Olympic & Paralympic Games London 2012

[Dingle]

Fuck.

[Adam]

Ah, balls.

No Bale or Beckham, this is getting less interesting by the day :/

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Posted in the General Football thread, though thought it was worth putting this in here:

Jack Butland (Birmingham), Jason Steele (Middlesbrough); Ryan Bertrand (Chelsea), Steven Caulker (Tottenham), Craig Dawson (West Brom), Micah Richards (Manchester City), Neil Taylor (Swansea), James Tomkins (West Ham); Joe Allen (Swansea), Tom Cleverley (Manchester United), Jack Cork (Southampton), Ryan Giggs (Manchester United), Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal), Danny Rose (Tottenham), Scott Sinclair (Swansea); Craig Bellamy (Liverpool), Marvin Sordell (Bolton), Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea).

Cleverley included, hopefully he get's a bit of game time to improve his match fitness ahead of the new season. What does everyone fancy starting lineup wise?

[Adam]

Looks a solid squad, of course would've looked better with Bale in there and I do wish Beckham was going but ah well.

Butland

Richards Dawson Tomkins Bertrand

Ramsey Cleverley Giggs

Bellamy Sturridge Sinclair

I'd go with that looking at the choices.

[Cymbols]

Butland

Richards-Tomkins-Caulker-Taylor

Sinclair-Cleverly-Allen-Ramsey-Giggs

Sturridge

[Matt]

I thought Fergie said no-one except Giggs could go?

[Dan]

Butland

Richards-Tomkins-Caulker-Taylor

Sinclair-Cleverly-Allen-Ramsey-Giggs

Sturridge

Can't see him taking Bellamy as an over 23 player and not playing him.

[Jimmy]

And Giggs can't really do the business as a winger anymore, see him playing in the centre.

[Summers]

Squad looks weak. The O23 players are terrible picks, coupled with our terrible manager.. should be fun.

[Dingle]

Completely agree. It looks highly average and I'd rather we had taken three more under 23 players than give Richards an obligatory international tournament, and put Giggs and Bellamy in a squad where you have to work everyone around them. It's bad enough when we do it with Rooney, but if we manipulate the team so that Giggs and Bellamy can play then we're definitely screwed. Still, few Swansea guys in there that might be interesting to see, doubt we'll be in the tournament for long though.

[Cymbols]

GB will make the semi finals at least I think. Senegal and the UAE will pose no problems, Uruguay shouldn't. Quarters- Mexico, Switzerland, South Korea, none to difficult. Probably Brazil in the semi, that's probably when we bow out. But then we'd have a bronze medal match.

[Johnny Drama]

I think we can get to the semis, not a great squad but it never was going to be when they said the boys who played in Euro's wouldn't get picked

[Lineker]

Stuart Pearce says his decision not to pick David Beckham in his Team GB squad for London 2012 was made purely for football reasons, and stressed he would not pick any player based on sentiment.

Pearce has named his 18-man squad, leaving out Beckham as expected.

"Form plays a big part and I don't think there is a manager around who picks on sentiment," he said.

"I have to be comfortable when I have made decisions based solely on football grounds alone, nothing else."

Pearce also ruled out any possibility of using Beckham in a coaching capacity, although the British Olympic Association (BOA) has been in touch with the LA Galaxy midfielder's representatives about a possible Games role.

"We only have seven passes [for backroom staff]. We have no passes for that," added Pearce.

"The players have to be prepared to come through the door on form alone and that happens to be the case with staffing too. They have their role to play."

BOA chef de mission Andy Hunt said it would be "fantastic" to have Beckham involved in some capacity.

He said: "We'd be delighted and honoured to have David Beckham related to Team GB more broadly.

"That would be fantastic. I've made contact with his representatives over the weekend and we'll see how that moves forward."

It had long been anticipated that Beckham would be included as one of the three overage players in the squad following his prominent role in promoting London 2012.

