Brazil's Olympic dream in ruins in the Wembley sunshine

I've lost count of the number of people I've heard over the last couple of weeks slating the Olympic football tournament - the usual comments are something about not caring less about this aspect of London 2012 and the fact that footballers already have their own World Cup.

Fair enough, but football has been part of the Olympics since 1896, it just doesn't get the same profile in Britain as in other parts of the world as we don't usually take part.

Over in Brazil, the Olympics are obviously a big deal, partly because they host the next football tournament in the Rio games of 2016, but also because they've never won Olympic gold.

Today against Mexico at Wembley, the feeling was they simply had to turn up to right that wrong, but they didn't vouch for the Mexican wave that hit them like a first minute sledgehammer.

By the time Mexico's Oribe Peralta struck a goal after just 30 seconds, most of the 86,000 fans were still settling down to watch the game - it came as such a surprise that plenty of people, myself included, didn't see it.

Brazil's illustrious forward line of Neymar, Oscar, Lendro Damiao and Hulk, who started the final on the bench, hardly threatened Mexico's goal in the first half which was a shame as it was the end at which I was sitting.

The game was there for the taking and that's exactly what Mexico did, Peralta smashing home a header from a corner late on.

Brazil's Rafael squared up to a team mate before being substituted and after Hulk pulled one back in the last minute, Oscar had a golden chance to head the winner, but blazed his header inches wide.

That was it - the final whistle, Mexicans all over the pitch and Brazil's players slumped to the floor.
After watching the lengthy medal ceremony - have you ever seen 69 athletes on a podium? - it was time to say goodbye to Wembley and to my Olympic experience.

As I walked down Wembley way with chanting Mexicans and Brazilian samba drummers I actually felt like it was a pretty unique experience and although two of the tree events I saw were football, I really enjoyed it all.

My Olympic journey from Coventry to Wembley via Eton Dorney only showed me a tiny bit of the Games, but I'm glad I made the effort, it's something I'll always remember.

Searching for some Olympic 2012 spirit at Coventry's Ricoh Arena

The Olympics 2012 are here and I've already tasted my first bit of Olympic action after making the journey up to Coventry last night to watch New Zealand take on Belarus.

Back when I went into the ballot more than a year ago, I didn't have a clue that I'd be taking in this game, my thinking was that watching a football match in Coventry wouldn't be exactly packed nor expensive and I would be able to guarantee some Olympic action on the cheap.

Fast forward a year and that's exactly what it was - Olympic action on the cheap - not much atmosphere, an exercise in over-management and I left the ground feeling as if I'd just sat through a dull pre-season friendly.

So what of the Olympic football experience?

Well I took my pal Tony, a native Kiwi and in order to inject a bit of passion and fun into the game we arrived in the Warwickshire city with our faces painted, I went for a solitary black fern which Tony expertly sketched on my face, while Tony had done himself up a treat with a hint of the New Zealand flag and that famous fern.

We had to drive into the centre of Coventry and park and then take a bus to the Ricoh Arena which was a bit silly as Coventry City’s ground is surrounded by car parks. I thought it was simply to ensure that cash was spent in the city centre, but I think it was some kind of security measure.

After a beer and a burger we set off for the Ricoh on a bus – I was excited to see just what they’d done with the car park that meant we couldn’t park there. The answer was it was pretty empty save for hundreds of security staff, Games Makers, police and stewards - all for, as we would later find out, 14,000 people.

On the bus Tony got the ultimate compliment for his quality face paints when other fans asked if we had any spare. Once off the bus he soon got asked if the New Zealand players did the Haka before the game. He then got asked it again, and again!

One thing we noticed quickly was the lack of advertising inside the ground – the Ricoh sign on the stadium was covered over, all the advertising was gone and later as the fans left, we’d see that some of the seats which spelt out ‘Ricoh’ in the seats had been removed too.

Before we got inside we had to remove everything from our pockets and put them in clear plastic bags, a bit like being at an airport.

After that it was a gentle pat down and into the ground and ready for the game to start. New Zealand fielded a smattering of players with GB connections – Chris Wood, Ryan Nelson and Ipswich Town’s Tommy Smith all started along with Shane Smeltz, who figured at the last World Cup for New Zealand.

Coaching the side was former Norwich midfielder Neil Emblen and he won’t have been happy with the crazy early yellow card for Smith after no more than ten seconds.

The African man in the middle certainly made a rod for his own back with that decision for, as the tackles got tougher and tougher, each of them came with a request for another card.

New Zealand played the better football early on but couldn’t find that killer pass and after a goal just before the half-time break put Belarus 1-0 up, the Kiwis spend the rest of the game trying in vain to get that all-important equaliser.

It didn’t come and despite some late drama and great goalkeeping from the Kiwi shot-stopper, the game finished in 1-0 win for Belarus.

Leaving the round was the next challenge – 14,000 fans had come to the game over a few hours, but now they all had to find a bus back to the town centre.

As we walked past the massed ranks of security, police and Games Makers standing idly outside the ground it felt as if we’d actually been assigned our own individual security guard.

We finally got on a bus and headed back to the town centre.

It was great to go to the Olympics before they actually started, but the match, occasion and event in general will be soon forgotten.

England kids shine at Carrow Road

Well done Norwich!
That was the verdict tonight after the England Under-21 international against Romania in which Stuart Pearce’s side gained a 2-1 semi-final first leg win to qualify for next year’s European Championships.
I’ll be honest and say I’m not the biggest England fan there is, especially the bunch of talentless monkeys that recorded such an epic fail in South Africa a few months ago.
I’ve only ever seen two full England internationals and this did have the feeling of one. By that I mean there were loads of kids around and loads of Londoners.
It definitely didn’t feel like a Norwich game – not only was there hardly a City shirt on view, but the crowd didn’t get behind the home side in the same way they do The Canaries. What noise there was came from air horns carried by the type of children that should have probably been in bed.
Two kids near me aged about eight took great pride in blasting a horn in my ear for most of the game to which their pre-pubescent cohorts answered ‘England.’
Give me grown up swearing any day.
As for the game itself, it was excellent to have a look at Jack Wilshire. The Arsenal wunderkind is in both the Under-21 squad and the full squad for next Tuesday’s clash with Montenegro.
Wilshire and Sunderland’s Jordan Henderson ran the midfield with Danny Rose and Tom Cleverley on the flanks, Fabrice Muamba playing a holding role in front of the back four and Danny Welbeck up front on his own.
At the back, Blackburn’s Phil Jones partnered Chris Smalling with Ryan Bertrand and Michael Mancienne the full backs and Frankie Fielding in goal.
Not much happened in the first half, Romania hit the post and should have taken the lead a minute before the break.
The second half was a different story and England relied on corners to get the job done. A Cleverley corner early in the second half was cleared only as far as Henderson who volleyed a superb opener.
That goal changed the game remarkably from the cat and mouse scrappy first half to an open second half.
England could have gone 2-0 up minutes later, but when Romania pulled a goal back, Stuart Pearce became more visible on the touchlines.
Rose impressed down the left, but England needed something extra – that came in the form of Aston Villa’s Marc Albrighton.
Albrighton changed the game remarkably down the right with his pace, but the key was his corner with 20 minutes to go that was bundled home by Smalling.
Of all the England players, Smalling, Cleverly and the sub Albrighton impressed. Wilshire is obviously a massive talent despite his diminutive size. I just hope he plays at Carrow Road again one day.