The cheers before kickoff in the Beijing Workers' Stadium were for five-times world champions Brazil and Ronaldinho. At the final whistle, the Chinese crowd rose to acclaim Argentina after a 3-0 win against nine-man Brazil sent them through to the Olympic final.

China may be a relatively untapped soccer market, but the 50,000 plus crowd knew that the best team had won on the night.

The Olympic tournament, with its uneasy format of under-23s and a smattering of over-age players, has plenty of critics, but Brazil v Argentina is a big match in any competition.

So much so that even the ultra-efficient Beijing organisers struggled to shoehorn the hundreds of accredited press and associated media folk into the seating reserved for them. The post-match press conference was an all-ticket affair, with Portuguese and Spanish-speaking reporters given priority.

Argentina, inspired by captain Juan Roman Riquelme and the darting Lionel Messi, made their superiority count after halftime, running in their three goals in the space of less than 20 minutes.

All the marginal decisions went their way - Brazil appealed in vain for offside when Sergio Aguero scored his second to put Argentina 2-0 ahead. Shortly after Brazil's Pato had the ball in the net, but this time the goal was ruled out for offside and there was no way back.

So plenty to think about for national coach Dunga, who has given the impression during this tournament of wishing he were elsewhere. Plenty too to ponder for Ronaldinho, who looked out of sorts as he prepares for life with AC Milan after a disappointing  final season with Barcelona.

For defending champions Argentina, it's a showdown at noon on Saturday with Nigeria in the Bird's Nest Stadium. That's a repeat of the 1996 final, a cracking match won 3-2 by Nigeria thanks to two late goals.

Let's hope the two teams can defy the heat and serve up another classic for the maligned Olympic soccer tournament.

PHOTO: Argentina's Lionel Messi (L) speaks with Brazil's Ronaldinho after Argentina won their semi-final soccer match in Worker's Stadium during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, August 19, 2008. REUTERS/Daniel Aguilar

The usual new season optimism was in short supply at Everton on Saturday.

Never mind the last-minute defeat by Paul Ince’s Blackburn, that was merely salt in the wounds for a club whose preparations for the 2008/09 campaign could barely have been worse.

After recording sixth and fifth-placed finishes in the previous two seasons, Everton’s hopes of continuing that momentum look doomed already when you consider the scant options available to manager David Moyes.

If modern football is a squad game then what hope does Moyes have when he could call on only 10 senior players for the first game of the season?

The Scot had no option but to give a first start to a 17-year-old in central midfield and later introduced a 16-year-old debutant upfront, plucked from a bench filled with untested teenagers.

How could a team in the so-called richest league in the world be so ill-prepared?

The absence of a handful of injured players - plus another away on Olympic duty - has not helped Moyes but the real question is why Everton have not signed a single player during a close season where five first-teamers departed, including defensive midfielder Lee Carsley and England striker Andrew Johnson.

The economic downturn has affected Premier League clubs with spending down notably on last year - even Everton’s neighbours Liverpool have had to sell before they could buy - but Everton’s case is the most extreme.

Unfortunately, the future looks increasingly uncertain for a club who, on limited resources, have gone as close as anyone to threatening the dominance of the ‘big four’ in recent seasons.

Their planned move to a new stadium in Kirkby looks in doubt after the government’s decision to call a public enquiry, owner Bill Kenwright has declared he is willing to sell up to a “billionaire” and Moyes himself is stalling on signing a new contract.

If new signings do not appear soon, the Goodison gloom could well deepen.

PHOTO: Everton coach David Moyes and Blackburn Rovers boss Paul Ince watch their English Premier League soccer match, Aug. 16. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis

Manchester United and Bayern Munich opened the defence of their respective league titles with draws, prompting worried looks among supporters.

Normally it would be silly to judge a side on the first match of the season, but in United’s case there was clearly something missing in the 1-1 draw with Newcastle…a certain Cristiano Ronaldo.

United fans will be relieved that he is only absent through injury and not because of a departure to Real Madrid. 

However, the lack of a cutting edge in the final third and Chelsea’s impressive 4-0 drubbing of Portsmouth has heralded renewed calls for United to up their efforts to sign Tottenham’s Dimitar Berbatov.

Bayern were equally unconvincing in a 2-2 home draw with Hamburg in Juergen Klinsmann’s first league match in charge. Supporters are already counting the days until injured duo Luca Toni and Franck Ribery are back fit.

Real Madrid, who start their title defence at the end of the month, lost the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup 3-2 at Valencia.

Is the world order about to change? Let’s leave it a few more games to decide.

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

I had always thought the height of sporting ecstasy was watching my beloved Stoke City score a goal.

Now I'm at the Olympics in Beijing, well, I think I still do... but I must admit this life-long credo is coming under severe strain.

Take events in the Water Cube. Until now, my best memories of ‘swimming' had been Stoke players splashing through the mud on Boxing Day 1984 to record a memorable 2-1 win over Manchester United.

But this week I've seen Michael Phelps in the flesh! The American phenomenon has had us all on our feet -- seasoned hacks like me, Chinese spectators, and even Phelps's own rivals -- smashing records as fast as Ronaldo will probably put goals past Stoke this year.

And did you see the 4x100 freestyle relay final? The fingertip finish was one of the most exciting moments of the Beijing Games, and surely in swimming history.

Then there was the opening basketball match: hosts China v an NBA star-studded USA. The place was rocking. Dare I say it, the atmosphere rivalled even the Britannia Stadium when we won promotion to the Premier League in May.

