And they’ll be singing praises of Brazil’s thrilling 5-4 penalty shootout gold medal victory over Germany for ages to come. Because, in the end — for all their fleeting fancy with the shocking pole vault gold and the utterly predictable beach volleyball gold close to their sun-throb hearts, and the judo gold and the sailing gold and the boxing globe — football gold mattered most of all. Olympic football, with its mostly under-23 squads, may not have the prestige of the World Cup. I went to an Olympics match last night and a World Cup broke out. Dramatically, the match was on the line, the gold on the line, as if it were written in the stars.

Source: thestar August 21, 2016 00:45 UTC