Some of us happen to like those manufacturers' marks and signifiers, thank you.

Though the South Korean approach, which is to use their usual blue shield without any image or adornment whatsoever, just looks generic.

I don't agree. The presence of the badge itself makes it unique.

And I am the Life wrote:

QUOTE:
I watched the highlights of the Argentina game on RTE, and was very impressed by Riquelme. I get the impression that if Riquelme was born 20 years earlier, he would have been considered one of the all time greats. Today he's just not athletic enough to be a really top player, but what he does with the ball is beautiful, and when he decides to dribble past opponents, it's practically impossible to stop him.

I get the same impression from Tevez. He isn't quite fast enough to play the way he wants to today, but in the 80's he'd have been almost as good as maradona.

Yes.... Riquelme did look more than half interested at times. Although I don't think that the ability to dribble past Trent McLennehan and Jade North would ever really qualify anyone to be an "all time great".

Argentina scored a nicely crafted goal... the surprise was that there was only one of them. Saving themselves for the quarter finals, I suppose.

How adidas lost its stripes
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2004/12/01/adidas-041201.html

http://www.brandrepublic.com/bulletins/br/article/526565/adidas-plans-3-solution-olympic-stripe-ban/



Spot the differences

http://www.football-shirts.co.uk/fans/olympic-football-tournament-beijing-08-team-kits_1573

An article about a family friend who was a goalkeeper for the USA in 1956, but didn't get to play.

The story of how he got recruited to play soccer and then go to the olympics shows you how far USA soccer has come in a relatively short period.
http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/769746.html

Reed of the Valley People wrote:

QUOTE:
An article about a family friend who was a goalkeeper for the USA in 1956, but didn't get to play.

The story of how he got recruited to play soccer and then go to the olympics shows you how far USA soccer has come in a relatively short period.

http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/769746.html

Interesting story... I hadn't realised the US had played in the '56 olympics. The story implies that the US military played a significant role in organising American soccer in those days!

Yugoslavia weren't "champions", however. Hungary were reigning olympic champions at the time, and the USSR won the tournament in Melbourne in '56.

My first employer, The Centre Daily Times is known to make a mistake from time to time.

I don't know the details, but there was still a draft on in the 1950s so it stands to reason that the military sports system would play a big part in amateur sports, as it still does in some sports, because most of the player pool was in the service. Olympic soccer was still amateur back then, I think. It certainly was in the US.

That was certainly true during the War. A lot of the best professional baseball players and best hockey players were playing for military teams in the US and Canadian military, respectively.

Seeing as the US will be taking on Nigeria, I was trying to dig up a quote I heard about Nigeria at the 1994 World Cup, about their fixture against Italy, something like "Who are you? We are the champions of Africa." I thought it was in John Foot's excellent Calcio but I can't seem to find it.

2-1 to Nigeria, and they will face ivory Coast in the Quarters on Saturday.

My girlfriend is coming over for the weekend and she has no idea what she is in for.
Wall to wall olympics and Premiership footie all weekend.
This will serverely test her love for me.
I will be cashing all those brownies points earned in barcelona.

what on earth was the nigerian goalkeeper doing to give away the penalty. The first goal was very slick

godot wrote:

QUOTE:
Seeing as the US will be taking on Nigeria, I was trying to dig up a quote I heard about Nigeria at the 1994 World Cup, about their fixture against Italy, something like "Who are you? We are the champions of Africa." I thought it was in John Foot's excellent Calcio but I can't seem to find it.

That year, Nigeria were managed by a Dutch guy called Clemens Westerhof who came out with a couple of good lines during the tournament.

After Nigeria lost 2-1 to Argentina in a great match, he said: "Any player who is not inspired by that kind of a match, and that kind of an atmosphere, should fuck off and play golf with his grandmother."

Another time, a hack asked him if he had imposed a sex ban on his squad, and he replied: "It's not the sex that tires them out -- it's staying up all night looking for it."

Fuck.

Westerhoff is another Redknapp type of coach who alongside Keshi made alot of dough peddling Nigerian footballers to Europe.
He is now back in Nigeria working as a tv pundit (usually putting a large does of badmind) and has a football academy\child labour camp depending on how you see things.

Have not seen the goals yet, but nigeria are sporting a decent team with a very menacing looking strikeforce.

Ivory Coast are looking good... they will give Nigeria a good game in the quarter finals.

Italy are through too, but spoilt the good impression they made in the first two games in a farcical match with Cameroon. After Cameroon missed a penalty, and a Cameroonian was sent off in the first half, neither side made any attempt to win for the rest of the match. Both sides just passed the ball around at the back and made no atttempt to go forward- much to the disgust of the crowd (who had no doubt paid a month's salary to watch what should have been the game of the group.)

Australia are out: they put on an improved performance against the Ivory Coast, but were still woefully short of attacking ideas. Only Reading goalkeeper Adam Federici and FC Nurnberg defender Mathew Spiranovic emerged from the tournament with any real credit. Ivory Coast won 1-0 with an 80th minute goal.

Complete inadequacy in front of goal was Australia's biggest problem, Arnold now has to explain why Djite and Burns didn't get picked.

Australia has consistently played overly defensive football, getting into a pickle requiring a last game win, or qualifying second and getting a tougher opponent in the quarters.

If we are paying Pim Verbeek megabucks he should be able to find the time to coach the Olympic squad. I smell yet another case where the FFA did not want to pay out a contract so had to find a job for Arnold.