Brazil meets Mexico in the final showdown for 2012 Olympic Games men's Football on Saturday. Brazil's march continued at Old Trafford as they sealed a 3-0 win against Republic of Korea, while Mexico came storming back for a 3-1 win against Japan at Wembley. Both teams reach their first ever Olympic games final in men's football. The Brazilian side looks a strong option to win the gold medal as they have put together an impressive show throughout the tournament, scoring 3 goals in each game. Mexico on the other hand, looked solid in the back conceding fewer goals than Brazil and looked comfortable in the every stage. Betfair is favoring Brazil to win this final clash.
After a sluggish start against Egypt (still a 3-2 win) Brazil continued showing their power and creativity up front. They netted three goals in each of their matches against Egypt, Belarus, New Zealand, Honduras and South Korea. However they were pushed very hard by Honduras in their least convincing match of the entire games so far. Brazil just didn't get into any flow or rhythm against Honduras and twice had to come from behind, even when their opponents were down to ten men. It certainly exposed some problems in the back line for Brazil. Chelsea's new signing Oscar looked great in the middle of the park making life easy for the strikers. Neymar has been weighing in with goals, but even he has been upstaged by Leandro Damiao (Tottenham is after him) who has bagged himself six goals in five matches.
Mexico didn't concede a goal during their group stage and they looked comfortable in the quarter finals with a two goal lead over Senegal with twenty minutes to go. But the Africans hit back and Mexico needed extra time to pull out another two goal lead which they hung on to. They also beat Japan in the semi finals, running out a comfortable 3-1. Mexico were one of the outside shots coming into this London 2012 tournament, but with no other nation performing to any high standard other than Brazil, Mexico are the ones who have stood up and benefited the most. They are able to produce quite a neat game and look quite quick on the break going forward.
Prediction: the Brazilians are favorites and with good reason. Even when they haven't been at their best they have still scored three goals and this seems enough to take them to success.
