British medal watch
Great Britain’s men were held to a 1-1 draw in their opening
match against Senegal at Old Trafford. Craig Bellamy opened the scoring,
dropping off play at the back post where the ball fell to him. Bellamy made no
mistake with the strike. He should have had a penalty in the second half after
a late, rash challenge by Saliou Ciss, but both referee and assistant saw no
foul. Ciss, on a yellow card, was also lucky to continue playing. The game was
a physical one, by the Senegalese in particular. But to be fair to Senegal,
they came into the game a lot more in the second half and it could be argued
that they deserved a point. They had a few decent chances, though the best came
in the first half. A miscued clearance by keeper Jack Butland, who had an
otherwise good game, fell kindly to Sadio Mane. However the Senegal striker
could only chip the ball wide as Butland charged him down. But eventually
Senegal made the breakthrough from a quick counter-attack with ten minutes to
play. Moussa Konate was on hand to make a clever finish past Butland as Team GB
were left short at the back. From then on the game could have gone either way,
with Marvin Sordell hitting the bar from a header, shortly before Senegal went
up the other end and could have scored. But it wasn’t to be as the game ended
level. For Great Britain, Bellamy was lively and rarely was he not involved as the
team went forward. Ryan Giggs, unsurprisingly, was also the key cog in the Team
GB machine.
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Elsewhere, Japan took a deserved 1-0 victory over Spain,
having the best chances of the match. Spain were reduced to ten men in the
first half, with the score already 1-0 thanks to Yuki Otso’s opener, after Iñigo
Martinez was adjudged to have committed a foul as last man. In Great Britain’s
group, Uruguay came from 1-0 to avoid an upset at the hands of the UAE, ending
2-1 victors. Meanwhile Morocco and Honduras fought out an entertaining 2-2 draw
at Hampden Park in the day’s first game. Favourites Brazil came through a scare
against Egypt at the Millennium Stadium. The South Americans took a three-nil
lead inside half an hour and looked likely to cruise to victory thanks to some
well worked goals. However Egypt came into the game with two goals of their own
in the second half, leaving Brazil to sweat it out to hold on to a 3-2 win.
Unsung Heroes
Morocco’s Abdelaziz Barrada scored a thundering strike to
open the scoring in his team’s game against Honduras. Not long before
half-time, just outside the box, he got on the end of a knock-down and gave the
keeper no chance as the ball flew into the bottom corner. Meanwhile Jerry
Bengston scored twice in reply for Honduras.
Gaston Ramirez of Uruguay scored an excellent free-kick from
30 yards out to level the scores against UAE. The ball curled into the keeper’s
top right-hand corner, an excellent strike.
Disappointments
Spain, one of the favourites for the tournament, was
outplayed by Japan, who came away with a deserved victory. Far from out of the
tournament, the Spaniards need to come back with a win against Honduras in
their next match.
Elsewhere, Morocco’s Zakayra Bergdich was shown a straight
red card for a petulant kick-out at Honduras’ Mario Martinez.
Other news
Greek high-jumper Dimitrios Chondrokoukis and Hungarian
discus thrower Zoltan Kovago look set to miss the Games after failing drug
tests.
Andy Murray has been given a tough first round draw against Swiss
Stanislas Wawrinka. He could also face Richard Gasquet, Tomas Berdych and Novak
Djokovic in the following rounds before a potential final rematch with Roger
Federer at Wimbeldon.
Charles van Commenee, the head of British Athletics, has
said he will not apologise to Phillips Idowu, the British triple-jumper. The
pair fell-out in 2011 when Idowu used Twitter to announce he was pulling out of
the European Championships. He also claimed to have considered dropping Idowu from the Olympic team.
American Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who played an
important part in the organisation of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake
City, and is currently on a visit to the UK, has described the organisation of London 2012 as ‘disconcerting’ whilst also revealing doubts about whether the
British people will get behind the games.
Michael Phelps has identified his mind, rather than any rival, as the biggest challenge for him in the upcoming Olympics.
And finally…
The Games suffered another nationality related cock-up on
Thursday, though one perhaps not as diplomatically significant as the North
Korean flag error on Wednesday. Welshman Joe Allen, currently of Swansea City
but touted for a move to Liverpool this summer, was listed as English in the
official match programme.
Alan Hansen controversially described Great Britain and
Manchester City defender Micah Richards ‘fat’ in the pre-match build-up. It was
later announced that Old Trafford had run out of pies before the game
kicked-off, in what is believed to be an unrelated incident.
Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders got into character as
Edina and Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous to carry the Olympic torch through London
today. An Ab Fab Olympic special aired on Monday and is available on iPlayer.
Boris Johnson, speaking at the Olympic Torch Relay evening celebration in Hyde Park, revealed his confidence that Great Britain will win ‘more
gold, silver and bronze medals than it would take to bail out Greece and Spain!’ He was also critical of Mitt Romney during his speech.
Tomorrow’s big events
The Opening Ceremony! Coverage begins on BBC1 at 7pm with
two hours of build-up to Danny Boyle’s extravaganza, which will be watched by
billions of people worldwide. The ceremony itself is due to begin at 9pm. Additionally,
the first non-football event is scheduled, as the archery individual rankings
round is held at Lord’s. This will determine the seedings for the later knock-out
competitions.
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