Halfway through their campaign at the Olympic Games, Nigeria coach Samson Siasia berated his players for a lack of discipline on the field and “ball-hogging”.

But perhaps a bit of African improvisation would not be such a bad thing.

Nigeria went on to reach the final of the tournament, beating old rivals the Ivory Coast and then thrashing Belgium 4-1 before coming unstuck against Argentina. Their semi-final performance against Belgium mixed moments of sublime skill with reckless defending and woeful, shoddy finishing. But the scoreline speaks for itself.

In the last few years, African players have emigrated en masse to Europe and their national teams have hired European coaches. A small group of these trainers now seem to have the main national sides sewn up, moving around in an endless game of musical coaches.

Four of the five African representatives at the last World Cup were coached by Europeans.

The European influence has certainly instilled discipline and professionalism. But the exuberance which African teams were expected to bring when Cameroon burst on to the scene in 1990 seems to have gone missing while results have been disappointing, with quarter-final places for Cameroon and Ivory Coast the best the continent could manage.

Under Siasia, Nigeria have returned to a more carefree and entertaining style, even if there have been some slapstick moments thrown in.

“Nigerian coaches have done well, like the one we’ve got now,” said striker Victor Anichebe. “He got us to the (World under-20) final against Argentina in 2005, and he’s got to the final again.”

“The senior side have a Nigerian coach and in the summer we won four games out of four. Hopefully, they will get more of a chance.”

Perhaps Nigeria, and other African teams, should give home-grown coaches more of a look-in.

PHOTO: Peter Odemwingie of Nigeria (L) shoots past Pablo Zabaleta of Argentina during the men’s gold medal soccer match at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 23, 2008. REUTERS/Claro Cortes

FIFA president Sepp Blatter says he does not see any need to change the format of the Olympic soccer tournament, which is restricted to under-23 teams and allows each to field up to three overage players.

Many people, however, feel that soccer is something of an unwelcome gatecrasher at the Games and that not bringing its top players is rather like turning up at the party with a bottle of cheap plonk.

Like many compromises, the under-23 solution succeeds in pleasing nobody, the critics say.

But what should the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and FIFA do? It is an interesting dilemma.

Lifting the age limit could effectively create an alternative World Cup, devaluing the real thing, cluttering up the international calendar and infuriating the European clubs.

The other extreme would be to drop soccer altogether. But with a total of 2.14 million paying spectators at the 2008 Games, the most of any sport according to FIFA officials, this is hardly a feasible option, either.

PHOTO: Lionel Messi (R) of Argentina fights for the ball with Dele Adeleye of Nigeria during the men’s gold medal soccer match at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 23, 2008. REUTERS/Phil Noble

Only one thing would give Argentina more pleasure than winning their second Olympic gold and that would be to stop Brazil from winning their first in the process.

The Olympic soccer tournament does not cut much ice in Europe but it is taken much more seriously in South America. Brazil have won the World Cup five times, the Copa America eight and the Confederations Cup twice and their failure to add an Olympic gold to their collection rankles.

It would be especially painful if their latest attempt to win the competition is ended by their greatest rivals.

So, when the two sides meet in the Beijing Workers Stadium in Tuesday’s semi-final, it will not be quite the real thing but almost — possibly around 70 percent.

The Olympic tournament features under-23 teams but both teams have taken advantage of a rule which allows up to three overage players per team. Brazil have selected Ronaldinho as one of their quota while mercurial playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme is part of Argentina’s.

Argentina also have Lionel Messi, who falls within the age limit. Several other players make regular appearances at senior level including Fernando Gago, Javier Mascherano, Sergio Aguero and Pablo Zabaleta.

On the Brazilian side, Anderson and Diego make frequent appearances at senior level while Marcelo, Rafinha, Hernanes and Breno appear set to break into the squad.

At senior level, Brazil have enjoyed some recent dominance. They won three matches in a row by three-goal margins — at the Confederations Cup final in 2005, a friendly in 2006 and the Copa America final in 2007 — before the run was ended with a 0-0 draw in a World Cup qualifier in June.

Argentina are just about the only team with the courage to go out and attack Brazil, but in doing so they have often played into Brazil’s hands.

A more cautious approach might be advisable this time.

PHOTO: Argentina’s Lionel Messi (C, top) celebrates with team mates Angel Di Maria (11), Sergio Aguero and Juan Roman Riquelme (L) after scoring his team’s first goal against the Netherlands in their Beijing 2008 Olympic Games men’s quarter-final soccer match at the Shanghai Stadium August 16, 2008. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

Argentine journalists were startled to learn that their team would be playing a match against Siberia at the Olympic football tournament. At least, that is what the official translation said.

Coach Sergio Batista, speaking ahead of a game against Serbia, looked on it utter bewilderment as one interpreter attempted to translate his answers from Spanish into Chinese and another then tried to translate the Chinese version of his answer into English.

Unsurprisingly, the final version invariably bore no relation whatsoever to the original, rending the whole exercise a waste of time.

