Olympic football concluded today with a huge upset, as Mexico shocked Brazil to capture the gold and their first Olympic medal. Watch out, world. CONCACAF is comin’ to get ya! Now that the Olympics are over, what am I going to write about? For now at least I’m still in Olympic mode and dug up a few of the top headlines from the women’s and men’s tournaments, but we’ll get back to some MLS headlines this week as well.

Olympics 2012

Mexico defeated Brazil 2-0 in the gold medal match for their first-ever Olympic medal behind 1′ and 75′ goals from Oribe Peralta. Brazil came in as the favorite to win their first gold, but weren’t able to put a ball in the net until the 92nd minute, when they were already in a 2-goal hole.

SI’s Grant Wahl offers three thoughts on the match, including what it means for the future of Mexican soccer, as well as what’s in store for Brazil after failing, yet again, to bring home the gold.

FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year, Homare Sawa of Japan, announced today that she will retire from international soccer. Sawa, 33, finished her distinguished career with a silver medal in London, after leading Japan to the World Cup title last summer.

“I’ve achieved what I can and have no regrets,” Sawa told Japan’s Nikkan Sports daily following Thursday’s 2-1 defeat by the United States in the gold medal match in London.

“I always wanted an Olympic gold medal but I’ve given everything. This is the end,” added Sawa, who played in five World Cups and scored 81 goals in 186 appearances for Japan.

BBC Sport has put together an all-Olympic women’s football team. Shockingly, it’s very USWNT-heavy.

Carli Lloyd made a huge statement in the tournament to prove her doubters wrong, but NBC’s Jeff Kassouf argues that Lloyd’s work is “more than just weeks in the making.”

Missing the USA girls already? You won’t need to wait long to see them again. Two matches on their post-Olympics “victory tour” have been announced for September, against Costa Rica in Rochester, NY and Australia in Carson, Calif. C’mon, we want a USA-Canada rematch, don’t we?

Major League Soccer

The Red Bulls are back on top of the East, with a payback 2-0 win against the Dynamo, but Thierry Henry is not satisfied. The RBNY captain admitted that “in terms of team they’re ahead of us.”

Thirty-five MLS players will be on international team duty next week, with Jamaica, Honduras and Canada dominating the assignments. The U.S. roster will be released tomorrow.

Jay DeMerit and Alain Rochat show off how they re-create their on-the-field moves for EA’s FIFA 13, but it’s not all serious work. DeMerit throws in an interpretation of Mario Balotelli’s antics, because c’mon, who doesn’t love making fun of Balotelli?

That’s right.

The FC Barcelona star grasped his third successive Ballon D’Or trophy today, beating out teammate Xavi Hernandez and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo (who couldn’t attend due to match preparation.)

The Argentinean said at the FIFA World Players Gala, “It is a pleasure and honor to win this for the third time. Thanks to those who voted and all my teammates.”

Congrats to the other two nominees Xavi and Cristiano for having fantastic seasons as well.

Not only was the winner of the Ballon D’Or awarded but so was the FIFA Women’s Player of the Year. The nominees were Abby Wambach (USA), Marta (Brazil) and Homare Sawa (Japan).

This year’s award goes to Homare Sawa of Japan. Sawa led her national team to victory this year in the Women’s World Cup in Germany where she won the Golden Ball and Golden Shoe award.

Sawa’s country of Japan also won the FIFA Fair Play Award due to their reaction of the devastating earthquake and tsunami the country faced earlier in the year.

Mexican legend Hugo Sanchez presented Neymar the FIFA Puskas Award, which is determined by the player with the “most beautiful” goal of the year. Neymar beat out both Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney.

“I am very happy to be part of this party and have been competing with this two great players. I’m very grateful to God and all you. Enjoy this party.”

You can see Neymar’s outstanding goal here!

Now to the coach awards. Let’s start out with the FIFA Women’s Coach of the Year.

The nominees were Bruno Bini of France, Norio Sasaki of Japan and Pia Sundhage of Sweden.

Japan’s Norio Sasaki claimed the award with his efforts of leading his national team to victory when Japan beat the US in the final.

The FIFA Men’s Coach of the Year was won by FC Barcelona’s Pep Guardiola, who managed to win Champions League and the La Liga title last year. Pep beat out MUFC manager Sir Alex Ferguson and Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho.

Guardiola was quite humble after winning the award saying, “I would like to share this award with Mourinho and Ferguson. It is an honor. And all the coaches around the world who share this passion. And also to the thousands of people that over 100 years have worked and develop Barcelona. It is a privilege to be part of such an incredible club. And finally, I would like to dedicate this award to Tito Vilanova, my assistant, my colleague, my friend who can’t be here tonight. This is for you.”

Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t leave the Gala empty-handed. The MUFC legendary manager won the prestigious FIFA Presidential Award, presented by FIFA president Sepp Blatter. “This is very much appreciated. No matter the honor I get, I feel it’s been the recognition for the 25 years of Manchester United. They always shared my vision and passion. I’ve been a very lucky manager. That makes Manchester United such a special club. The courage to play and the courage to try and win is more important than anything.”

