Gareth Bale, Danny Rose, and the Olympics

Watching Great Britain's football team kick off a new era in their friendly defeat to Brazil last night, the teams seemed a little unbalanced.

Now of course friendly results shouldn't really matter, and this was the first time this set of players has played a competitive game together, but against star studded Brazil they fell short.

Brazil's team of superstars seemed as though they could step it up at any time, whereas in the wide areas especially, Great Britain looked a little lightweight.

One player who would make a real difference is Gareth Bale. The Welshman was expected to be an integral part of the side.

A recurrence of an old injury which flared up again in June saw him ruled out of the tournament, and let's face it, there are no players available to Stuart Pearce capable of having the same kind of impact the Welshman would have done.

Team GB's loss is Tottenham's gain however, and it means new manager Andre Villas-Boas can see him and work with him close hand ahead of the season, even if he is still recuperating from his injury.

He is fully expected to make it back for Spurs' season opener against Newcastle, with Wales boss Chris Coleman - another who feels he will benefit from his omission from the Olympic squad - commenting that he 'wouldn't be surprised' if he makes some appearances in Spurs' pre-season.

He has already begun light training, which will encourage Spurs supporters. When his injury was picked up there must have been a worry that both club and Olympic squad would lose out, but it appears Tottenham really will benefit.

What it does do, is give his Tottenham understudy Danny Rose a chance to shine for Team GB. He didn't impress against Brazil on Friday night, but he will get more chances when the tournament proper starts.

Rose is a favourite of Stuart Pearce's who rates him highly and knows him from his time managing the England under-21s.

Gareth Bale's excellence has stunted Rose's development at Spurs, with him struggling for game time, and when he has played he has not really done a lot to demand an inclusion.

Many feel Rose is better at left-back, where his path to the Spurs first team is blocked by Benoit Assou-Ekotto, who had an excellent season last year.,

This is a potentially 'golden chance' for Rose to stake a claim for himself in Tottenham's team and impress his new boss.

The returning Gareth Bale will be first choice in attack, and Assou-Ekotto at left-back, but wherever Rose is picked for Great Britain he must kick on and not let the opportunity pass him by, but either way it should be an enlightening experience for the youngster to get competitive football under his belt and show what he is capable of.

Neutrals will wish it was Bale out their instead, but Spurs fans will be mightily pleased their star man is being wrapped in cotton wool ahead of the season.

image: © Jan S0L0