The procedure went like this:

Argentine journalist asks question. Batista answers. The first interpreter translates the question from Spanish into Chinese. The second translates  from Chinese into English. Then the first interpreter translates the answer from Spanish to Chinese. Then the second translates from Chinese into English.

At one stage, the first translator had to ask Batista to explain his answer. Batista, his mind obviously elsewhere, forgot what he had said and had to ask the reporter to repeat the question.

It took more than 30 hair-pulling, excruciating minutes to extract no more than six answers from Batista.

And, like most coaches, he didn’t say anything interesting in any case.

Ronaldinho’s two-goal performance against New Zealand in Sunday’s Olympic Games has already been hailed as some sort of revival after his miserable last season with Barcelona.

The former World Player of the Year showed flashes of his best form in the 5-0 win with plenty of cheeky flicks, shimmies and stepovers. And, of course, he grinned.

“This was a reward for everything which I have done and for all the people who believed in me and helped me to start playing again,” he told Brazilian media.

But the performance needs to be put into context.

The Olympic soccer tournament is an under-23 competition and Ronaldinho is competing as one of the three permitted overage players per team.

Brazil’s opponents qualified from a group in which Fiji were their strongest opponents. They have only three professionals in their 18-man squad. Most of the other players are university students who play football for fun.

Ronaldinho has just signed for AC Milan. He will play in arguably the world’s most unforgiving league and is going to have to fight hard just to get into the team every week.

There are some much tougher battles ahead and it remains to be seen whether he has the motivation to return to his best.

Any talk of a Ronaldinho revival is way too premature, isn’t it?

If there was an Olympic gold medal for whingeing then Dunga, coach of the Brazilian soccer team, would be among the early contenders.

The 1994 World Cup winning captain, who as a player was an example of resilience and dedication to the cause, is not a happy camper.

First, he was complaining about the food — “When you try to talk to the chef to change the menu, he has to talk to his boss, who has to talk to his boss, who has to talk to his boss and by that time the Olympics are over” — and lack of training time in Shenyang, where Brazil have started their campaign to win a first gold in Olympic soccer.

After his team struggled to beat nine-man Belgium in their opening match on Thursday, he blamed  the pitch and his opponents for making life difficult (isn’t that what they’re supposed to do?).

“The ball bounces around all over the place and you need two or three touches to bring it under control,” he snarled. “The opposition just kept putting all their players behind the ball and used the high ball into the area. They’ve been together for four months and we got together 15 days ago.”

But the unhappy truth is that Brazil should have swept their opponent aside and might have done so if Dunga had been just a little more adventurous. A team boasting players such as Werder Bremen midfielder Diego, Premier League players Lucas and Anderson in midfield, AC Milan prodigy Alexandre Pato in attack, plus Ronaldinho, should not play in fits and starts as Brazil did on Thursday.

Unfortunately, Dunga did what he has done in recent matches with the senior side, which he also coaches, and went for the cautious approach.

He stuck three midfielders in front of his defence and left Pato to fight two or three Belgian defenders on his own. Ronaldinho was stuck out on the left flank with nobody to exchange passes with except left back Marcelo on his occasional forays upfield.

Despite winning the Copa America in his two years at the helm, Dunga does not look comfortable as Brazil’s national team coach. Will he still be around for the 2010 World Cup?

PHOTO: Ronaldinho takes a free kick during Brazil’s Group C soccer match against Belgium at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Shenyang August 7, 2008. REUTERS/Alvin Chan

Spanish clubs are often cast as villains in South America. One minute they are refusing to release players to play for their respective national teams, the next they are accused of exploiting loopholes in transfer regulations to poach young talent without paying a penny.

Earlier this year, Vasco da Gama angrily accused Real Madrid of trying to make an offer to 15-year-old Philippe Coutinho behind their back. The club said that Real had offered a job to the player’s father and the chance to live abroad.

“They try to get around the law by taking those responsible for the player to live and work abroad,” said Eurico Miranda, club president at the time. “They offer a job to the father and take the player. But they’re not doing that here at Vasco.”

Last year, River Plate president Jose Maria Aguilar said FIFA’s rule that players could not be transferred internationally until they reached the age of 18 was routinely being broken.

“The way it happens is a club from a Spanish city contracts a woman to cook and by coincidence she has a 14-year-old football genius son,” he told Reuters in an interview. “They are stealing our players.”

Real Madrid also upset the Brazilian national team by refusing to release Robinho for Brazil’s pre-Copa America training camp last year even though FIFA’s international calendar was on the side of the South Americans.

The latest rift has involved Barcelona and Argentina striker Lionel Messi. Argentina picked Messi for their Olympic team, believing they were supported by FIFA’s rule obliging clubs to release under-23 players for the tournament.

Barcelona initially refused and took him off to a pre-season training camp in Scotland. Eventually, they allowed him to join Argentina in China, but appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the FIFA ruling. CAS has now ruled in Barcelona’s favour.

Winning an Olympic gold is almost as prestigious as the World Cup for South American footballers. Messi has made it clear that he wants to play for his country and it certainly seems more appealing than facing Wisla Krakow in a Champions League preliminary round, which Barcelona should be able to stroll through in any case.

