Olympics - Fighting for the Scraps (Bronze)

Let us side track a wee little bit from Saturday's EPL to today's Olympics soccer.

Its the day before the finale of Olympics soccer where Nigeria's up-coming youngsters will pit themselves against the superstars of Argentina, many whom already have top-flight first team experience with their respective clubs. Now, let us not get ahead of ourselves and look at the match which will decide who will fly home with at least a Olympics bronze medal. (Not that its an indication of success or glory for the brazilians; for the Belgiums, probably.)

Well well.. Its down to fighting for scraps and its Brazil vs Belgium. In the opening game of the qualifying group stages, Brazil had to work hard and barely scrape through with a slim 1-0 win over Belgium. The odds on offer by most betting companies now is Brazil 0 : 1 1/4 Belgium. Pundits are predicting a back lash from Brazil after suffering a humiliating 3-0 defeat at arch-rivals Argentina. Well well, i say, go with the flow!

Belgium is no Argentina, not even close. Brazil will want to win this so as to redeem whatever little pride they can get. Just by looking at statistics alone, we can roughly tell how well the team is doing. Brazil has scored a whoping 11 goals in this competition, the most goals scored as a team in this competition as compared to Belgium's 7. Brazil's defense is holding well, conceding only 3 goals (all 3 in the Argentina match), as compared to Belgium who leaked 7 goals so far.

After looking at team statistics, now we'll dissect the information and look at individuals. Brazil has 8 players who has scored in the competition so far. 3 of them has scored 2 goals - Ronaldinho, Rafael Sobis and Thiago Neves. The other 5 players has contributed 1 goal each. As for Belgium, they have only 4 players scoring in the competition. Dembele Moussa leading with 3, Mirallas Kevin with 2 and two others with 1 goal each. This statistics show that Belgium are very dependent on a small number of players to play well and score the winning goal, unlike Brazil, who spreads their goal scoring responsibility all over the field. Everyone shares the burden of scoring and they gladly chip in with a goal or two.

Although the previous meeting between Brazil and Belgium ended in Brazil only winning by a slim margin of 1-0, we must remember it was the first match, therefore the momentum is not there yet. As they advance through the competition, Brazil has grown from strength to strength. Count of Ronaldinho and Co. to fight and win Belgium to claim the remaining Bronze medal.

Verdict: Brazil to beat the 1 1/4 handicap.