ITS NOT HOW YOU PLAY, ITS WHERE YOU PLAY

Norio Sasaki

Just ask the Japanese women's soccer coach Norio Sasaki has admitted that he told his players not to win their final group-stage match against last-place South Africa. This is a strategy called ‘Parking the bus’ and is meant to avoid a travel or opponent some distance away. With the different venues that exist in this current Olympiad in London, it is becoming an epidemic.

FIFA has already announced that the Japanese will not see punitive action for the strategy, declaring: "there are no sufficient elements to start disciplinary proceedings" for "unlawfully influencing match results." Strategically playing for a draw by taking up a more defensive approach ("parking the bus") is a fairly common tactic, but one usually employed by weaker teams that can't compete with their opponents' more dangerous attack. It is also one with which all managers do not agree.

Pia Sundhage

U.S. coach Pia Sundhage was asked if she would ever ask her team to deliberately throw a match or just play for a tie, she stated: "Absolutely not. Never ever crossed my mind," coach Pia Sundhage said. "Because I think: Respect the game, respect this wonderful tournament and respect the team. ... We want to win. If we have that approach to every game, I think we're in the best mindset."

South Korea’s s Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na, at the 2012 Summer Olympics, on Tuesday, July 31, 2012, in London along with China’s Wang and Yu and their South Korean opponents were booed loudly at the Olympics on Tuesday for appearing to try and lose their group match in Wembley Arena to earn an easier draw.

 

It is too bad that it has cone to strategic losing, where is the integrity in these games? What happened to the true spirit of Olympic competition we have been hearing about over the many decades?

 

There is also the question of one Chinese swimmer and her gold medal, and the suspicion of doping. If this is true, is this the true spirit of the Olympics? Do we play to cheat or to compete freely, fairly and honestly?

 

Somehow I am losing my interest in the games, because what it purports to be it isn’t.

That’s all I wrote, folks!