Britain! The home team -- the birthplace of high tea, the Beatles and football as we know it (sorry China,
cuju is not modern football
), and entering the Olympic women's football tournament for the first time ever, thanks to a historical anomaly that has allowed Britain's four Home Nations to compete separately within FIFA, but not under the auspices of the IOC.
It was only because London won the 2012 Olympics, that Team GB was born -- mostly out of a desire not to waste the berth automatically granted to the hosts. The Welsh, the Northern Irish and the Scots were more hesitant than the English FA to get involved, and have waffled in the past few years over this issue. Some have
outright turned down the offer
(
some may have been coerced into saying no
), while others like Scotland's Kim Little
have gleefully jumped on
, threats to the status quo be damned.
In light of this, English players (whose team currently ranks ninth in the world) dominate this squad -- and so far, they haven't done too badly; sweeping all three games in their Group E campaign, capping that off with a 1-0 win over Brazil on Tuesday ...
