Olympics are over and the Season is Beginning

 

Today is the last day of the Olympics, and I write right now, the closing ceremonies are currently going on. I follow a lot of the Olympic athletes on Twitter and many of them are heading home, have finally landed, or have decided to stay for the ceremonies. The 30th Olympiad was great! Hosted by a great country and all the events were super exciting. Some were unexpected and some were so expected and mind blowing. I watched many different events such as field hockey, volleyball, handball, swimming, gymnastics, and the most important football (soccer for the Americans). Sadly I wasn't able to watch the finals for any both the men or women's finals because I had school the day of the women's finals and I had a scrimmage I had to go to for the men's finals! OF course when I came home I found out the results right away. I was soooo happy for the USWNT! They were able to retain their gold medal by beating Japan 2-1. Carli Loyd scored both goals and Hope Solo (from the highlights, replays, and everything I read on Twitter) played a really great game making multiple important saves. For the men's finals it was Mexico vs. Brazil and the score was also 2-1 with the Mexican side taking the gold medal. Brazil was the favorite because of all the big names like Oscar, Neymar, etc. But Mexico brought the gold home and this is their first time winning a medal in Olympic soccer. Not bad, not bad at all.

The medal race between China and the USA were really close. Each day or two the country in the lead would change. But near the end of the competition the USA took over. I mean took over. You can see the picture for yourself. The USA dominated the Olympics. America may be known for it's fast food restaurants and obese issue, but when we play sports, we take them seriously.

Sad that the Olympics are over, BUT football season is about to begin really soon. Most club's pre-seasons are over by now and everyone is getting ready for their first league games. The most recent major pre-season game was the FA Community Shield where Manchester City (current Premier League winners) took on Chelsea (current FA Cup winners). Chelsea were the first to draw blood as Torres opened the scoring (A new season and a fresh start from the success of Euro 2012, hope all goes well for him). But Yaya Toure equalized very soon after. Ivanovic got a red card for a reckless tackle sending him off and leaving Chelsea to 10 men. During the second half Tevez and Nasri were able to put City up 3-1. Chelsea fought back with a deflection from Pantilomon which gave Bertrand a goal to put the score to 3-2. That wasn't enough though as the whistle blew and Manchester City were able to grab the Community Shield. This is only the beginning and I can't wait till the EPL and La Liga start! EXCITED.

Off to the Finals!

It is set in stone and the two teams onto the Olympic Women's Soccer Finals are Japan and the USA! It was a very intense day of soccer which began with Japan playing France. Japan, who are currently the reigning world champions beat France 2-1. Japan got both of their goals from set pieces and France was able to get a goal in the last 15-20mins of the game. It wasn't enough though, as the final whistle blew, sending Japan off to the Olympic gold match.  

Now the USA vs. Canada game was a really different story. Nothing like the Japan vs. France game. IT WAS A NAIL BITING ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT GAME! INTENSE! USA were the favorites to go onto the final, but Christine Sinclair, the Canadian captain scored the opening goal at the 22' mark. Time kept ticking, but the USA brought it back with a Megan Rapinoe corner, which went into the goal directly. May not have been a pretty goal, but it's a goal none the less. The game is now tied, but Canada comes back with another goal from Sinclair which gives Canada the lead again. BUT the USA, a team that doesn't give up, came back again with a goal bouncing off the pole from Rapinoe. It's tied 2-2. No the game isn't over yet. Canada responded AGAIN with ANOTHER GOAL (a header) from SINCLAIR who was assisted by a corner kick, giving her a hat-trick and putting Canada in the lead AGAIN. As time was going, the Canadian goal keeper got called out on time wasting, which is a very rare call. This gave the USA an indirect free kick which then lead to a penalty kick because of a hand ball in the box. Wambach slotted the goal to the left side of the goal tying up the game 3-3. Overtime it went. 

Another 30mins of intense soccer continued on and it looked as if it were going to go into PKs. BUT OUT OF NO WHERE, during three minutes of stoppage time, a beautiful cross from O'Rielly met with Alex Morgan's head and went straight into the Canadian's goal. Morgan has been criticized for not scoring many goals during the Olympics, but I'm pretty sure that shut the critics up. She came up and probably scored the most important goal of her career so far and the Olympic games. And that ended it. The USA won 4-3 after 120mins of soccer. The Canadians played well, but they didn't get the result that they wanted (of course). So it's Japan vs. USA for the gold medal match and France vs. Canada for the bronze medal match. It's like a redo of the World Cup for the USA (almost). For the Canada vs. France match, whoever loses that game, it's going to be real tough because it's literally all that hard work for no medal. 

AGAIN GO USA, USA, USA. That game will be played on Thursday, August 8th at 7:45pm London Time. Sadly I will be back in school for that match, so I'm going to have to wait to get home to see who won that game. But still USA, USA, USA. 

Olympic Women's Soccer Semi-Finals

 

The Olympics have been very exciting this year. Original records being broken and world records being remade; it really has been a sight to see. As an American, I've obviously been rooting for America, GO USA and boy have the United States been showing their stuff. As of the current medal count, the USA has the most medals with 43 in total with China in second with 42 total medals. The USA also leads in gold medals with 21 and China with 20. I do get emotional when I watch the Olympics. I don't go all out crying, but I do get teary eyed. It's been good so far for the United States, with Missy Franklin, Ryan Lochte, The Fab 5, Gabby Douglas, and many others winning gold medals, especially Michael Phelps who was now broken the record for most Olympic medals won. He started out a little slow in the beginning of the competition, but as the races progressed, he showed that he is indeed the best in the world. 



But there is still a ways to go in the Olympics. Games and races are still being fought for and that brings us to the Women's Olympics Soccer semi-finals stage. The quarter-finals were played today: USA vs. New Zealand, Canada vs. Great Britain, Japan vs. Brazil, and France vs. Sweden. I was able to watch the second half of the US vs. New Zealand game, and I watched a bit of the Japan vs. Brazil game. The quarter-finals ended with USA winning 2-0, France coming back 2-1, Canada sending the host country off 2-0, and Japan stopping the Brazilians 2-0. So the semi-finals line up is USA vs. Canada and France vs. Japan.



I have to say that Japan is a very good side. I know they won the Women's World Cup, but I've never really watched Japan play until today. I was able to see their style and I gotta say that they have really good ball control and passing. They are also pretty good at defending. They have proven that even if your team is relatively small in size, that does not mean you can't play good soccer. I am still rooting for team USA as they are the favorites to retain their title from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and win the gold. This can get pretty interesting because for all we know the final can end up as a USA vs. Japan again and the Japanese are good contenders for the gold. We'll just have to wait and see. 

Happy Olympics everyone. Hope everyone is enjoying the games as much as I am. Love watching the Olympics! and.....GO TEAM USA!