Samba stars fail to shine once again.

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BRAZIL came into the Olympics without ever having won gold in the football and after a 3-0 defeat to arch rivals Argentina they will have to wait another four years.Aa The Samba stars have won the World Cup a record five times but surprisingly are yet to shine on the Olympic stage. In yesterday's semi-final Brazil finished with nine men withAa Lucas and substitute Thiago Neves both sent off for ugly fouls on Javier Mascherano late in the second half.Atletico Madrid's Sergio Aguero broke the deadlock seven minutes after the interval when Angel Di Maria's pass appeared to strike his upper arm before flying into the net. Aguero scored his second goal five minutes later after Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi released defender Pablo Zabaleta on the right and his pass was slotted home from close range with the Brazilian defence in a shambles. Skipper and over-age midfielder Juan Riquelme killed off the Brazilians with a 76th minute penalty after Aguero was brought down by Bayern Munich defender Breno.It went from bad to worse for Brazil with Lucas and Thiago Neves both losing their cool and given straight red cards for chopping down Mascherano inside the last nine minutes.Brazil's hopes vanished when crowd favourite Ronaldinho's free kick slammed into the upright and a follow-up goal was disallowed for offside just after Aguero's second goal.In the final Argentina will play Nigeria after the West Africans destroyed Belgium 4-1 in yesterday's other semi-final.Olubayo Adefemi opened the scoring in the 17th minute and Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi netted a brace before Chibuzor Okonkwo hammered the final nail in Belgium's coffin. Substitute Laurent Ciman pulled one back in the dying minutes but it was too little too late.And the Nigerians are going all out for the gold medal. "It was unbelievable, unbelievable. You just have to look at the scoreboard," said Nigeria's ecstatic coach Samson Siasia."We are going for gold."

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