Ironic end to Britain's football flirtation
Reuters - Sunday 05 August 2012, 11:19
An otherwise golden day for
Britain at the Olympic Games ended in an all too familiar
disappointment for football fans when the men's team were knocked
out after losing a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals on
Saturday.
Britain's men, back in the Olympics for the first time in 52
years, suffered the agony that England have virtually perfected
in World Cups and European Championships when they were beaten
5-4 on penalties by South Korea at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.
At stake was a semi-final against Brazil and a chance of at
least adding a bronze to the medal haul that Britain continued
to collect earlier on Saturday with three athletics golds and
three elsewhere.
Instead, Britain's flirtation with Olympic football is now
probably over for many years.
With the game level at 1-1 after extra time and the teams
locked at 4-4 in the shootout, Daniel Sturridge's stop-start
run-up ended with Korea's substitute goalkeeper Lee Bum-young
saving his shot.
Ki Sung-yueng, who plays for Celtic in Scotland, converted
his penalty to give the Koreans a 5-4 victory and send Britain
out with a somewhat ironic twist of the knife.
The Scottish Football Association, along the FA of Wales and
the Northern Ireland FA, have long opposed the notion of a
British team because they fear it will compromise their
independent status within football's governing body FIFA.
Along with dominant England, who supported having the
British team, the four compete as separate nations in
non-Olympic football.
The reticence of the three means a British side have largely
stayed out of the Games since Rome 1960 with their last Olympic
involvement a failed qualifying campaign for Munich 1972.
UNLIKELY AGAIN
Coach Stuart Pearce, who did well with a squad that came
together only four weeks ago, does not think it likely they will
take part in the qualifiers for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de
Janeiro.
"The format of Team GB in the Olympics would be fantastic
but I do not think it will happen again," Pearce told reporters.
"Home advantage has allowed us to have this opportunity but
when you look at international programmes and bringing
nationalities together, where are we going to find the time to
enter a qualification period?"
Pearce's 18-man squad comprised 13 Englishmen and five Welsh
players, including Ryan Giggs, one of three over-age players in
the age-restricted squad which also included another Welsh
veteran Craig Bellamy - the outstanding player in their
four-match campaign.
Giggs created a slice of Olympic history against the United
Arab Emirates at Wembley last Sunday when, at the age of 38
years and 243 days, he became the oldest man to play in and then
score in the Games football tournament.
He added another six days to that playing record when he
came on as a late substitute against South Korea in his birth
city of Cardiff, but even though he netted a superb penalty in
the shootout the midfielder could not steer his team through.
Britain improved after their first official game - a 2-0
defeat by Brazil in a warm-up at Middlesbrough on July 20 -
drawing with Senegal and then beating the UAE and Uruguay to win
their group.
They might have beaten the Koreans too if Aaron Ramsey had
not missed a penalty in normal time, three minutes after
converting an earlier spot-kick to make the score 1-1.
Britain's women also exited the competition at the same
stage on Friday when they were beaten by Canada in Coventry but
they also set a record during the competition, showing "British"
football can prosper.
The crowd of 70,584 for their match against Brazil at
Wembley was the highest ever for a women's match in Britain and
there is genuine belief the women's game in the United Kingdom
could grow after being in the shadows for many years.
Manager Hope Powell, who has bossed England for 13 years,
would also like to see Britain's Olympic involvement continue.
"For me personally, and for the players, absolutely," she
said.
"If the opportunity to play at the Olympics - just the women
- arose again, and we could do that, I would love it."