Brazil are heavy favorites to advance over South Korea in the semifinals at the London 2012 Olympics, while Mexico are slight favorites in against Japan.
Mexico entered the London 2012 Olympics men's football tournament as strong dark horse contenders for a medal, but couldn't have possibly expected to end up as favorites in their semifinal. Similar things can be said for Brazil, who were favored to win the gold medal, but will be happy to see that they don't have to go through Spain, Uruguay or Great Britain to get it.
Outside of Asia, Mexico and Brazil will be heavily favored to advance to the final, but they're coming up against two teams that were far more impressive in their semifinal matches than Brazil and Mexico were. Japan defeated Egypt very comfortably to go through to the semifinal, while South Korea outplayed Great Britain for most of their match, only to give away two bad penalties during their only bad spells of the match. One was converted and one was not, and they went on to defeat Great Britain on penalties after extra time.
Mexico and Japan kick things off at Wembley Stadium, where El Tri will be playing for the second consecutive match. South Korea and Brazil follow just under three hours later at Old Trafford.
TV Schedule (all times ET)
Mexico vs. Japan - 12:00 p.m., NBC Sports Network
South Korea vs. Brazil - 2:45 p.m., NBC Sports Network
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