Beijing: Argentina's unrestrained joy in winning a second consecutive football gold medal reflected the absolute importance they placed on playing at the Olympic Games.
While European nations largely devalue an Olympic medal, South American powers Argentina and Brazil along with African heavyweights Nigeria threw everything into winning in Beijing.
Argentina had a tug-of-war with Spanish giants Barcelona to release their mercurial forward Lionel Messi for the Games.
The powerful European club even won an appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport against a FIFA rule obliging them to release all under-23 players, including Messi.
In the end Barcelona allowed Messi to play at the Olympics, reportedly after making a deal with the Argentine federation.
Messi proved the winning difference as Argentina vanquished Brazil 3-0 in the semi-finals and edged out former champions Nigeria 1-0 in the final to become the first nation in 40 years since Hungary to clinch back-to-back Olympic football gold.
Messi conjured the winning goal for Angel Di Maria in the 58th minute, taking possession just inside his own half and putting the Benfica midfielder in a one-on-one situation to chip the goalkeeper Ambruse Vanzekin.
The Argentina players celebrated enthusiastically after the final whistle and savoured the big occasion of winning Olympic gold before 89,102 fans at the 'Bird's Nest' National Stadium.
Even old stager and team captain Juan Riquelme, one of five current full internationals in the Argentine Olympic team, was overwhelmed by the Beijing experience.
"I'm absolutely delighted because this was the last opportunity I had to play in the Olympic Games," Riquelme said. "I'll be wearing the medal on the plane home. I won't be taking it off for anyone.
"We had the good fortune to stay in the athlete's village and meet athletes from all over the world. For me it was incredible and I fully enjoyed it. Never before had I experienced anything quite like it."
The Beijing football tournament will be remembered as the stage where Messi once again illustrated why he is widely regarded as the world's best footballer.
"People said a lot of things that annoyed me before I came to China, everyone knows that," Messi said.
"That's what makes this medal so special. I think Argentina won the gold because we had a fantastic team that really pulled together. You could see that on the pitch."
Nigerian coach Samson Siasia made no bones about the difference between the two teams in the final played in brutal midday heat.
"Messi terrorises not only our team, but all teams in Europe. He didn't score but he created a lot of their chances. That is why we have the silver and they have the gold," he said.
Nigeria went in with the pyschological edge of beating Argentina 3-2 in the corresponding final 12 years ago in Atlanta to become the first African Olympic champions, but were let down by profligate finishing.
Brazil may be revered as five-time World Cup champions, but they left Beijing once again without an Olympic gold medal.
They had to settle for the bronze after a demoralising semi-final loss their deadly rivals Argentina and claimed the consolation prize in a 3-0 win over Belgium, who dumped Italy out 3-2 in the quarter-finals.
The Brazilians were so fixated on winning the tournament for the first time that they brought in former two-time FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldinho as one of their three over-age players and senior coach Dunga to lead the side.
The loss to Argentina was described as 'shameful' by the country's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Brazilian newspapers have called for Dunga's dismissal as senior coach.
Yet again football was immensely popular at the Olympics and was watched by a record 2.14 million spectators for the 58 matches in the men's and women's tournaments -- an average of around 36,000.
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