Olympic vs. World Cup: comparing South America and Europe...

[ASHOOR]

I know the two tournaments are totally different, but it is funny how the WC and Olympics are total opposites!

While Europeans have dominated the WC last 20 years, it has been the opposite fot the Olympics where no European has won in almost 30 years, Spain being the last one to win gold in Barcelona 1992. And ever since it has been mostly South America (including Mexico) and Africa twice.

1996: Nigeria
2000: Cameroon
2004: Argentina
2008: Argentina
2012: Mexico
2016 : Brazil

It is no secret, while South Americans usually have the better young talent, Europe ends up developing the system needed to win at the senior level (WC)

If only Brazil and other non-European nations can have a better system in place to go from the youth to the senior level.

Brazil could have so many great promising young talent, but like sperms, only a tiny survive past a few years to become something good. Wish the conversion formula can be tweaked to get more young talent making it big later in life.

Imagine if the likes of Pele, Romario and Ronaldo fizzled beyond their early twenties?

 

[Crocodile Bani]

You do make some good points but you have neglected one thing. The Europeans do not take youth tournaments seriously enough, hence they never take their best available team. The Europeans believe that a player is better off training with Juventus or Borussia Dortmund, than letting them go to represent their country in youth tournaments.

Outside of Europe, you still have a number of players who play in their domestic league and have not gone to Europe yet. The Australian team that just beat Argentina was made up of mostly A League players. Australia however was only able to use 2 over age players and not 3 as the overage players who play for European clubs were not released.

I hope Australia beats Egypt and Spain beat Argentina next up.

 

[ASHOOR]

The Europeans believe that a player is better off training with Juventus or Borussia Dortmund, than letting them go to represent their country in youth tournaments

well said man, couldn’t have said it better.

while that is true for the Europeans, you can also claim their youth are simply not as good as South American or some African nations.

European leagues are good enough to get players developed compared to the Brazilian or other non European leagues.

speaking of which, the German team that Brazil beat 4-2 in the opening game, is the Euro U-21 champions, at least most of these players were there, so as good of a European side as it gets.

 

[ASHOOR]

Bani, I just came across this article right after I posted my reply above and it brings up some similar points. In fact, this guy is calling for football to be removed completely from Olympic competition which is a far stretch!

I personally totally enjoy Olympic soccer because it always produces surprise results and new young revelations.

Men’s football is no longer a fit for it to remain in the Olympic Games — Guardian US

Strange mix of development competition and star vehicle leaves public unsure of what it is watching

apple.news

 

[Crocodile Bani]

That is such a British opinion. Aside from when London hosted, the British have never played at the Olympics, so the tournament has zero meaning to them. Getting English Premier League players released for an Olympic games is more difficult than a peace agreement between China and Tibet.
However, the topic of, "Does the Olympics need soccer, or does soccer need the Olympics", always arises. The FIFA world cup has outgrown the Olympics, so you can say that the Olympics need soccer. To be honest, the older I get, the less I care about the whole of the Olympics. I have been into the soccer tournament because Australia is playing, otherwise, I would care about that either. Therefore without soccer, I would not be watching the Olympics at all.

FIFA would love to remove soccer from the Olympics. It helps the developing nations, but most of the big nations, especially Europeans, do not give it any respect. They have changed the eligibility criteria several times. Since Atlanta 1996, it has been Under 23 with 3 over age players. This is the compromise between IOC and FIFA. They will never have the real national teams there.

 

[ASHOOR]

I thought the same thing lol, typical elitist British opinion on soccer.

speaking of which , while it is a watered down version of the WC, it has to remain that way. You don’t want the Olympics to suddenly have the same feel as the WC, otherwise the WC itself won’t be as special anymore.