Archives for August 2008

If defeat presents an opportunity to reflect and learn, then last week could have been very significant in Brazilian football.

Brazil's quest to win Olympic gold was put back another four years after they went down 3-0 to Argentina in the semi-final in Beijing.

Following the match, under pressure coach Dunga was asked if his team had been too defensive. "Playing the same way," he shrugged, "we won the Copa America."

A year ago in Venezuela it was Brazil who came out on top 3-0 when they met their old rivals in the final. The game plan was similar - thwart Argentina's intricate passing moves in midfield and then break at pace down the flanks - and on that occasion it worked.

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Towards the end of this week one South American side will be pumped up, going for gold.

The other will have just bronze in its sights, and its players may well wish they were already back with their clubs.

In Beijing on Tuesday Brazil face Argentina in the semi-finals of the Olympic football tournament.

A year ago the great rivals met in Venezuela in the final of the Copa America, just as they had three years before in Lima.

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It's now 30 years since, fresh from winning the World Cup, Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa left Argentina and touched down at White Hart Lane.

Tottenham's coup was years ahead of its time. Just a few months later Paul Weller, in the Jam's 'Strange Town' would take an alienated wander along Oxford Street and complain that he felt like "a spaceman from those UFOs. And he was from Woking. What would it be like for Ardiles and Villa coming from the other side of the Atlantic?

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