It's hard to believe that it's already 9 years ago but today I'm going back to 4th August 2012 and a football fixture that formed part of the London 2012
Olympic Games
: Great Britain (or Team GB if you prefer) against South Korea played at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff (in the suburbs of London you understand?).I had a long internal debate as to whether I would go to watch games in the Olympic Football tournament. Football games at the
Olympics
are not classed as full internationals (I tend not to watch the underage sides) since there are age-related restrictions placed on the competitors, Effectively each squad comprises under-23s but they are permitted to include two over age players and, as such, you aren't necessarily seeing the best players that a country has to offer. Apparently FIFA's purpose in having these restrictions is to protect the brand of the World Cup as being the premier soccer competition for international sides but the restrictions seem to apply only to the men's tournament. Women's national associations are allowed to select players irrespective of age and yet they too have a World Cup competition. It's just that the women's World Cup apparently doesn't need to have it's brand protected. No, I can't fathom it either. The other issue that we have in the United Kingdom is that, at the
Olympics
, competitors are selected to represent Great Britain rather than the individual nations of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. At World Cups and European Championships there is no question of the four home nations combining but that's what happens at the Olympics
. At London 2012, Great Britain decided to enter a men's team since it would have been strange not to have a team in a domestic Olympic Games
where the hosts have an automatic entry. The women's team also entered in 2012 and has subsequently entered the 2021 Tokyo Olympics
(although not 2016). There is a definite nervousness among the home nations national Football Associations about losing the right to compete as separate entities so I think that the opportunity to see a Great Britain representative team will remain as something of a rarity for the foreseeable future.In 2012, the Great Britain men's side kicked off against Senegal at Old Trafford and secured a 1-1 draw with their goal coming from Welshman Craig Bellamy. In their second Group game at Wembley they beat the UAE 3-1 with goals from overage player (and Welshman) Ryan Giggs, Scott Sinclair and Daniel Sturridge (both English). Team GB also won their final Group game 1-0 against Uruguay in Cardiff with another goal from Sturridge. Having successfully topped their Group, Great Britain went forward into the Quarter-Finals where they would meet South Korea, again in Cardiff.
The
Olympic Games
were a personal first for me. I had never before attended any Olympic events and I doubt that I will ever do so again. It was also the first and probably last time that I will see a Great Britain representative side playing football. South Korea were known to have a strong side and I had seen them dispose of Switzerland at Coventry City's Stadium the previous week but Team GB had home advantage didn't they?In front of 70,171, South Korea took the lead through Dong-Wan Ji after 29 minutes but Stuart Pearce's Great Britain side (sounds weird doesn't it?) were soon level via a penalty harshly awarded for a Korean handball and scored by yet another Welshman, this time Aaron Ramsey. There was no further scoring in the match, either in normal or extra time and the game came down to a penalty shootout. It's only really England that can't take penalties and so we remained optimistic that the Brits would win via spot kicks even though the Koreans had been the stronger side over 120 minutes. The first eight penalties in the shootout were all converted before up stepped Englishman Daniel Sturridge to miss his effort (saved) and we watched the Koreans progress to the Semi-Finals 5-4 on penalties. They would go on to be hammered 3-0 by the Brazilians in that Semi-Final before beating fierce rivals Japan 2-0 to secure the bronze medal.
CRB Match No. 1907
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