With a wealth of talent at their disposal there’s no doubt Argentina and Brazil will be the top two fancied sides to win Olympics football gold in Beijing.

Argentina are the current gold medal holders and appear to have suffered less than Brazil in terms of squad availability.

Olympic rules state that each country is permitted to name three players in their squad over the age of 23. The rules also state that there be automatic club release for players of 23 and under.

However, AC Milan´s Kaka has been denied permission to play for Brazil as has Werder Bremen´s brilliant Diego.

Argentina´s Lionel Messi could also miss out due to Barcelona´s reluctance to release their man but the defending champions will still be able to field a midfield pairing of Liverpool rottweiller Javier Mascherano and Boca Juniors playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme.

That’s some central pairing.

But with club/country politics at play for the big guns it´s worth noting that the likes of South Korea and China won’t have such problems. As we saw at the 2002 World Cup in Japan/Korea the host nations punched above their weight, particularly South Korea who made the semi-finals.

As that tournament proved, huge home support and experience of atmospheric conditions can go a long, long way in Asia.

With that effort in mind we fancy hosts China and neighbours South Korea to give us a run at far bigger odds than the top two in the outright market.

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