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Anderson brings home bronze but Brazil not happy

Bronze for Brazil
By Chris, August 25 2008
Anderson returned to United’s starting XI on Bank Holiday Monday having spent the last couple of weeks in Beijing representing Brazil at the Olympic Games. The midfielder brought home a bronze medal – but that’s regarded as a failure by Confederação Brasileira de Futebol with Carlos Dunga's job now in doubt. ManUtdWeb takes a look back at the competition which saw Argentina secure gold.


Olympic Football may not grab many of the headlines in the UK - mainly due to the lack of a Team GB - but in South America it's hugely important and Brazil boss Dunga finds his future in doubt after leaving China with a bronze medal and a third-place finish.

The Brazilians were outclassed by Argentina in the tournament's semi-final, losing 3-0 thanks to two goals from Sergio Agüero and a Juan Riquelme strike. A degree of consolation came with an equally prolific win against Belgium in the bronze-medal match - but that wasn't enough for the men in gold who have never won gold at an Olympic Games.

Brazil cruised through the group stage without conceding a single goal. A 1-0 win over Belgium was followed up with a 5-0 drubbing of New Zealand - United's midfield maestro opening the scoring in that one. The preliminary exchanges were ended with an easy 3-0 victory against host nation China.

The 2002 World Cup winners then saw off Cameroon in the quarter-finals with a 2-0 win - though they needed extra-time to beat the Africans, with Anderson playing the full 120 minutes.

Despite coming through 390 minutes of football with a perfect record, the heavy defeat over Argentina in the last four caused outrage amongst Brazil's fans. Failure is never an option if you're a Brazilian football - especially against the country's most prominent South American rivals. Olympic success for the Albicelestes suggests their crop of Under-23 players is well-equipped to lead Argentina to great things in the future.

Argentina went onto win the competition with a 1-0 win over Nigeria. Both teams braved sweltering conditions at Beijing's National Stadium with Angel Di Maria settling the contest after the half-time break.

Anderson, by all accounts, performed well at the Olympics and got five games under his belt. He should now boast more match fitness than his Old Trafford colleagues and showed great professionalism to go straight into the starting line-up for the 1-0 win at Pompey.

Dong was also in action during the games for China. He played against Anderson and also found the net against New Zealand.

Gold Medallists - Argentina
Silver Medallists - Nigeria
Bronze Medallists - Brazil

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