I was watching one of the Great Britain football matches the other night when one of the commentators attempted to explain away our mob's particularly lacklustre second-half performance because "Most of these players will be aiming to get to full fitness for the start of the Premier League season"
 
If that's even partly the case, then what a kick in the proverbial nuts to all the men and women who have trained day-in day-out for the last god knows how many years just to appear at these Olympics. Some of these pampered prima donnas probably earn more in a week than some 'genuine' Olympians can expect to earn in a career.
 
What a disgrace
 
 
 
 

Was the commentator speculating, or is a fact?  

Steve, there is a reason they commentate rather than do.

Straummy must be watching the Miserympics rather than the fantastic stuff I've been glued to for the last week or so...

I watched tennis final watching Murray get gold and both him and McEnroe expressing gratitude for the well-paid sport they are involved in compared to most sports and appreciating the real sense of national pride that the contestants have got involved with during the tennis.

It certainly meant as much to those taking part as any individual competition they get involved in, I'm sure that's true of the Footballers too, regardless of the clap trap a commentator comes out with.  There's no way you can be involved in these games without being swept along by the collective spirit of them. 

If you are a competitor here without feeling that then you are bankrupt beyond whatever money can get you.  The prima donna's are the ones not here, those that didn't put their hand up for the selectors to choose from, and we already know who they are.

Good points John - and incidentally, I'm thoroughly enjoying every minute of the coverage!

I was going to mention Murray, he's really allowed himself to get embroiled in the whole Olympics thing. Good for him, for sure.

The particular comment that wound me up so much just seemed symptomatic of the gaping chasm between the dedication and single-minded application displayed by competitors in all the other events and the last-minute approach of the football team.

But let's be honest, and even ignoring the 'fitness' aspect, how many times, for example, did we hear Hanson et al explaining how the defenders couldn't be expected to play as a unit because the team had only recently been 'put together'?

And I realise it's impossible for even the England manager to get his squad together for long enough to train them into a cohesive unit, let alone the job Stuart Pearce has been expected to do with the GB team.

It's a shame really because I'm pretty certain that competitors in all the other events who haven't done well will not be citing 'lack of preparation' as an excuse for not coming up to scratch.

(Just for the record, I had my hand up, but they didn't want me for anything... )

Jonbouy


If you are a competitor here without feeling that then you are bankrupt beyond whatever money can get you.  The prima donna's are the ones not here, those that didn't put their hand up for the selectors to choose from, and we already know who they are.

BTW, well put sir.

I have a question, it has been nagging at me. I speak the english language, or at least a dialect and I have not been able to figure out how, using the english language, one gets "Tims" out of Thames. I am sure it is just ignorance on my part but instead of researching it I have decided to ask someone who surely knows... Steve.
 
Fill me in?
 
Thanks.. or should I say Tinks,
 
Julien

Tinks.  Hehe...

... "Most of these players will be aiming to get to full fitness for the start of the Premier League season" ...

 
I thought the comment was designed for the folks that are already on the professional ranks, where these games are as good "warm-ups" as the team running around the US getting a few games here and there.  I think that even the Japanese team had folks in the EPL, as did many other teams in London!
 
But, more often than not, the Olympic team is the kid squad that feeds the parent team, so the way it was said, might not be right, or clear, but it is true in the soccer/futebol situation ... it might not be in the majority of the other sports where ... the professional ranks do not exist!
 
But any player, considering this just a "warm-up" will NEVER make it to the professional ranks ... you either play better and do better than you think you can, or you are done!
 
It's the same for musicians, isn't it?
 
And goodness gracious ... that Honduras team is gonna drive the US and Mexico batty when the WC thing continues later on ... that team played lights out magnificently! Their loss was simply to better players, but the coaching and desire behind that team ... was glorious to watch ... they did not cave in and kept going.
 
Btw ... I called it ... that Canada would give the GB team fits ... and that Christine Sinclair is a total pain and headache ... and remember that she is one of the top scorers in the national game ... and has never been short of excellent. You should have seen here playing here at Portland, in her college days ... she was making the younger girls look like kids sometimes, and one time a defender sat down and cried ... and had to be helped off the field and substituted. The Portland team is the same that had Clive Charles (search his name) and he also gave us a whole slew of Olympians in the women's game. His successor has done very well also -- and is the guy I would pick to replace Pia Sundhage when she retires.