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25.8.2008
No Olympics football or Kobe Bryant

I rather watch old replays of Columbo than Olympics football. Apart from occasional Argentina games it was again as entertaining as weather forecasts on valium. Football world got it right, though. Olympics football is now not competing with the World Cup, which then holds it advantages of scarcity and respect as the biggest individual sports event in the world. In the World Cup every fourth year football gets the undivided attention of the whole world without a need to compete with Usain Bolts and Yao Mings, or that a vegetarian cashier girl in a local coffee shop wants to turn channel into synchronized swimming. During the World Cup there just isn’t any room for mixed salads. So Olympics football is now merely a chance for young and less famous players to show the world what they got. Add few mega stars, who some unfortunately are just adding the name but not the effort, and people will actually watch this League One standard competition thinking it is the football’s future.

I supported Belgium because two of my favorites, Vincent Kompany and Moussa Dembele. Vincent Kompany is a great player and a standout guy but he got almost immediately ordered back from Beijing by his club and was then sold to the Premiership. This is just another example of where Olympics football is in the pecking order. Kompany, instead, is just rising and rising on it. I know he is going to be a huge success in England too because he is not just exceptionally good player but I also know how dedicated he is. I have trained with him, played internationals against him and we escaped together from rehab hospital in Switzerland to buy flowers for nurses so that they would put breakfasts an hour later. Trust me, if one is willing to go through so much trouble for that as we did, there is going to be nothing stopping him in anything else either. After Kompany left Beijing, Olympics football was only about Messi to me. I am starting to be convinced he belongs to the top 3 players in the world and I would even eat celery to be able to play against him once to really appreciate his skills.

I wanted to do my Olympics all star team but after lunch turned into dinner and still only Messi and Dembele on the sheet so I decided maybe it is not worth my Sunday evening after all to struggle it through. Actually, I have to admit I have been more fascinated about basketball than football in these Olympics games because there have been so many great games and performances in the basketball court. Sure USA was a worthy and superior winner with not really even sweating it but still few players did manage to get the better of the mega stars. So here we go:
All Stars 5: Dwyane Wade, Manu Ginobili, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Pau Gasol
On the bench: Chris Paul, Luis Scola, Chris Bosh, Theo Papaloukas, Rudy Fernandes