Shanghaiist: China opens Olympic soccer with win, but is the tournament irrelevant?

Cammy

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:00:20 +0800

The full article on China Sports Today explains the men's / women's context. The women's tournament is indeed more relevant - as evidenced by the fact there are no age restrictions on women's squad - another clear example of the politicking between Fifa and the Olympic body. The intention of this article is not to rubbish the tournament - football has the potential to be wonderfully entertaining regardless of what level it is being played at and its great that the Chinese public will get the chance to take in such an international tournament. It is just trying to put it all in perspective, simply, Olympic football isn't that relevant so if China fails, they needn't worry.

moneyinabox

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:53:14 +0800

I agree with Cameron, but lomsaku makes a very good point. However, I think most women players view the WWC as a bigger tournament than the olympics. Jake, Messi told Barca to get fucked and played tonight. Furthermore he scored.

lomsaku

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:21:21 +0800

I'm a very casual soccer fan, who managed to score tickets to the Women's soccer final match. Is this analysis and conclusion that the Olympics is an irrelevant tournament applicable to the women's squads as well? It seems like the Olympics would be more important to the women than the men, because in the Olympics a gold medal is a gold medal, no matter who which sex wins it. The gold medal symbolizes national pride and contributes toward the total medal count. In this respect, the women's performance is just as important as the men's. In the other major tournament (World cup), everybody focuses on the Men's tourney and largely ignores the women's.

Jake Newby

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:04:09 +0800

incidentally, I have to agree with Cameron's piece. Although i'll probably still try and go to one of the games. After all, an international football match (even in a crap tournament with weakened teams), is still an international football match at the end of the day. It can't be much worse than the last football game at Shanghai Stadium

Jake Newby

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:57:48 +0800

actually, I think Shanghai Stadium is hosting matches from today, starting around about now with Australia vs Serbia. It'll be followed later this evening by Ivory Coast and Argentina (minus Messi). The matches on Sunday will be the second round of group games for these teams