But Pearce instead opted for Craig Bellamy, Ryan Giggs and Micah Richards - three players the England Under-21 manager believes will give Team GB their best chance of winning a medal.

Pearce said he made it clear when he was appointed that he would only pick players based on merit, and would not have taken the job if he was not in full control over squad selection.

"From the offset, when I sat down with the [Football Association] chairman David Bernstein, some time before Christmas, he offered me the opportunity to pick the squad," he said.

"If at that stage he had said to me that certain individuals would have to be included I certainly wouldn't do that job. I don't know any manager worth their salt who would have.

"Right through this process I have had carte blanche to pick whatever players I regard as best.

"I do enough hours watching matches and I think I've done due diligence on all the players here."

The Team GB squad is made up of 13 Englishmen and five Welsh players, with no representatives from either Scotland or Northern Ireland.

"I've got a list of names written down now, who I think ability-wise are good enough to do a job," said Pearce.

"I didn't pick on personality, I didn't pick on ticket sales and I certainly wasn't picking on nationality."

[Cymbols]

Spain's olympic football squad looks very strong. They have the likes of David de Gea, Jordi Alba, Javi Martinez, Mikel San Jose, Christian Tello, Juan Mata, Oriol Romeu, Iker Munian.

Edited July 3, 2012 by cymru96

[Dingle]

One of those players is not like the others. Will be interesting to see Tello playing against people more on his level, because besides his pace he didn't stand out that much to me for Barcelona. But I admit that it's hard to stand out when Messi, Xavi and Iniesta are all playing around you, but he fit in quite well, so should be good to see him.

[Lineker]

The BBC will show the warm-up games for Team GB's men and women's football ahead of London 2012.

BBC One kicks off its Olympic football coverage on Friday 20 July, live from the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough.

Team GB women take on Sweden at 15:45 BST (16:00 BST kick-off), followed by Great Britain's men against Brazil at 19:30 BST (19:45 BST kick-off).

It will be the only chance to see the teams play before the Olympic football tournament begins five days later.

Team GB women take on New Zealand at the Millennium Stadium (16:00 BST kick-off) on 25 July, while the men's team start their competition against Senegal at Old Trafford (20:00 BST kick-off) on 26 July.

Both of Team GB's opening group games will also be live on BBC One.

[Rafael]

18-man squad for Brazil was announced right now :

Goalkeepers - Neto (Fiorentina), Rafael Cabral (Santos)

Defenders - Thiago Silva (Milan) , Bruno Uvini (Sao Paulo) , Juan (Internazionale)

Wing-backs - Danilo (Porto), Rafael (Man Utd), Alex Sandro (Porto), Marcelo (Real Madrid)

Midfielders - Sandro (Tottenham), Romulo (Spartak Moscow), Paulo Henrique Ganso (Santos), Lucas Moura (Sao Paulo), Oscar (Internacional)

Attackers - Alexandre Pato (Milan), Hulk (Porto), Leandro Damiao (Internacional), Neymar (Santos)

Edited July 5, 2012 by RafaelFms

[Lineker]

Rafael or Fabio?

[Rafael]

Rafael or Fabio?

It's Rafael. Who's not on loan to QPR?

[Lineker]

18-man squad for Brazil was announced right now :

Goalkeepers - Neto (Fiorentina), Rafael Cabral (Santos)

Defenders - Thiago Silva (Milan) , Bruno Uvini (Sao Paulo) , Juan (Internazionale)

Wing-backs - Danilo (Porto), Rafael (QPR), Alex Sandro (Porto), Marcelo (Real Madrid)

Midfielders - Sandro (Tottenham), Romulo (Spartak Moscow), Paulo Henrique Ganso (Santos), Lucas Moura (Sao Paulo), Oscar (Internacional)

Attackers - Alexandre Pato (Milan), Hulk (Porto), Leandro Damiao (Internacional), Neymar (Santos)

:/