30072012GiggsAfter last week's footballing false start to the Olympics, the London Games finally began in earnest at the weekend.
We are only in the third day of this orgy or sport but already Early Doors is not sure how it is going to handle life post-August 12, when it can no longer flip its gaze from dreams being realised and broken at the pinnacle of one sport to another in a matter of minutes, all day long.
While there were as many sporting thrills as there were empty seats across the capital — in the pool, on the road and in the many arenas which have now thrown their doors open to the world — suddenly flicking back to the national sport feels like a bit of a comedown. Is there anything more incongruous with the Olympic ideal of finding glory and joy in competition than Mark Lawrenson's dour, miserablist co-commentary?
Even in the context of Olympic football on its own, Team GB's men had been easily overshadowed. Their female counterparts marched into the last eight of their competition on Saturday with an emphatic 3-0 win over Cameroon to make it two wins from two for them.
Back in the men's tournament, Brazil continue to justify their status as favourites, Senegal played out a bruising and enthralling 2-0 win against Uruguay while Spain didn't have it all their own way at a tournament for once as defeat Honduras saw them sent home early.
Still, after a disappointing 1-1 draw with Senegal last week Stuart Pearce's side bounced back with a 3-1 win over United Arab Emirates which puts them within a point of the quarter-finals.
It all happened in front of 85,000 fans, a record for an Olympic football match. That attendance seems to be quite an achievement considering that, according to reports, someone lost the over-sized novelty key which opens the door to the stadium.
It could have been the moment when the Team GB experiment fell flat on its face, allowing all those who find the idea of the host nation entering every competition in the Games so abhorrent to do that most British of things; sneering at the failure of others.
Instead, the Anglo-Welsh outfit won their first Olympic game in 52 years — or their second win in their last three matches at the Games, depending on how you look at it.
Unlike Thursday's opening Group A match, this time the Rotters of the great British press simply did not have the manpower or the page space to devote to another cooked-up outrage about which of the players did or did not sing God Save The Queen — the default news line for GB football - before kick-off last night. However, that did not stop there being an inevitable flurry of frustration on Twitter as the anthem was played at Wembley.
John Cross of the Daily Mirror was only too happy to name and shame the players who did not sing and highlight the incredible coincidence of them all happening to be from Wales. Cross tweeted: "National Anthem non singers....The five Welsh players - Taylor, Allen, Bellamy, Giggs and Ramsey - did not sing God Save The Queen."
ED must have missed the memo about the new rule which now makes professional athletes now makes singing on live television in front of millions of people compulsory, and to do otherwise is tantamount to burning the flag.
In the excellent 2005 documentary Game Of Their Lives, which re-tells the story of the North Korean football team at the 1966 World Cup, the scene in which a reunited group of some of those players force the tears as they pay tribute to their former 'Great Leader' Kim Il-Sung is an incredibly saddening sight. Such forced patriotism has no place in a free society, never mind a sporting arena.
OK, so some of Team GB footballers did not sing God Save The Queen. But, once you realise that it doesn't matter at all, it's really not so bad.
The identity of those who did sing certainly did not tally with those who performed best on the pitch, either. After Craig Bellamy's goal on Thursday, Ryan Giggs rounded off a fine move to open the scoring to make it 2-0 to the non-anthem singers.
After UAE deservedly levelled after the break, the introduction of Scott Sinclair paid off within seconds when he put Britain ahead once more, the Swansea forward striking another blow for the Welsh. Soon enough another substitute, Daniel Sturridge made it three with a lovely lob. The Chelsea striker once scored against Cardiff City in the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge, so once again that Welsh theme runs right through the heart of Team GB.
After every failure of a British nation at a major tournament there are the same introspective calls for root and branch reform, to give the kids a chance and take every match seriously. Nations like Brazil are praised for taking tournaments like the Olympics seriously, but at the same time Britain's involvement has been decried by many as a pointless exercise.
One victory may not change that perception, but if Team GB can make it out of their group then perhaps they can at least avoid being written off as a doomed enterprise and begin to compete with the rest of the Olympics for public attention. After that, they can start to dream about winning a sceptical nation's affection.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "We don't need big changes, not 10 players like two or three years ago - but we need three, four, five players." - Roberto Mancini predicts a quiet summer for Manchester City on the transfer market - well, sort of.
FOREIGN VIEW: After scoring on his Paris Saint-Germain debut against DC United - a fine effort after only two minutes - Zlatan Ibrahimovic was asked if his new club was better than former employers AC Milan. The striker responded, quick as a flash, in the affirmative, before elaborating that the reason was "because they [Milan] lost their two best players". Oh, Zlatan.
COMING UP: Eurobot has already fired up for another day's worth of gossip, deals and shenanigans in the live transfer window blog, while Paul Parker will be filing his latest column.
However, if you want some ACTUAL SPORT TO WATCH, then dive into a packed programme on day three of the London Olympics. Watch the action on British Eurosport (in HD and in 3D) or via the Eurosport Player, or get instant updates on every event right here throughout the day.