Barcelona have made their point and won their case. If they drag Messi all the way back to Europe, he is hardly likely to be in the best of motivation or physical shape and they are guaranteed to win themselves a reputation for being spoilsports.

Letting him stay in China would be a much-needed public relations coup for them and Spanish clubs in general.

PHOTO: Messi in training at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Shanghai, August 6, 2008. REUTERS/Aly Song

The Olympic soccer tournament, which starts next Thursday, has enjoyed unprecedented publicity in the run-up to Beijing, unwittingly helped by the belligerent attitude of the European clubs.
 
In their attempts to avoid releasing Argentina striker Lionel Messi for the Games, Barcelona helped raise the profile of the competition to a level it has rarely enjoyed in the past.

Barcelona finally relented last Wednesday when FIFA reinforced its ruling that clubs must release their under-23 players, although the Spanish club have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sports and will demand the player fly back from China if there is a ruling in their favour.

Earlier, Barcelona had dragged Messi off for a pre-season tour to Scotland and the controversy dominated headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.

Messi’s presence, even without the added publicity, is a huge boost and and means soccer will have one of the most illustrious athletes in the entire Games.

German pair Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen also helped the Olympic cause by refusing to release Brazilian pair Rafinha and Diego. Like Barcelona, they too are awaiting a ruling from CAS.

Unlike Messi, however, Rafinha and Diego took the case into their own hands as they simply defied their clubs and flew to join the Brazilian squad on a pre-Olympic tour.

Their actions show how seriously Olympic soccer — an under-23 tournament with three overage players allowed per team — is taken outside Europe.

Brazil, five-times winners of the World Cup, have never won an Olympic gold in soccer and will not consider their trophy cabinet to be complete without it.

Dunga, coach of the senior side, will be in charge of their team here as well. Already under pressure, he could lose both jobs if they fail — just as Wanderlei Luxemburgo did after a quarter-final exit in Sydney eight years ago.

They tried to include Kaka as an overage player but, after AC Milan refused to release him, called up Ronaldinho instead.

It is not just in South America that Olympic soccer is taken seriously.

Just listen to United States midfielder Freddy Adu. ”Most of the players, I’d say about 99.9 per cent, want to go to the Olympics. This is a big, big, big deal,” Adu told a news conference on Friday.

“Guys want to go but they’re just being held back by their clubs. They’re important for their clubs and you can understand it but I think it’s a great rule that they have to be released.”

Argentina also boast Sergio Aguero, the overage Juan Roman Riquelme, Real Madrid’s Fernando Gago and Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano in an impressive line-up and start as favourites to retain their crown.

Brazil, with AC Milan’s Alexandre Pato leading the attack, look capable of mounting a serious challenge if Dunga can overcome naturally cautious approach.

Netherlands and Italy are likely to lead the European challenge while Africa also look strong, represented by Nigeria, winners in 1996, and Cameroon, who won four years later.

PHOTO: Lionel Messi arrives in Shanghai, August 1, 2008. REUTERS/Stringer

Kaka’s dream of helping Brazil win their first Olympic gold medal in soccer has been scuppered by his club AC Milan, who have announced that they will not allow him to play in the tournament in August.

“He is already part of the Brazil national side. The club does not think it is right for Kaka to also be involved in official matches for Brazil’s Olympic team,” the Italian club said in a statement.  

The Olympic tournament is restricted to under-23 teams but Kaka, 26, had been hoping to take part under a rule which allows each side to field upto three over-age players.  

Brazil’s eagerness for Kaka to play shows how seriously Olympic soccer is taken in Latin America.  

The Brazilians, five-times winners of FIFA’s World Cup, are so determined to break their duck that Dunga, coach of the senior side, will be in charge of the team in Beijing as well.

He could lose both jobs if he fails.

Hugo Sanchez has already been fired as Mexico’s senior coach this year after he took charge of the Olympic team and they failed to qualify for Beijing.  

For most of the world, however, Olympic soccer is an exotic sideshow, which is full of anomalies and sits uncomfortably at the Games.  

Ever since soccer’s own World Cup was started in 1930, the relationship has been uneasy with soccer’s governing body FIFA determined that the Olympics should not overshadow its own tournament.

Until 1980, the Olympic tournament was officially amateur but, in the period after the Second World War, Eastern Europe countries fielded their strongest national teams under the allegation that their top players were not professionals.

As a result, Soviet Bloc teams dominated that period.  

Great Britain has stopped entering at all, fearful the fielding a united team in the Olympics could calls for the same to happen at the World Cup.  

The present format, which has been in use since 1992, appears to have found some acceptance and there have certainly been some high spots, notably when Nigeria beat Brazil and Argentina to win gold in 1996 and Iraq’s remarkable run to the semi-finals at the last Games.

But, with so much soccer being played elsewhere, many people wonder whether the sport really ought to have a place at the Olympics at all.

Unhappy Kaka by Chris Helgren. Carlos Tevez with his gold medal from the Athens Olympics by Marcos Brindicci.