A Mexican Gold Rush - Mexico Versus Senegal. Mens' Olympic Quarter Finals
Christopher KL Lau
August 4th 2012 (Wembley Stadium, London)
Match Scorers:
Mexico: (Jorge Enriquez, 9 mins, 1-0, Javier Aquino, 62 mins, 2-0, Giovani Dos Santos, 97 mins (ET), 3-2, Hector Herrera, 108 mins (ET), 4-2).
Senegal: (Moussa Konate, 68 mins, 2-1, Ibrahima Balde, 75 mins, 2-2).
Mexico: Corona, Jimenez, Mier, Chavez, Reyes, Enriquez, Aquino, Salcido, Fabian, Peralta, Dos Santos.
Senegal: O. Mane, Ciss, Ba, Gueye, Toure, Souare, S. Mane, Kouyate, Diame, Konate, Yero.
London 2012
The London Olympics 2012 were an incredible two weeks of sports at the highest level and grandoise levels of athletic ability. For a fortnight, London and the United Kingdom were swept up in a definite feel good factor as the British pubic began to forget the mundanity of the everyday grind and a stuttering economy to become completely enraptured with the sense of occasion, thrills and spills of seeing the world’s most illustrious and distinguished olympians compete to the highest level. London was again the center of the universe.
Olympic Football
On the menu was of course, football. Some critics argue that olympic football already adds to an already frenetic international calendar and increases the toil and exhaustion but it makes for some breathtaking and sensational open-ended games where new talent can comes to the fore and make its mark on the global stage. The Olympic competition has been the launch pad for certain nations to build the foundations for their senior men's team, most notably Nigeria in 1996 and Cameroon in 2000.
The Olympic football competition is a football talent scout / agents' dream as well! Players like Romario (Seoul 1988), Michel Platini (Montreal, 1976) and Hernan Crespo (Atlanta 1996) all emerged from the olympics to star on a greater stage. Nations such as Argentina and Brazil take the competition very seriously and the lack of Olympic gold for Brazil in the men's game is a massive source of contention. Argentina swept to gold in Beijing after, Messi, the global superstar, virtually demanded Barcelona release him to play in the Beijing games.
Team Great Britain
Also for the first time since the Rome Olympics in 1960, the British Olympic football team took to the field to try and win glory and gold for the United Kingdom. Many questions remained before the start of the tournament, just how 'united' was the Team GB (Great Britain) team? For a long time, disunity reigned as the parochial, provincial and independent nature of the four home nations (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales) saw protests and anger right from the outset.
The football associations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, already burdened by limited financial resources when compared to the English FA feared that an active participation in Team GB 2012 would lead to an even greater loss of hegemony and identity as the consensus was that their national teams would be undermined if the Team GB concept continueed beyond the 2012 tournament. Throw in centuries of pride and conflict then the simple idea of selecting a few players from each team became an issue of nationalism and patriotism.
Team GB 2012 were eventually managed by Stuart Pearce (Men) and Hope Powell (Women). The majority of the players were English and Welsh. Senior players included in the squad were: Micah Richards, Aaron Ramsey, Joe Allen, Tom Cleverley, Craig Bellamy and Daniel Sturridge. Team GB were knocked out by South Korea who themselves went onto get bronze.
The Ticket Lottery
As with millions of others who wanted to catch some of the action, I had to enter the famous lottery draw whereby you could all, in theory, have an equal chance of gaining tickets from a diverse range of sports in differing price catergories. I had minor success and gained tickets for women's basketball and volleyball.
A family member based in London went online for the second round of tickets and managed to get six tickets for the Men's olympic football competition. The game would be played at Wembley Stadium. This would be my first visit to the new Wembley, I had previously seen a friendly between England and Argentina at the old Wembley; that experience did not leave favourable memories as it was a terrible game and the grand old stadium was showing its age.
Mexico Versus Senegal
The match was a quarter final to be held at the world famous Wembley Stadium. For a while, I was anticipating who I would end up watching and given the draw for the groups, there was a high chance I would end up watching Team GB if they finished second in their group. Their opponents would most likely be Mexico. Since sport is so unpredictable, Team GB punched above their weight and topped the group with Senegal placing second. This was a slight sense of disappointment at not being able to witness Team GB in a historical match but as with thousands others, I was simply delighted to have tickets and savour the atmosphere.
So on a beautiful summer's day, I got the chance to watch Mexico play Senegal; two powerhouse nations from their respective continents, both nations fare well at full national level. The full house crowd except for pockets of Mexican supporters was neutral and the atmosphere was incredibly friendly and fun. Mexican waves were of course at the fore of the day - as almost an on-going pattern, the sun shone then it showered on and off almost the entire afternoon.
The match itself was deemed one of the most entertaining of the tournament. Mexico were in the lead for most of the game and Senegal fought back bravely until two opportunistic goals finally swung the game back in favour of the Mexicans. Both sides had an infinite number of chances to take the game by the scruff of the neck but the Mexicans were more decisive. The neutral crowd were treated to a feast of attacking play. The game ended 4-2 to Mexico infront of a capitivated full house; the following week, they were crowned Olympic Football champions and Brazil's hoodoo in Olympic football continues on.
The Olympic football competition is not taken so seriously by some countries. History has proven that the competition is a great stepping stone for nations to test out younger talent on the wider stage and I am a fan of the Olympic format for this reason.
© Chris Lau & Soccerphile.com
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