Spain's Romeu staying positive
Spanish
midfielder Oriol Romeu remains confident that his side can still
progress to the later stages of the men's Football competition despite
losing their opening game 1-0 to Japan.
Kensuke Nagai of Japan is tackled by Oriol Romeu of Spain
Kensuke
Nagai of Japan is challenged by Oriol Romeu of Spain during the men's
Football first round group D match of the London 2012 Olympic Games
between Spain and Japan at Hampden Park on 26 July 2012 in Glasgow,
Scotland.
Luis Milla's men struggled with Japan's tactics throughout and never recovered from going down to 10 men when Inigo Martinez was sent-off for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity four minutes before half-time.
But Romeu believes the Olympic team can learn from the Spanish senior side that lost their first match of the 2010 World Cup to Switzerland before going on to win the competition.
He told the Spanish Football Federation:
'The first game wasn't as good as we had hoped but this is football.
'Many national teams have won World Cups and European Championships having not won the first game, it is not how you start but how you finish.
'In the dressing room after the defeat everyone was encouraging each other to move forward. This is a good thing to have in difficult moments, it comes from inside of us and I think we will show our resolve in the two games left in the group stages and those that come afterwards.
'We are the ones who believe in ourselves most, we have strength and desire and we are sure we are going to do something great.'
London 2012: Team GB women's hockey players gain a ruthless streak
Helen Richardson, the Great Britain
women's hockey captain, leads a squad who committed themselves full-time
to Olympic glory. Photograph: Streeter Lecka/Getty
It started with a pow-wow and talk of sacrifice – in rural Berkshire, of all places.
Back in 2009, not long after Team GB's women's hockey team finished sixth in Beijing, they met to discuss the scale of their ambitions for London 2012. We should aim to be world-class, suggested one. "What about targeting a medal?" offered another. The discussion, according to Helen Richardson – a veteran of failures at Sydney and Beijing (the team failed to qualify for Athens) – was full of "fuzzy talk". She could not hold her tongue any longer. "Gold," she said firmly. "That's it."
"It was a difficult conversation," admits Richardson, a midfield playmaker, ahead of Sunday's game against Japan. "Some people were afraid to say they wanted to go for gold. I was not prepared accept anything else."
Her idea began to fly, even though such absolutism would require many of the squad to leave their homes, full-time jobs and, in some cases, their families, to move to Bisham Abbey to devote themselves to a sport not exactly fighting off big-money sponsors with a curved stick. The girls mulled it over and then decided: they would go all-in. "I remember sat there thinking: this is incredible," says the striker Alex Danson. "Thirty people in a room, all deciding to make big lifestyle choices and changes to chase a dream. It was very powerful."
The squad went full-time in November 2009. Before then, the best players from the home nations only came together under the Team GB banner for sustained periods close to Olympics. This time round it has been three years – time to develop instinctive understandings, tweak and tinker, and develop a system to beat the world.
Back in 2009, not long after Team GB's women's hockey team finished sixth in Beijing, they met to discuss the scale of their ambitions for London 2012. We should aim to be world-class, suggested one. "What about targeting a medal?" offered another. The discussion, according to Helen Richardson – a veteran of failures at Sydney and Beijing (the team failed to qualify for Athens) – was full of "fuzzy talk". She could not hold her tongue any longer. "Gold," she said firmly. "That's it."
"It was a difficult conversation," admits Richardson, a midfield playmaker, ahead of Sunday's game against Japan. "Some people were afraid to say they wanted to go for gold. I was not prepared accept anything else."
Her idea began to fly, even though such absolutism would require many of the squad to leave their homes, full-time jobs and, in some cases, their families, to move to Bisham Abbey to devote themselves to a sport not exactly fighting off big-money sponsors with a curved stick. The girls mulled it over and then decided: they would go all-in. "I remember sat there thinking: this is incredible," says the striker Alex Danson. "Thirty people in a room, all deciding to make big lifestyle choices and changes to chase a dream. It was very powerful."
The squad went full-time in November 2009. Before then, the best players from the home nations only came together under the Team GB banner for sustained periods close to Olympics. This time round it has been three years – time to develop instinctive understandings, tweak and tinker, and develop a system to beat the world.
London 2012 Olympics: 500,000 football tickets removed to ensure full stadiums
London 2012 organisers have taken the extraordinary step of withdrawing half a million Olympic football tickets from sale because they concede they will never be bought.
Every athlete who will don the Great Britain vest in the forthcoming Games has
a story to tell, a tale of sacrifice, determination and an utter refusal to
be thwarted in their five-ringed ambition.
NBC's 2012 London Olympics second screen and streaming apps for Android and iOS launch today
London 2012 Olympics: nine days to go - live blog
The US's Kobe Bryant in an exhibition match against Brazil on Monday. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP
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