Individual awards aside, eleven players were selected to the FIFA/FIFAPro World XI which was presented by three-time World Cup Champion and football legend, Pele. The players selected are as follows:

Iker Casillas (Spain)

Sergio Ramos (Spain)

Gerard Pique (Spain)

Nemanja Vidic (Serbia)

Dani Alves (Brazil)

Andres Iniesta (Spain)

Xavi (Spain)

Xabi Alonso (Spain)

Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)

Wayne Rooney (England)

Lionel Messi (Argentina)

Real Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane and Emilio Butragueno accepted players Xabi Alonso, Sergio Ramos, Cristiano Ronaldo and Iker Casillas‘ awards on behalf of them due to preparation for their match against Malaga this week.

Stay tuned to Aerys Soccer for all your international football news!

All photos courtesy of FIFA.com

There have been a few updates lately in the world of U.S. women’s soccer, so rather than wait for the next Daily Kick Around, we have an extra special afternoon update for you today.

Abby Wambach was named one of three finalists for FIFA’s Women’s World Player of the Year, along with Homare Sawa (Japan) and Marta (Brazil). Marta has won the award the last five years, but if I were to make a prediction I’d say Sawa, who led Japan to stunning victories over Germany, Sweden and the USA en route to a World Cup win, will win this year. USA head coach Pia Sundhage is one of three final nominees for World Coach of the Year. The awards will be presented at the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala on January 9, 2012 in Zurich. [via USSoccer.com]

Following Stanford’s 1-0 win over Duke in the College Cup Final on Sunday, support poured in via Twitter from Stanford alumni:

Julie Foudy (@juliefoudy): Ecstatic for @StanfordWSoccer. Proud to have been there, called game, and seen it come full circle. Awesome. Congrats! #collegecup

Kelley O’Hara (@kohara19): Words can not describe how happy and proud I am of @StanfordWSoccer Much deserved for that group and about damn time! #nattychamps

Ali Riley (@RileyThree): Never a more deserving bunch! No more talk of heartbreak. @StanfordWSoccer are champions!

U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer_wnt): Congrats to Stanford from the #USWNT & proud alumni @kohara19 & Rachel Buehler on your first NCAA women’s soccer title.

photo credit: @ussoccer_wnt

Riley, who plays for New Zealand’s national team and WPS’s Western New York Flash, also tweeted:

Anyone else want to see those @StanfordWSoccer seniors play again in this country? #savethewps

Many of the women who played in this tournament will be future international players, but as the future of WPS looks murky, will they have a place to play professionally inbetween international appearances? And what of those who don’t get called up to represent their home country?

• We may find out soon if WPS will be sanctioned by U.S. Soccer for having too few teams in a Division 1 status league. Currently, they have five and are required to have eight, though could get by with a waiver for six, as they did last season, if they can add a new franchise soon. If WPS stays alive through 2012, where will some of the graduating college seniors, and those who played for the recently terminated magicJack franchise, go?

• Christen Press, Stanford’s all-time leading scorer, the #4 pick in the 2011 WPS draft and WPS’s Rookie of the Year with magicJack, has already signed with the Atlanta Beat. The Beat finished last in the WPS rankings last year and will have the first pick in the 2012 draft. Last year, Western New York Flash used their first pick to select Cal’s Alex Morgan, who went on to win the WPS Championship with them, and contributed to the U.S. National Team’s second place finish in the World Cup.

Stay with Aerys Soccer for all your women’s soccer updates!

Japan defeated Sweden by a score of 3-1 in the World Cup Semifinals, advancing to the Final for the first time in their nation’s history. They will face the United States, who beat France 3-1 in their semifinal match earlier in the day. Japan has lost nine straight to the United States, who holds a 22-0-3 edge in head-to-head competition.

Sweden opened the scoring in the tenth minute when midfielder Josefine Öqvist intercepted a pass in the back, drove it toward the near post, and sailed a left-footed shot into the top right corner of the net. The celebration was short-lived, however. Japan equalized just nine minutes later on a header from Nahomi Kawasumi, crossed beautifully from the left side and perfectly placed in front of the goal by Aya Miyama.

Japan continued to control possession through the remainder of the half with their trademark near-flawless passing, but the score remained knotted at 1-1 apiece at the half. But in the 59th minute Homare Sawa put her team in the lead, tapping it in on a header just in front of the net. Swedish keeper Hedvig Lindahl came toward the front of the 6 yard box to grab it, but could only get a hand on it, and Sawa was right there to finish it off.  Five minutes later, Kawasumi scored her second goal of the match from long range, after Lindahl had come all the way out of the penalty box trying to get to a shot sent from midfield. Lindahl kicked it away, but right at Kawasumi, who hooked a shot from about 35 yards out into the back of the net to give Japan a 3-1 lead that they would not relinquish.

Sweden was without captain Caroline Seger, who was pulled before the match due to a calf injury, and midfielder Nilla Fischer, who received her second yellow card of the tournament, and thus a one game suspension, in the match against Germany.

Coverage of the World Cup Finals begins at 2:00pm EST Sunday, July 17 on ESPN, with kickoff at 2:45pm. Sweden will face France in the third-place game on Saturday at 11:30am EST.