A few words about the Olympic soccer tournament

I understand that not everybody is excited about men’s Olympic soccer. I get it.

In so many sports, the Olympics are Mt. Everest, the very pinnacle of athletic achievement – and wrapped in the national flag, no less. Soccer? Not so much. We’ve got the World Cup for that.

Soccer at the Olympics is an under-23 tournament, albeit with the asterisk of three over-age oldies.

So, yes, I understand.

But I will say this: there are some men in the Olympic Soccer Tournament who get my stamp of “remarkable.” I’ll put Neymar and Hulk from Brazil on that list.

Luis Suarez (pictured) and Edinson Cavani for Uruguay? Yeah, I’ll take some of that.

The point is, the players involved, young though they be, know how to get their soccer shoes laced up tightly, believe me.

Today is the second day for the men’s tournament. Brazil is up early against a Belarus team that’s probably tougher than you think. Spain, one of the tourney favorites, already has its back firmly pressed against an Olympic wall, facing a must-win against Honduras.

And Team Great Britain, getting slaughtered in the press over there, needs to show a more against the UAE today. (They are still PO’ed over there about the whole David Beckham thing. Oh, the injustice!)

The best part about Olympic soccer… not matter which matches catches your eye, it’s available for live viewing.

I know some folks are all twisted up because some events are being taped for later airing, but they must have missed the part where everything is streaming live. For free!

It’s all at the NBCOlympics.com site.