Brazil have named a strong London Olympics football squad filled with attacking stars including Neymar, Hulk and Alexandre Pato.
Brazil Coach Mano Menezes has selected Porto striker Hulk alongside AC Milan’s Thiago Silva and Real Madrid left-back Marcelo as his three over-age players for the 2012 Games.
But it is the attacking threat that will concern most opposition teams with some of the world’s leading forwards named in the squad.
Santos’ Neymar has scored nine goals in 18 games for the senior Brazil team, while Hulk and AC Milan’s Pato have also impressed for the full side.
Young Premier League players Rafael, of Manchester United, and Tottenham midfielder Sandro have also been included.
Following defeats against Mexico and Argentina in warm-up games last month, Menezes identified a problem in finding effective defensive players under 23 years old and has turned to two more experienced men in Silva and Marcelo.
Brazil squad:
Rafael Cabral (Santos), Neto (Fiorentina); Alex Sandro (Porto), Marcelo (Real Madrid), Rafael (Manchester United), Danilo (Porto), Thiago Silva (AC Milan), Bruno Uvini (Sao Paulo), Juan (Inter Milan); Sandro (Tottenham), Romulo (Spartak Moscow), Paulo Henrique Ganso (Santos), Oscar (Internacional), Lucas Moura (Sao Paulo); Neymar (Santos), Leandro Damiao (International), Alexandre Pato (AC Milan), Hulk (Porto).
London 2012 Olympics : Short News
• Jamaican sprinter Usian Bolt will miss this month’s Diamond League meet in Monaco due to what his coach would only call a “slight problem”. Despite Bolt’s failure to beat his countryman Yohan Blake in the 100m or 200m races in the Jamaican trials at the weekend, American gold-medal winner Michael Johnson said he thought Bolt could get his world record 100m time down from 9.58 seconds to 9.4. Spain’s Thiago Alcantara will miss the London Olympics football tournament because of a leg injury.
• American Olympic-gold-winning sprinter Michael Johnson says he believes Usain Bolt can lower his 100m world record from 9.58 seconds to 9.4. Johnson said:
“If Usain was to be really focused and committed on cleaning up his technique he could probably run 9.4 seconds but he would have to do some major training and adjustments in the way that he runs. I think he can do whatever he wants to do. If he gets to the starting line healthy, at his best, everyone else at their best, he wins every time … He’s that good.
Johnson also argued that a two-year ban for doping was not long enough. He and his relay partners gave back their gold medals from the 2000 Sydney Olympics after their teammate Antonio Pettigrew admitted in 2008 that he had taken banned substances. Johnson said:
“You have people continuing to use performance enhancing drugs because you could be banned for two years and you could be back for the next Olympics. That’s just not enough of a punishment, specifically in sports like athletics where the Olympics is really what it’s all about.
But he didn’t back a lifetime ban, something the British Olympic Association had overturned in April.
• A new report by Sir John Armitt, chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), has recommended that the stringent restrictions on non-sponsors using the Olympic name and the use of non-sponsoring brands in anything to do with the Games are swiftly relaxed after the event is over.
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