Olympics

The Olympics and the World Cup are arguably the two greatest sporting occasions on the planet. What makes them so special is that they only come 'round once every four years, but there are a great deal of differences among these two giant competitions.

In the grand scheme of things, the simple fact is this: the Olympic Games mean way more to athletes than the World Cup does to footballers. Now, that wasn't always the case, but over time it has certainly developed into being that way, and it isn't really a surprise.

Jeferson da Conceicao Goncalves, commonly known as Jefinho, helped Brazil to their fourth straight gold medal in football 5-a-side at the Paralympic Games. The man who’s drawn comparisons to Pele and Neymar is blind as a result of glaucoma, but his ability on the ball is simply breathtaking.

For the United States Soccer Federation, it’s seemingly a case of enough finally being enough. Following Hope Solo’s infamous declaration that Sweden were a “bunch of cowards” after their victory over the U.S., America’s governing body has handed Solo a six month suspension and terminated her contract with the women’s national team. 

Remember that time Germany beat Brazil 7-1 in the World Cup semifinals? Yeah, that's history now. Weverton came up with a save in penalties and Neymar scored his penalty (in addition to a monster free-kick earlier in the game) and Brazil became Olympic champions.

We're not sure if anyone out there knew this, but Neymar is really good.

Look at that celebration. Cristiano is clearly Neymar's idol pic.twitter.com/vsnGaLiZdl

We have to admit, we're happy for Nigeria. A couple weeks ago they were stranded in Atlanta and it looked likt they might not get to be in the Olympics. Saturday, they medaled after surviving, 3-2, against Honduras.

It looked like smooth sailing for the Super Eagles after two goals from Sadiq Umar and one goal from Aminu Umar put Nigeria up 3-0.

After watching Portugal capture Euro 2016 by winning only a single match in regular time, the fear here was that we were about to witness more of the same on the women’s side of the game. Sweden had ridden their luck to the gold medal match on the strength of two penalty shootout victories.

Against Germany, they came undone. The first forty-five minutes appeared to give strength to the notion that Sweden were destined to win gold, but Germany simply blew them away in the second half. A 67th minute Sweden goal wasn’t enough to overturn the lead Germany had built.  

Canada have medaled. Brazil have not. 

Here's how it went down:

Ashley Lawrence is a burner and as such she burned Brazil's entire defense on a counterattack and put the ball on a plate for 17-year-old (!) Deanne Rose to slot home.

Brazil absolutely dominated Sweden during their Olympic semi-final match on Tuesday. The final statistics show that Brazil had 67% of possession and nine shots on goal compared to Sweden’s two. However, Sweden rode their luck to a second consecutive penalty shootout victory following their similar upset of the USWNT.

Sweden does it again!

The gold medal game is set. Germany has defeated Nigeria, 2-0, to set up the game pretty much everybody wanted: Brazil vs. Germany. Remember that 7-1 thrashing in the 2014 World Cup semifinal? So do the Brazilians, and they want revenge.

They will have an opportunity for that thanks to goals from Lucas Klostermann and Nils Petersen. Both were products of good team movement and a cross that was just outside the keeper's reach, leading to two easy finishes.