“Neymar’s goal, 15 seconds in, is the fastest in the history of Olympic football, 5.42 seconds more than Usain Bolt”, the Rio 2016 Spanish-language account tweeted in reference to the Jamaican sprinter. The Olympics – which is predominantly a U-23 tournament – pales in comparison to the World Cup, but claiming a gold medal on home soil and doing it against Germany would be a nice feather in the cap.
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Brazil will meet Germany at 8.30am this Sunday in the gold medal final of the Men=s Football competition at the Rio Olympics.
If he can lead his squad to triumph in Saturday’s final, the team captain would cement his status as one of Brazil’s greatest ever players.
However, there was no repeat of his tears of anguish when carried off with two broken vertebrae in his back that ended his World Cup participation in a brutal quarter-final against Colombia two years ago.
Defender Matthias Ginter is the only World Cup victor in the German Olympic squad. “Neymar is a guy who has a gift for playing football, who enchants”, the delighted coach said of his star man. “Of course Brazil played well, took advantage and scored the goals”.
Neymar flies through the air after a collision with the Honduras goalkeeper, as the ball rolls into the goal.
“Is there anything more handsome than playing an Olympic final at Maracana against Brazil?”. After getting up and falling again, Neymar was stretchered off the field.
Their women’s team, led by the legendary figure of five-time Fifa World Player of the Year Marta, can seal bronze with a win over Canada in Sao Paolo on Friday after suffering a surprise semi-final penalty shootout loss to Sweden.
Neymar fell hard on the play, got up to celebrate and then slumped back down, writhing in apparent pain.
Honduras came into the game with high hopes after surviving a group that included Argentina and Portugal.
New Manchester City signing Gabriel Jesus added two more to see the Seleçao go in 3-0 at the break, before Marquinhos finished from close range and Luan Vieira completed a fine team move to put further daylight between the sides.
“We knew there was going to be a lot of pressure on this team”, Micale said.
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Brazil continued to dominate after the Paris Saint-Germain defender’s strike and Luan eventually got a deserved goal in the 79th minute, before Neymar converted a penalty in the dying minutes to double his personal tally as Micale’s men booked a ticket to the final in style. But the team picked up the pace and will face Germany, which beat Nigeria 2-0 in the other semifinal match.
