It’s the Big One: Argentina vs Brazil at the Olympics

August 19, 2008

There are few rivalries in international football to touch Brazil vs Argentina. Sure, other rivalries are fierce (England vs Scotland or USA vs Mexico) but nothing with such an abundance of talent on both teams.

Even the old argument about who is the greatest player of all time comes down to Argentina vs Brazil in the shape of Maradona vs Pele. (even though it’s clearly Steve Bull, everyone knows that)

The rivalry continues tomorrow in the 2008 Men’s Olympic Football Semi-Final…
Both teams are out to win, obviously. Unlike their European counterparts, South American teams take Olympic football very very seriously. Argentina are the current gold medal holders, while Brazil are on a mission to win the the only tournament that still eludes them.

Argentina have brought Juan Roman Riquelme, Leo Messi, Javier Mascherano, Sergio Aguero and a planeful of young talent like Angel di Maria, who scored the winner in the quarterfinal against Cameroon the Netherlands.

Brazil have brought Mr. Ronaldinho himself, as well as Diego, Anderson and all kinds of other players like the phenom that is Alexandre Pato. Except the phenom has been a little on the unphenomenal side in Beijing and will likely start tomorrow’s game on the bench.

Since the two teams first met in 1914, there have been 93 Argentina vs Brazil games. Argentina have won 34, while 24 have ended in a tie and Brazil have won 35. So right now the Brazilians are ahead by just one win – which just so happened to be the 2007 Copa America final:

The semi-final kicks off Tuesday 19th August, 9pm local time.
To figure out what time that is for you, click here to see what the time is in Beijing right now.

The other semi-final (Nigeria vs Belgium) kicks off three hours earlier, 6pm local time.

The final (or gold medal match) is August 23rd, 12:00 noon kick off, local time.

Source World Cup Blogs

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