On my way to the press centre the other day, I grabbed a coffee and popped in to see the women's team gymnastics final. The girls' agility and jumps, the gasps at an occasional stumble and the thrill of China's gold medal over arch-rivals the United States, left my heart pounding as fast as the thousands of fans I was sitting with.

In this over-excited state, I tried to explain to a Chinese fan that I had not seen such artistry since Liam Lawrence and Ricardo Fuller combined to destroy Coventry away in April. But the allusion was, err, a tad cryptic.

Coming up is the biggest one of all -- the men's 100 metres final in the Bird's Nest stadium. But oh no, what's this? The race happens slap-bang in the middle of the opening Premier League game on Saturday. So what's it to be -- go to the Bird's Nest for the biggest race on earth, or find a quiet corner to listen to Bolton v Stoke on the Internet?

Such a dilemma...

PHOTO: Usain Bolt of Jamaica competes in the men's 100m heat at the National Stadium during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 15, 2008. REUTERS/Aly Song

Frank Lampard’s decision to sign a new contract with Chelsea and shun the advances of Inter Milan was hardly a surprise.

The midfielder made a wise choice if he based the decision on the previous experiences of English players in Italy.

Only David Platt at Sampdoria was really a success. Ian “it’s like living in a foreign country” Rush lasted just a season at Juventus while the likes of Luther Blissett, Lee Sharpe, Ray Wilkins, Des Walker, Paul Ince and Jay Bothroyd hardly set Serie A alight.

Paul Gascoigne was injured for much of his time at Lazio. Rather than his stunning play, he is best remembered here in Italy for shocking the nation by burping into a microphone.

In recent years only David Beckham at Real Madrid can claim to have done well away from English shores. That’s largely because he was one of the few who dared to try something new.

I actually think Lampard would have been a success at Inter, especially playing under former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho. The Italian champions, and Serie A in general, are crying out for a goalscoring central midfielder.

Instead Lampard will start another English season this weekend, admittedly with packed stadiums and bags of money in his pocket. Stuttering Serie A can’t quite compete with that. 

Mark Meadows, Milan

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.

Manchester United fans once popularised the old Monty Python song ‘Always look on the bright side of life’ as a stadium chant but it is their neighbours at Manchester City for whom those words have become almost a way of life during the past 32 years without a trophy.  

It looks like City supporters may need to draw on their famed reserves of black humour once again given the current uncertainty surrounding the future of their club.  

When former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrived at Eastlands during the 2007 close season — having passed the Premier League’s ‘fit and proper person’ test for club owners — there was bold talk of City playing Champions League football in the not-too-distant future.  

Hopes of a bright new dawn were enhanced by the installation of Sven-Goran Eriksson as manager and a spending spree of around 40 million pounds. 

Although the fans may not have liked Thaksin’s treatment of Eriksson — the Thai dismissing him for his failure to achieve a top-six finish - the appointment of the highly-rated Mark Hughes in June went down well (despite Sparky being a former United hero and often mentioned as a possible successor to Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford). 

The new man’s vow to “challenge at the top table, not only in this country but in Europe” persuaded many fans that further progress lay around the corner.  

Two months on and Hughes must be wondering just what he has got himself into. His arrival after a successful stint at Blackburn Rovers came at a time City were spending a record fee on Brazilian striker Jo and making loud noises about signing Ronaldinho. 

The former Barcelona man is now at AC Milan and City appear to be in limbo. Thaksin’s announcement that he has gone into exile in Britain may spare his wife Potjaman a jail sentence for tax fraud — she had been freed on bail pending an appeal — but it also means most of his assets remain frozen in Thailand.  

Where this leaves City’s spending plans remains to be seen.   

“I was at Blackburn for four years and I knew exactly how things were done, the lines of communication, what have you. At the moment, it’s not quite as it was at Blackburn,” Hughes was quoted as telling the Telegraph. 

PHOTO: Ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin and his wife Potjaman Shinawatra wade through an army of photographers at criminal court in Bangkok. July 31 REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang

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?

Argentina could yet pay a heavy price for the deal which has allowed Lionel Messi to play at the Olympic Games.

A lengthy tug-of-war with Barcelona for Messi's services ended with the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling that Barcelona were not obliged to release him for the Olympics.

However, with Messi already in China and having made it clear his heart was in the Olympics, Barcelona relented and said he could play -- provided certain conditions were met.

One was that the Argentina Football Association (AFA) would effectively pay Messi's wages while he is in China -- costly but not unaffordable.

Another was that Argentina would not pick Messi for any friendly internationals in the next year, and that is where the AFA's coffers could be hit hard.

The arrangement of friendly matches is one of the sport's most lucrative growth industries.

The likes of Brazil and Argentina are paid handsomely for taking their national teams overseas but the entrepreneurs who arrange the games usually demand the presence of all the top players before they cough up.

Argentina may have plenty of other exciting players such as Carlos Tevez, Juan Roman Riquelme, Sergio Aguero and Fernando Gago, but Messi is the one the fans really want to see.

Without him, Argentina's appearance fee will likely suffer a considerable knockdown.

Still, at least his presence is working for the team on the pitch. He was the driving force again on Sunday as Argentina beat Australia 1-0 to seal their place in the quarter-finals.

PHOTO: Messi pictured during Argentina's Group A match against Australia at the Olympic Games in Shanghai, August 10, 2008. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci