Since Ronaldinho’s big money move to AC Milan and their acceptance of his Olympic stance, Dunga must have been a happy man if only for a minute.

Not today though as Real Madrid pulled the ol’ “Groin Strain” injury, denying his release the day midfielder/withdrawn forward Robinho was set to leave for Singapore for Brazil’s Olympic Team warm up.  Add in the fact that Dunga was already told the Olympic Age appropriate (Under 23) duo of  Werder Bremen #10 Diego and Shalke 04 defender Rafinha would not be allowed to join, things were starting to get murky for Brazil and the CBF.

Rafinha showed his unhappiness with his Bundesliga club by ditching practice and heading to Paris to join up with Dunga’s squad, something Shalke Sporting Director Andreas Muller was non too pleased about.

“He has breached his contract at Schalke,” Mueller said, adding the club had sent letters to the Brazilian football association (CBF) and the International Olympic Committee demanding that Rafinha not be allowed to compete.

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With all the Olympic rosters dropping, why not?

Yes and Yes.

images via KicksOnFire

Olympic host China has made the non-surprising/surprising move of firing Serbian born head coach Ratomir Dujkovic and replacing him with former Super League’s Qingdao Zhongneng coach Yin Tiesheng.

The sacking came just three days after Dujkovic named his final squad for the Olympic Games.

China squad: Qiu Shengjiong, Li Weifeng, Shen Longyuan, Gao Lin, Zhang Lu, Feng Xiaoting, Zhu Ting, Wan Houliang, Tan Wangsong, Lu Jianjun, Zheng Zhi, Zhou Haibin, Yuan Weiwei, Cui Peng, Han Peng, Jiang Ning, Chen Tao, Dong Fangzhuo

China will be led by Manchester United’s Dong Fangzhuo and Charlton’s Zheng Zhi.

image via Cache

New Nike commercial

Let the marketing wars begin!

* BTW, watch the guy running at the end.  It took me a couple times to notice how he was running.  Takes the ad to a whole new level. 

Abby Wambach will miss the Olympics after suffering a broken leg in last night’s 1-0 US win over Brazil in San Diego.

Image via Southern Ledger

SOCCER:
JP Dellacamera, Play-by-play
Glenn Davis, Play-by-play
Adrian Healey, Play-by-play
Steve Cangialosi, Play-by-play
Marcelo Balboa, Analyst
Brandi Chastain, Analyst
Shep Messing, Analyst
Lori Walker, Analyst

More sports

Image by AA

Dutch Olympic Team coach Foppe de Haan has named his 18 man Beijing roster, including his three over-23 players.

Holland squad:

Piet Velthuizen (Vitesse Arnhem), Kenneth Vermeer (Ajax); Kew Jaliens (29 years old - AZ Alkmaar), Calvin Jong-A-Pin (Heerenveen), Luijckx (AZ Alkmaar), Dirk Marcellis (PSV Eindhoven), Erik Pieters (PSV Eindhoven), Gianni Zuiverloon (West Bromwich Albion); Otman Bakkal (PSV Eindhoven), Urby Emanuelson (Ajax), Jonathan De Guzman (Feyenoord), Hedwiges Maduro (Valencia), Evander Sno (Celtic); Roy Beerens (Heerenveen), Ryan Babel (Liverpool), Royston Drenthe (Real Madrid), Roy Makaay (33 years old - Feyenoord), Gerald Sibon (34 years old - Heerenveen)

Surprisingly no Ibrahim Affellay (PSV), no Maceo Ritgers (the top scorer of the 2007 European U-21 Championships with 4 goals that Holland won to Qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics) who’s still having hamstring troubles and no Ismail Aissati (PSV).

Still not impressed with Foppe’s over-age decisions.  Too much talent in that country to bring a 33 and 34 year old to lead your attack.

I would have loved to have seen Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, but until FIFA decides to make the Olympics a mandated tournament, then we’re all wasting our time since coaches can’t have the choices they truly want because of big club’s hesitations to let players leave during Champions League and UEFA Cup Qualifications.

image via 1000goals

NBC has a new Olympics website up where you can find the schedule of all games and events.  Just about every event is on tv live and streamed online.   The US Men’s team opens against Japan on August 7, the Netherlands August 10th, then Nigeria August 13th in the opening round. 

These games are early too, the Japan game kicks off at 4:00am Eastern/1:00am West Coast. 

FIFA Olympics site

Image via Flickr

DOUBLE UPDATE - Barcelona has reportedly denied Ronaldinho his chance to represent Brazil at the 20008 Beijing Olympics.

I’m just starting to wonder if Dunga had spoken to any of the clubs about pre-season, qualifiers or possible transfers that he’s pulling players from.

UPDATE - Werder Bremen and Schalke 04 have denied both Diego and Rafinha their Olympic Team release, much to the dismay of Brazil Head Coach Dunga.

While the Bundesliga sides do not have to allow the release of their players (much like Bayern Munich’s refusal to release Martin Demichelis, Lucio and Mark van Bommel to represent their countries in Beijing), many thought that both players would be allowed to go.

“It’s clear that if we don’t release Diego, we won’t face any sanctions” Bremen general manager Klaus Allofs said.

No word who will be Dunga’s replacements, but this is pretty weak in my opinion. I know that players are always at risk for injury when they’re away with their National Teams and the clubs pay their salaries, but to take away the opportunity to play for their countries at the Olympics is an incredible opportunity, much the same way it was for each player that played in the 2008 European Championships.

The only difference is that the Euro’s were FIFA sanctioned and the Olympics (I know, I know, it’s only a glorified Under 23 tournament) isn’t. I wonder though if Germany could qualify for the Olympics if their perspective would change quickly?

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Here’s the official Adidas Teamgeist II soccer ball for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Looks very cool to me. Nicknamed “The Great Wall Star”, the gold Chinese characters on the red ball read ”Zhong Guo” which means “China.” The characters were painted by Nian Weisi, a former president of the Football Association of China.

Speaking of the Olympics, Ralph Lauren is hooking up the US athletes. The WSJ discusses “The Shoe Olympics”. Nike is also supplying the US track and field team uniforms. Of course, Speedo has been in the news for their new suits they’ve designed for the incredibly hot Amanda Beard the US team.

FC Uptown

Image via OlympicSpirit