Mexico v Japan Olympic football betting is the first semi final match of the London 2012 Games. This should be an interesting match up, particularly because one of these sports were expected to have been occupied by Spain. However, Spain fluffed their lines early in the tournament and that opened the door for Japan, who won Spain’s group in the first stage, to take advantage here. Japan executed the first shock of the London 2012 football tournament as they defended an early lead successfully against Spain in their opening match. They then followed that up with another win against Morocco before playing out a 0-0 with Honduras, a result which saw both sides progress through to the knock-out stage. Japan however, are not a side which looked particularly potent in front of goal in the group stage, managing just two goals in their three matches. But then they exploded into a bit of attacking life as they routed Egypt 3-0 in the quarter finals.
The Asians are a pretty industrious side and they work tirelessly. Will that be enough to edge past Mexico, who have looked pretty solid throughout London 2012? Mexico found the going tough against South Korea, as have most of their opponents, managing a 0-0 draw against the Asian. But then, there was a good 2-0 win over Gabon and a 1-0 over Switzerland in their final match to top the group. Granted, while it was the easiest group of the Olympics, they managed to keep three clean sheets and that wasn’t breached until they ran into the tough, physical Senegal side in the quarter finals. Mexico had comfortably opened up a 2-0 lead in the match, but two goals in seven minutes from the African nation sent the game to extra time. But it was the Mexicans who re-exerted their pressure, scoring twice in extra time to take a comfortable win against the heavy tackling Senegal. That was a victory for football over physicality.
So now Japan will be favourites in their semi final against Mexico, simply because they have the better all round balance and quality. It should be quite an evenly matched encounter at the end of the day and prior to the London 2012 Olympic Games, the two nations met in an U23 International Friendly in Nottingham. The result on that occasion was a 2-1 win for the Japanese. It is probably going to be just a close again this time around and extra time really isn’t too much of a stretch of the imagination here.
Mexico v Japan Betting Odds at online bookmaker Bet365
Japan 8/5, Mexico 9/5, Draw 2/1
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