London 2012 Olympics - Womans Football

The Womans Olympics promises to be wide open affair with 7 of the 12 teams capable of winning it. The shortened format will cause some of the major nations problems, only 3 groups of 4 teams means casualties even at the group stage. Betting predictions will take a look at all the teams and try to find value in what is a limited betting market.

Womans Olympic Football - Tournament analysis

Group E Analysis:

• Great Britain    21.0    Outright Winner.
• New Zealand  101.0  Outright Winner.
• Cameroon       126.0  Outright Winner.
• Brazil                  5.00   Outright Winner.

Great Britain have been slightly hampered by Wales, N Ireland and Scotland reluctance to release players for the team incase it causes sanctions for the individual nations. Some players have gone against their FA and made themselves available. Manager Hope Powell has many selection headaches as the England team is a great team in its own right.

FIFA Ranking 9 (Using England ranking) Qualified: Hosts.

Star Player: Kelly Smith has 45 goals in 111 games, England's record goalscorer and one of their best ever players.

New Zealand have climbed up the rankings over the last few years and have recorded some credible results. Need more competitive fixtures however and dont really benefit from beating poor teams by 10 goals regularly. Most of their players play in the top leagues around the world so the talent is there.

Fifa Ranking: 23. Qualified: Won Oceania section. Were placed in Final and won 15-0 over 2 legs v Papua New Guinea.

Star Player: Amber Hearn is the top goalscorer for New Zealand. has scored 30 goals in just 56 games. 

Cameroon will get some much needed experience but will be playing to avoid finishing bottom of the group. Struggling through qualification (They were knocked out in round two but re-instated due to opposition rule breaking) they will benefit from playing three better sides.

Fifa Ranking:50. Qualified Won African section.Winning 3 matches drawing 1 and losing 2. Had a penalty shootout and were actually eliminated earlier in the competition as already stated.

Star Player: Marylese Ngo Ndoumbok is an attacking midfielder/striker who has played for some of the biggest teams in world football. Has been the best player for Cameroon for some years.

Brazil have two of the best players in world football at the moment in Marta and Cristiane, will be one of the best teams in London and should go close to their 1st Olympic football gold. Slight negative is lack of competitive games with very few decent teams in South America.

Fifa Ranking:5. Qualified: Won South American tournament scoring 25 goals and conceding just 2 in winning all 7 matches.

Star Player: Marta is the best player in the world no doubt. 6 world player of the year titles and numerous golden boots. The Brazilian will be favourite to top the scoring charts. 

Group F Analysis:

• Japan       6.00 Outright Winner.
• Canada   26.0  Outright Winner.
• Sweden   10.0 Outright Winner.
• S. Africa  251   Outright Winner.

Japan are the current world champions and play excellent football. Have some quality individuals but game is more about collective effort. Are in a difficult group but should get out of it. Have played 20 matches over the last year against top notch teams and have managed to win 15 of them.

Fifa Ranking:3. Qualified: Topped Asian group with 4 wins and 1 draw. (Scored 8 and conceded 2)

Canada have improved gradually each year, they have had an excellent 2012 with games against all their main rivals, Only losing to Sweden, France and USA. They finished as runners up in the Concacaf Olympic qualifiers and easily defeated everyone except USA. (Losing 4-0 in the final) In the 13 games they played this year they only lost four matches, so should be well prepared.

Fifa Ranking:7. Qualified: Runners up in Concacaf section. Winning 4 of the 5 matches scoring 16 goals and conceding 6.

Star Player: Christine Sinclair is a striker with a phenomenal scoring record. Scoring 135 goals in only 189 senior appearances. Sinclair has been Canadian player of the year 7 times and been in the top 3 of Fifa's shortlist 5 times.

Sweden are always a strong team and will be looking to progress. Finished 3rd place in 2011 world cup after a series of excellent results. Will have to continue the good run to escape a difficult group. The squad is incredibly experienced with a massive amount of caps between them.

Fifa Ranking:4 Qualified: Finished 3rd in 2011 World Cup. Winning 5 of their 6 games and scoring 10 goals.

Star Player: Lotta Schelin is a centre foward of considerable talent. Has scored over 200 goals for clubs and country in a career spanning 12 years. Was named in the Fifa team of tournament in 2011.

South Africa will not be able to escape the group stage after a horrible draw. They finished joint best in Africa beating Ethiopa in the final easily. Recent results have been awful though and do not bode well for London. In 10 matches they have only won 1 game, drawn 5 and lost 4. In these games they played several poor sides and still not won. South Africa may well finish with three losses.

Fifa Ranking:61. Qualified: Winning African section with 3 wins a draw and 1 loss.

Star Player:Nompumelelo Nyandeni is the only player currently active outside South Africa, playing for Russian champions Rossiyanka. The best South African player Nyandeni is a decent striker. 

Group G Analysis:

• USA           3.50   Outright Winner.
• France       12.0  Outright Winner.
• Colombia  101   Outright Winner.
• N.Korea      26.0 Outright Winner.

USA are justified tournament favourites and the best side in the world currently.USA has won three of the last four Olympic gold medals. This year USA have played 16 games and won 14 of them (drawing and losing 1 also) scoring 69 goals and conceding 8. The only team they have struggled against recently has been Japan. The team is highly experienced and has amassed an amazing number of caps.Captain Christie Rampone has 260 caps and three of the 1st choice midfield are just short of 500 caps between them.

Fifa Ranking:1 Qualified: Won Concacaf section with 5 wins from 5 scoring 31 goals in the process.

Star Player:Abby Wambach is the 2nd highest scorer in US history with 138 goals. The highly decorated striker will be looking for a last medal as she retires after London.

France play in their debut Olympics after the team has developed rapidly. The team is built around the hugely successful Lyon womans team with no less than 11 players from that squad. France's 2012 form has been brilliant winning all 16 games they have played.(Scoring 59 and only conceding 4) Could be a dark horse to be the outright winner but will need to navigate this difficult group first.

Fifa Ranking:6 Qualified:as 3rd highest place finisher from European teams in 2011 World Cup. P5 W2 D1 L3.

Star Player:Marie-Laure Delie is another top level striker with an amazing scoring record. Delie has 89 goals in 136 club games and 35 in 40 for France. The 24 year old striker is hot property.

Colombia are another team on the ascendancy and are climbing up the Fifa rankings. Not a very experienced team on the world stage they do however have considerable success at youth levels recently. In the recent South American qualifiers they were the only team to go close against a rampant Brazil team. Will have difficulty getting out of a group that contains 3 of the current world's top 10.

Fifa Ranking:28 Qualified: Finished as runners up to Brazil in Conmebol championship. P7 W4 D1 L2 (Scoring 20 conceding 8)

Star Player:Yoreli Rincon has been playing top flight football since the age of 12! The midfielder finished top scorer for Colombia in recent finals with 5 goals.

North Korea are somewhat of an enigma with little seen of them outside of tournament football. Elimated in the two previous tournaments at the group stages after coming through difficult qualifiers would seem that they don't have the top level quality to go far. The World Cup final appearance was marred though after two players were banned for doping, Indeed North Korea were subsequently banned from the 2015 World Cup as punishment.

Fifa Ranking:8 Qualified: Runner up in Asia section behind Japan. Finished with 3 wins and 2 draws.

Star Player:Ra Un-Sim plays the lone striker for the national side. Scored 4 times during qualification.