Men’s Olympics Football | Japan 2021…

el3mel

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Hey we managed a draw vs Spain? That's really much better than what I was expecting.
 

SilentWitness

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Hatrick in 30 minutes so will be coming back to premier league in good form.

I always think with him one season he's going to explode and hit 20 + goals and good number of assists and then Everton will have clubs bidding 90m odd for him.
just need to play him as a CF and we will be grand.
 

ForEverEleven

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2 Leverkusen players on the scoresheet, can´t complain about that.
 

hasanejaz88

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Neuhaus, Musiala, Baku, Moukoko, Nmecha for example. There are also better "senior" players than Amiri or Kruse. E.g. Boateng, Reus or Dahoud didn't make the EC, heck, Brazil and Spain are even bringing players, who played with the first team this summer. Their clubs must love that.
Isn't Neuhaus 24, born in 1997? Oh wait Henrichs is also born in 97 and playing. Then yea Neuhaus could have played. I'll give you have Baku as well, though Nmecha I'm not sure how great he is and Max Kruse is playing as a striker and he's a really good player himself (maybe not as a lone striker though).

Regarding the over 23 players, I don't think any team regularly send their best players to fill that role. It's usually taken by players who aren't the most important players for the national team. I biggest player I can remember to play in that role was Neymar in 2015 but that was also because the Olympics were in Brazil.

Germany has been pretty succesful with those subpar teams lately though...

U21 Euro 2015 semi-finalists
Olympics 2016 finalists
Confed Cup 2017 winners
U21 Euro 2017 winners
U21 Euro 2019 finalists
U21 Euro 2021 winners

They were always overachieving with those average squads. This feels like the time they finally get shown up but you never know...maybe they scrape through to the next round and then manage to surprise us again.
Yea we've seen the 2017 U21 winners regress. Other than Gnabry, no other player from that squad has become a regular for the national team yet. Amongst the current winners, I don't see a lot of potential as well. Wirtz is of course a standout but then it's a bunch of decent players in Nmecha and Baku.

You compare them to the 2009 U21 winners and there is a stark difference even considering what they had achieved by then. Ozil was a key player for a team that reached the UEFA Cup final and won the DFB Pokal. Boateng had played in the semi final of the UEFA Cup that same year, Howedes and Neuer had a couple of seasons in the UCL, where they reached the latter stages, Khedira had also won the league with Stuttgart. This is excluding Hummels who has a great 6 months with Dortmund before that.

The talent of those players was clear to see even before they won the U21 title, I just don't see anywhere near that amount of talent in the current crop of players. The group of players with Brandt, Draxler, Dahoud, Sule, Goretzka, Tah etc also looked really talented but a number of them haven't fulfilled that potential.

Maybe I've just become more cynical with age but yea I think the last good youth group we had was the Goretzka batch and don't see a lot of talent in the next bunch.
 

do.ob

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Isn't Neuhaus 24, born in 1997? Oh wait Henrichs is also born in 97 and playing. Then yea Neuhaus could have played. I'll give you have Baku as well, though Nmecha I'm not sure how great he is and Max Kruse is playing as a striker and he's a really good player himself (maybe not as a lone striker though).

Regarding the over 23 players, I don't think any team regularly send their best players to fill that role. It's usually taken by players who aren't the most important players for the national team. I biggest player I can remember to play in that role was Neymar in 2015 but that was also because the Olympics were in Brazil.
A semi realistic lineup for Team D would have been something like this:
-----------------------------Müller
-----------Pieper------Boateng----Uduokhai
Baku--------Arnold-------------Neuhaus--------Max
------------------Wirtz--------------Musiala
----------------------------Nmecha

Brazil even took players like Richarlison, who has played in every single NT game for two years now, Spain took U. Simon, Pedri and Pau Torres, who all started at the EC.
 
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unplayable

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Germany has only 13 outfield players left and three of them are one booking away form suspension.
Let's hope we can even field eleven players against Ivory Coast.
 

Afganitia

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First Spanish goal in the Olympics since year 2000.
 

FCBarcelona

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First Spanish goal in the Olympics since year 2000.
Well... very unlucky silver in 2000.
Then Spain only classified for London 2012.
It's been 4 games without scoring (2D-2L 0-2 goals). It is a lot, but it doesn't sound as bad as 21 years without scoring.
 

Bertie Wooster

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Are posters wanting Ivory Coast to advance in the tournament as far as possible, or to get knocked out v Germany so that Bailly and Amad come back here quicker?

Usually, if it was a kids summer tournament, I'd just be wanting our youth players to play well and win the competition to gain positive experience; whereas, in the senior tournaments, I'm happy enough for them all to get knocked out early - even England - so they can rest and start their pre-season with us sooner rather than later.

Ideally, considering all our other absentees, I'd have preferred neither to have gone to this and to have played in our friendlies instead. However, now they're there, and missing those friendlies, and our other stars will be returning in a week or two as well, then, for Amad's development, I'll be happy enough to see them go all the way provided both, especially Amad, play in the games and perform well.
 

MrMarcello

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I see there were a couple wild football results and a five red cards yesterday. France/South Africa, Germany/Saudi, Honduras/New Zealand appear to have been fantastic matches for neutrals.
 

OleBoiii

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As things stand now: Japan, Brazil, South Korea and Spain will be the 4 group winners. I reckon one of these will win the whole thing.
 

el3mel

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Could have actually finished top of the group if we didn't feck up against Argentina.

But progressing from the group is already more than what I was expecting. Great result.
 

OleBoiii

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As things stand now: Japan, Brazil, South Korea and Spain will be the 4 group winners. I reckon one of these will win the whole thing.
Phew, I nearly jinxed Spain with this post. Unless France can score 5 goals in the next 20 minutes it seems like I was right.

Japan
Mexico
South Korea
New Zealand
Spain
Egypt
Brazil
Ivory Coast

* Group winners in bold

Which nation will win it? My money is on Japan. They've been really solid and they got the home advantage.
 

the_cliff

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Happy for Egypt, played really well the whole tournament and managed to give Spain a real game. Deserved to go through in the end.
 

Idxomer

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Could have actually finished top of the group if we didn't feck up against Argentina.

But progressing from the group is already more than what I was expecting. Great result.
Can't believe this team is coached by Shawky Gharib, it's way better than I expected.
 

el3mel

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Can't believe this team is coached by Shawky Gharib, it's way better than I expected.
Can't even imagine he's pulling out these achievements considering I have never been that fully convinced with him as a manager, but now he won AFCON U-23 in 2019 and now progressed through a very difficult group in the Olympics. Regardless of what happens against Brazil this tournament has been a success for this team.
 

DWelbz19

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Imagine sending your Euros team to the Olympics and still getting pumped so early