All the favourites cruised through the group stage in style at the 2008 Beijing Olympic men's soccer tournament, while the three African teams posed big threats in the intensified title race after some outstanding performances.
Defending champions Argentina and their old foe Brazil were undoubtedly the most shining teams in the first stage, both getting the utmost nine points out of three consecutive wins and their top stars showing great form.
Barcelona's prodigy Lionel Messi got rid of the tug-of-war between his club and his national team timely after FIFA, IOC intervened in the case and the Argentine Football Association made a lot of compromise with Barca, and proved the necessity of the brawl by some decisive goals and assists.
Messi, Juan Riquelme and Co continued the fluent passing play of the Argentine team. After conquering Cote d'Ivoire, Australia with some difficulty to seal early qualification, coach Sergio Batista used his second squad to beat Serbia 2-0 in the last outing.
Ronaldinho's Brazil started slowly by narrowly beat a Belgium side 1-0, but then they found themselvers from New Zealand and China. The two big victories, 5-0 over New Zealand and 3-0 over China, have witnessed Ronaldinho, Diego's reviving form.
Besides the south Americans, the European sides also did some good job with Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium qualified for the last eight, while Serbia is the only team to be eliminated.
Pierluigi Casiraghi's Italy is the pride of the Europeans. They pounced Honduras and South Korea with 3-0 respectively, before earned a cautious draw with Cameroon to top Group D. The Italians' trident Giuseppe Rossi, Tommaso Rocchi and Sebastian Giovinco have proved their striking power and the whole team played with excellent organization and discipline.
The Dutch side met some trouble to settle for two points from two games, and a 1-0 victory over Japan salvaged them to qualify as runners-up of Group B. The Oranje will collide with the Albiceleste in the quarter-final, which is certainly a heavyweight game.
Belgium nearly stunned the Brazilians in the first game, and rallied with two convincing wins to advance to the next round, in which they will encounter Italy.
The Africans have made huge success so far in the tournament. Ivory Coast was just unlucky in the 2-1 defeat to Argentina, Nigeria qualified easily as Group B leaders, and Cameroon was indomitable in Group D. The three Africans are resolved to get the best result in the next stage, and both Nigeria and Cameroon had been the Olympic champions. The Flying Eagles won a gold medal at Atlanta in 1996 and the Indomitable Lions did the same feat at Sydney in 2000.
With some great individual players like Ivorian Salomon Kalou, Gervinho, Cameroon's Christian Bekamenga and Nigerian Taye Taiwo, the African trio are likely to strengthen their steps in the title race. As Nigeria will play Cote d'Ivoire in the quarter-final, the Africans have secured a birth in the semifinals, and Cameroon will force Brazil to try hard to advance to the last four.
The four Asian teams are the losers in the group stage. Hosts China went out of the competition in humiliating way. Despite Dong Fangzhuo's solo goal against the Kiwis, China should feel shameful after the 2-0 and 3-0 defeats by Belgium and Brazil, in the former one they received two red cards for the players' rude deeds and had only fourteen men to choose in the last match.
Japan got early exit after two defeats, and could not prevent the third one from happening at last. South Korea and Australia had better performance, the Koreans managed a win against Honduras and a draw with Cameroon, the Olyroos fought out a draw with Serbia, and left Argentina and Ivory Coast difficult to unpick their defence, which were not enough to help them pass.
The United states suffered greatly in their late slip in the 2-1 loss to Nigeria, before that they played very well and got an advantageous position to qualify with four points.
Honduras is the last team to mention. Although the Catrachos made big efforts, they lost all the three games without a single goal.
The 24 group matches produce a total of 50 goals, with an average of about 2.08 goals per match.
(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2008)