is considering a come back!
But we're not here for bicycle races, we're here for football. Today saw the semi-final matches as Mexico took on Japan in the early kick off. You have to hand it to the Japanese team, their fitness level is unbelievable and after they destroyed Spain one nil (could have easily been seven) they certainly deserved their semi final place and must have been very confident of success. This attitude paid off as they took the lead with an early lead from Yuki Otsu. This left the Mexicans to fight from behind for the first time in the tournament and they hit back in the 31st minute with an equalizer from Marco Fabian. It stayed one all up until half time and after the break Mexico broke the deadlock. Japan's keeper, Gonda, rolled the ball out to midfielder Ohgihara who obviously must have been wondering if he had any Brasso at home for polishing his medal, as his pocket was well and truly picked by Oribe Peralta who launched the ball into the top left corner well out of reach of Gando's dive. Mexico started to look strong now and really imposed themselves on the game. Finally substitute Javier Cortes secured the victory as he made a superb run into the box and slid the ball under the keeper on the rain soaked Wembley and carry his nation into their first ever Olympic final.
The Old Trafford evening match saw gold medal favourites, Brazil, take on Korea. Of course this should have been Great Britain if wasn't for those darn penalty shoot-outs. Do you think we could get Sir Chris take the GB football team on a Go-Ape team building exercise and instil some self belief? Well let's get over it, Korea were here on merit and gonna give it a go against the Brazilians. The Koreans certainly work hard and were unlucky not get one, if not two, penalties (and we know how good they are from the spot). But Brazil rode their luck and with the ingenuity of the likes of Oscar and Neymar there really was only ever going to be one winner in this match. It was Romulo who was first on the score sheet and one nil was the half time score despite Brazil's dominance. Soon into the second half, Leandro Damiao added his name to the list, not once but twice as he scored two goals within seven minutes of each other as he took the credit for some fantastic skills from the boy Neymer. This left Brazil the luxury of playing keep ball for thirty odd minutes with little or no worries from their opposition. This result not only saw them canter into the Wembley final against Mexico but also means they have scored three goals in each of the five games they've played in this competition. Whilst they might have a tougher match on Saturday, they certainly look the business and must be odds on for gold.
And so to the Footcall league...
Well loookee here... we have a new leader! Leigh "The French Coalition" Boardman struck gold today with a perfect eight and sees her name up in lights (well highlighted in red at least) atop the Footcall league. I need to have this clarified with the Footcall historians but I think this is the first time she has been on top. We mustn't overlook Patrick "Getmeoutofhere!" Ferguson who is right up there as well on 33 points and just the Group Stages points separating him from Leigh. Stewart perhaps a Footcall wake up call as he slips to third whilst Paul "we were there at Wembley, did you spot us?" Wakefield races into fifth. Richard "I might just see that ten quid again" Goodwin, Tim "the Seagull" Jennings, Graham "that's what I'm talking about" Weaver and Jo "my Footcall experience is paying off now!" Mackenzie all move into the money bracket with perfect eights today.
Rob "all bought and paid for" Smith, Manoj "good try Roheet, have another go in 2014" Gupta and Dan "can we open a Footcall store on the Las Vegas Strip?" Shroeck, Keith "not giving up yet" Firmston and Maxine "like West Brom avoiding relegation" Coupland also score eight pointers today and have done their Footcall VIII campaign no harm at all.
Leanne "jeeeeeze Sean what have you done?" Maloney is in pole position for the vuvu and could probably order the open top bus now if she would like to!
That'll do for now, just one more game to go and we are done, see you Saturday.
Until then...
Dj