Almost Home - Team Sports Report

Property of Sports Illustrated

Would you look at that? There are only four days left in the 2012 Olympic games. I'll be honest, when NBC rolled the Bugler's Dream intro at the beginning of the primetime broadcast tonight, I started to get a little emotional. The end of the Olympics means I have to venture back into a world where live sports doesn't consume entire days and live in a sports world where football and baseball are once again king. Now, before you football fanatics hunt me down, I do love football. Go Ravens! It's just not the same as the Olympics and that's because nothing is, or ever will be like the greatest stage in sports. Dammit, we're not even finished with London and I'm already counting down to Sochi in 2014.

As the Olympics wind down, the focus turns toward the team sports. Now while track is still plugging along, the fastest man and woman in the world have already been crowned and the majority of the events have finished. The only marquee events left are the decathlon, the marathon and the Men's 200 meters, which is elevated in status because of the Usain Bolt factor. Besides those, the rest of the individual events get put on the back burner and we turn our attention to the completion of the team sports competitions.

During these games, the team sports competitions have been really entertaining. Everything has been fun, from the sports I watched a lot of (Men's Basketball, Soccer, Volleyball, Field Hockey) to the ones that have received less of my attention (Handball, Water Polo). It's been a great Olympics for the team sports. With that in mind, l'll take some time to review each sport, and try to give my best guess on who will win. Let's do it!

Men's Basketball

Teams Remaining: Argentina, Russia, Spain, United States. 

Prediction: Gold - USA, Silver - Spain, Bronze - Argentina 

Overview: Quite simply, the US has the best team and I would be a shocked if they didn't take home a second consecutive gold. They have the best player (LeBron), the best pure scorer (Durant), the best point guard (CP3) and the best coach (Coach K). I could really go on, but I think you get the idea. The rest of this tournament has been filled with alleged tanking, upsets, flops, Yi Jialian offensive explosions and groin punches. Spain, Russia and Argentina all have nice teams and all three can challenge Team USA in different ways. Challenging isn't the same as defeating though, and none of teams will beat the US unless they get ridiculously hot shooting or the US lays a huge egg.

Women's Basketball

Teams Remaining: Australia, France, Russia, United States.

Prediction: Gold - USA, Silver - Russia, Bronze - Australia

Overview: The United States will win the gold medal going away. Russia has Becky Hammon, Australia has Lauren Jackson and France has, well, it doesn't really matter. Gene Auriemma's crew has run rampant through this competition, and the next two games should be no different.

Women's Field Hockey 

Teams Remaining: Netherlands, Argentina

Prediction: Gold - Netherlands, Silver - Argentina - Bronze - Great Britain

Overview: I haven't watched many of the Netherlands' games in this tournament, but I have seen a lot of Argentina, especially their loss to the USA. Their performance didn't scream gold medal favorite by any means. The Netherlands is the reigning gold medalist and apparently the best looking team in the Olympics (time for some research), so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt here.

Men's Field Hockey 

Teams Remaining: Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands

Prediction: Gold - Australia, Silver - Netherlands, Bronze - Great Britain

Overview: I have watched none of this tournament, or at least not enough to makes a wise prediction. FIH World Rankings, don't fail me now!

Men's Volleyball

Teams Remaining: Bulgaria, Russia, Brazil, Italy

Medal Prediction: Gold - USA, Silver- Russia, Bronze - Italy

Overview: I'm still bitter about the US just giving up against Italy yesterday. Good luck, Brazil.

Women's Volleyball 

Teams Remaining: Brazil, Japan, Korea, United States

Medal Prediction: Gold - United States, Silver - Brazil, Bronze - Korea

Overview: The USA and Brazil are pretty clearly the two best teams left and it would be a big upset if either of them lost their semifinal matches. That would lead to a tasty final between the two countries that seem to be emerging as the best overall volleyball playing countries on the planet. The USA already has gold and silver in Women's beach with Brazil taking the bronze. The Brazilian team of Emmanuel and Allison is favored to win the men's beach gold today. Brazil is also favored to win the men's volleyball competition. In a USA/Brazil final, I'm taking the USA because I'm patriotic, and because Destinee Hooker is a winner.

Women's Soccer

Teams Remaining: Japan, USA

Medal Prediction: Gold - USA, Silver - Japan, Bronze - France

Overview: Well, there goes my medal prediction. Just as I was typing in France, Canada scored late in the bronze medal match. I picked France before the game, and they dominated play. Whatever. The USA and Japan play later today in a rematch of the 2011 World Cup final. This has the potential to be a high scoring game given both teams potent attacks and shaky (especially the US) back lines. I'm picking the USA here, but I don't feel comfortable. 3-2 to the Yanks.

Men's Soccer

Teams Remaining: Brazil, Mexico

Medal Prediction: Gold - Brazil, Silver - Mexico, Bronze - Japan

Overview: It looks like Brazil is finally going to get their first Olympic soccer gold. They have the best team with Neymar, Hulk and Pato just giving them too much attacking power for Mexico to handle. El Tri is a nice team (curse you, Gio Dos Santos), but they are going to have to put on a great performance to win the gold. Let's go CONCACAF!

Women's Water Polo

Women's Teams Remaining: USA, Spain

Medal Prediction: Gold - USA, Silver - Spain, Bronze - Australia

Men's Teams Remaining: Croatia, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia

Medal Prediction: Gold- Serbia, Silver - Croatia, Bronze - Italy

Overview: This tournament has been awesome. Between the USA's thrilling tie with Spain in pool play and their nail biter against Australia in the semis, Water Polo has produced some of the better games of the Olympics. I'm still bitter about the US men losing, so Men's WP doesn't get their own overview. I showed you, Croatia!

Handball 

Overview: I have no predictions. Just watch it and wonder why the USA doesn't have a good handball team.

Seriously, why aren't we good at handball?