Olympic Soccer 2012: 5 Men's and Women's Players Who Have Disappointed in London

Many stars were expected to shine in London.

Some did. Others didn't.

The players, both men and women, that have disappointed let their countries down. Some are still alive and can change things; others have already been sent home and must overcome their disappointment for their senior teams.

Here are the five players from the men's and women's sides that have disappointed in London.

While Homare Sawa has done a great job leading Japan emotionally, she hasn't found the net.

After winning the golden boot in last year's World Cup, the FIFA World Player of the Year needs to score. If Japan wants to beat France and the United States, they will need their captain to step up.

She's played well, but Sawa has been somewhat disappointing. She needs to step up, or Japan will go home without a medal.

Juan Mata did not carry Spain like he needed to do.

After scoring in the Euro final, it looked like Chelsea's Player of the Year was going to take over the Olympics. Unfortunately for the world champions, Mata didn't take over. Instead, he seemed a little slow to carry the team and was a contributing reason to why Spain left with one point.

Mata entered with high expectations, but he simply didn't live up to them.

Lotta Schelin had a great first match, but then she disappeared.

All of a sudden, Sweden couldn't get their normal attack going. They netted four goals in the first match, but then they couldn't quite recover. Once France took the 2-1 lead, they never relinquished it.

Schelin was good in the first match, but she didn't do enough to help Sweden compete for a medal.

The knock on Cavani is his underwhelming play for his country.

His performance in London just furthered that criticism.

Cavani has scored over 60 goals in two seasons at Napoli, but he was scoreless at the Olympics. Uruguay was a popular dark horse pick for the gold medal, but the team didn't even advance out of group play. Cavani simply needed to be better, but he disappointed for his country once again.

After scoring three goals, it looked like Stephanie Houghton could be the player of the tournament.

Then, with Kelly Smith injured, Houghton couldn't do much of anything going forward. She had finished brilliantly in group play, but she, as well as Great Britain, couldn't get much going against Canada.

She had a good tournament, but her final performance against Canada just left a bad impression. It exemplified how Great Britain raised the fans' hopes, only to crush them in the quarterfinals.

After a great performance at Euro 2012, Jordi Alba was nearly non-existent at the Olympics.

He wasn't much of a threat going forward, and he couldn't mark the bigger, stronger strikers he was responsible for. Alba was solid, but his play raised some questions about his actual skill.

Maybe he was simply a product of Spain's senior team's machine. Maybe he isn't quite ready to become a superstar. Regardless, he has some things to prove once the club season starts.

Marta is widely regarded as one of the most skilled female footballers in the world.

Unfortunately, she didn't exactly showcase that in London.

Marta notched a brace in the first match, but she didn't score after that. She created plenty of chances in the competition, but not many of them seemed to result in goals. Her teammates needed to play a bit better. However, Marta did not take over a match like she's capable of, and it was disappointing to watch.

Technically, England didn't lose on penalties, but it certainly seems familiar.

Realistically, Great Britain wasn't going to lose any other way than from the spot. Daniel Sturridge did score two goals in the tournament, but he never really looked too dangerous.

Then he missed the final kick against Korea to lose it for Great Britain. Once again, the shootout brought nothing but disappointment to the hosts.

Hope Solo has played relatively well in London.

After conceding two goals in the first 15 minutes, she calmed her defense down and righted the ship. On the field, she's been very good since then.

Solo brought a lot of attention to herself off the field after ranting on Twitter toward Brandi Chastain. She didn't face any serious discipline, but she had a private meeting with her coach.

As an American, I was personally embarrassed because of her condescending outburst. It was immature, and it came at the wrong time. Her tweets were not inherently terrible, but the team doesn't need the distraction.

Solo is good on the field, but her immaturity off it remains a huge disappointment.

Luis Suarez was Uruguay's captain, but he didn't do much to lead the country.

He didn't score a goal, and other than his one assist, he didn't do much for the attack. Given his direct style of play, he didn't look as dangerous as we are accustomed to seeing him play.

Suarez was great in the World Cup two years ago, but he was subpar in London. Between him and Edinson Cavani, a lot was expected from the Uruguay attack. Unfortunately, neither of them showed up, Suarez being the most notable.

He's a very good player, but he played like a reserve in the Olympics. As an objective fan, it was very disappointing to watch Suarez play so poorly. He simply wasn't very good at all.