Chapter 353: A Different Olympics (8)
PS: The next time I add it is 50000 recommendations, well, that's it.
One of the favourites for the championship, the Argentine Olympic team, was beaten by Italy 4-0 in the semi-finals, after all, the strength of this Argentine Olympic team is obvious to all, if Simeone, Veron and Batty replace the two full-backs and Crespo, then this is the main lineup of the Argentine national team.
However, it is such an Argentine team that will be beaten by the Italian Olympic team without any defense, and this result makes people have to wonder whether Argentina is too weak, or Italy is too strong?
The Argentine media obviously will not admit that their country's team was eliminated by the Italians because of their lack of strength, and in their opinion, the main reason why the Argentine Olympic team was eliminated by their opponents in the semi-finals was Passarella's stubbornness, which made extremely serious mistakes in the formation of the lineup.
Just like the Copa America a year ago, Argentina, who won the first two games of the group stage, had already learned that Brazil had locked up the top spot in the other group before the Zuihou match against the United States, and all the Argentine media and celebrities advised Passarella to win the Americans to avoid an early encounter with Brazil in the knockout round, but Passarella had to screw up with everyone and changed to a full substitute lineup in a group stage in Zuihou (in fact, to correct his cronie Gallardo), As a result, the Americans, who had already been out of the tournament early, scored three goals in a row and were forced to meet Brazil in the quarterfinals.
The result is known, Brazil eliminated Argentina with a "hand of God" from Turio, leaving the Pampas Eagles home in the quarter-finals.
Now, a year later, Passarella clearly did not learn the lessons of last year's Copa America, facing the powerful Italian Olympic team, he actually pressed the big man Diego Simeone to the bench, and chose to support Bassetez and Morales, who play in Argentina, but it turned out to be another heavy defeat.
As a result, the Argentine media began to express strong suspicions about Passarella's aggressive promotion of Argentine domestic players and his bad relationship with international players playing in Europe after two failures in two years.
The Italian media cheered for the wonderful performance of the national Olympic team, the poor performance of the national team in the European Championship made many people extremely depressed this summer, and the news of the four-goal massacre of Argentina by the national Olympic team relieved their original depressed mood a lot.
"When we watched Pagliuca and Nesta's performances at the Olympics in front of the TV, and when we think back to the national team's defeat in the group stage of the European Championship the following month, we have reason to wonder what kind of criteria the former national team coach Sacchi used to select the players." This is the comment issued by the Milan sports newspaper after Italy reached the final, and the topic is naturally inseparable from some players who are depressed under Sacchi, "Pagliuca proved with his outstanding performance at the Olympics that he is more qualified to be the number one goalkeeper of the national team than Peruzzi, who played three full games, and his poor performance at Inter Milan last season was more due to the turmoil of the team than his own decline; Nesta, who is a staple at the back, is clearly more qualified to wear the national team shirt than the in-form Costacuta and Abroni; In addition, there are the twin stars of Del Pierrot and Philippe Inzaghi......"
This report from Milan Sports Newspaper put Sacchi, who had resigned from the position of coach of the Italian national team, on the cusp again, and by the way, it also made Sacchi bear the sin of "knowing no one and not knowing anyone".
Sacchi, who was on the back of his mind for another time, did not remain silent when questioned by reporters, but insisted that his choice was not wrong, and that Italy's exit from the group stage was purely accidental, and the reason he gave was also strong: just because these players performed well at the Olympics did not necessarily mean that they would be able to perform well at the bigger European Championships, and experienced players like Costacuta and Abroni were the foundation of the team.
When Sacchi said this, it was obvious that he had been able to go from an obscure second-division coach to a Shijie coach back then, relying on many young talents, such as Maldini Jr. and Costacuta, who were in their early twenties at the time, and Donadoni, who was not yet in the prime of his career......
So, having dug a hole for himself and jumping in to try the size himself, Saki was once again caught up in an endless debate with the Italian media.
Not to mention Saki's, let's turn our attention back to the Olympics.
With Italy and Nigeria both winning in the semi-finals and advancing to the Olympic finals, the South American duo who lost in the semi-finals had to fight for the bronze medal that they didn't even have in mind before the start of the tournament.
Brazil, who were eliminated by Nigeria by three goals in the semi-finals, lost the possibility of competing for the gold medal, but with the encouragement of veteran coach Zagallo, the players of the Brazilian Olympic team quickly came out of the shadow of being reversed by their opponents, and the team was determined to take the bronze medal home as a memento of their trip to the United States.
Argentina's state at this time is completely opposite to Brazil's, the heavy defeat to Italy three days ago is still haunting the hearts of these young Argentines, and Passarella obviously did not expect the previous fiasco to leave such a heavy shadow in the hearts of the players, and still put a group of players in the starting list.
In this way, in this three or four finals, the Argentine Olympic team, which had no intention of fighting, met the Samba Army who had nowhere to vent their anger after being eliminated by Nigeria, and the Pampas Eagles were ravaged by their rival Brazil after losing to Italy in the semifinals, Ronaldo scored twice in this game, Bebeto, Savio, Carlos, Juninho scored a goal each, and finally the Brazilian Olympic Team defeated Argentina 6-0 and brought an Olympic bronze medal back to Brazil, Proving himself with strength, the previous defeat to Nigeria was nothing more than an accident.
The Argentine Olympic team, which conceded ten goals and did not score one goal in two games, was taken by the fans with the title of "bullying the soft and afraid of the hard", and the team did not even dare to decide on a ticket back to Argentina because of the fiasco of these two games, and directly announced the disbandment of the game after the match with the Brazilian team......
After the third and fourth place finals, the football tournament of this Olympic Games finally ushered in the climax of zuihou, the final between the Italian Olympic team and the Nigerian Olympic team!
In the final, against Italy, who started as a defence, the Nigerian players felt a completely different style of play from their previous opponents, Brazil.
If the Brazilians suppressed the Nigerians for almost the entire game with their strong attacking ability, then the Italians used a strong defensive system to make the African Eagles helpless, after all, in addition to the core of the midfield, Okocha, whether it is Kanu or Finidi George, or Babangida, they charge well, but they are not the core of the organization.
So the old Maldini arranged Kripa to focus on Okocha in this game, which directly led to the complete shutdown of the Nigerian team's engine, and without Okocha's scheduling, the African Eagles could only use individual breakthroughs to solve the problem throughout the game, and this effect can be imagined.
Nigeria's aggressive style of play has given the Italians more opportunities to counter-attack, while the Nigerians have only been able to use their more physical fitness than their opponents to make frequent saves in front of their own goal, and their actions are unlikely to keep the team safe for the rest of their lives.
In the 63rd minute, Nesta cut off the ball at the feet of Kanu, substitute Tomasi Pirlo received the ball and directly kicked a long pass over the top, the ball flew over most of the field and then fell to the feet of Pierrot, and the Prince Zebra shook the opponent's goalkeeper and scored the only goal of the game, helping Italy win the first Olympic football gold medal in history!