Brazil won the medal it wanted the most Saturday, claiming its first Olympic gold in soccer and providing a lift to a beleaguered nation in the process.
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Attention was focused on Neymar who did not waste time to bury the last kick to end it 5-4 and strike Brazil’s first ever gold in the history of Olympics football after losing three previous finals.
On Saturday, a shootout conversion by Neymar delivered an Olympic soccer gold medal to host nation Brazil. In the final, Neymar not only clinched the win in penalty kicks but scored the team’s lone goal in regulation.
However, he also suddenly stepped down as captain after taking on the role in 2014 following Brazil’s disastrous World Cup exit.
Brazil are sixth in the South American World Cup qualifying group – outside the qualifying places for Russian Federation 2018 – and were dumped out of the Copa America at the group stage by Peru in June.
They even brought Neymar, one of three overage players permitted in what is an under 23 tournament, to Rio instead of the more prestigious Copa America after his club Barcelona refused to allow him to play in both competitions.
So far Neymar had been the most active in the Brazilian team against a Germany with a strong defense – electrical, skilled and dynamic.
“Today I have become a champion, and I give up the captain’s armband”, Neymar said in an interview with SporTV.
On Friday August 19, Germany’s women’s team had won gold for the first time, beating Sweden 2-1 in the final.
Earlier in the tournament, when the eventual gold-winning Brazilian men’s team and star Neymar were struggling, some fans crossed out his name on their No. 10 jerseys and wrote in hers in magic marker.
“I can’t begin to describe [my feelings]”.
In front of 78,000 at the Maracana, Brazil got a measure of revenge as they finally won the Olympic title after losing in the finals in 1984, 1988 and 2012.
However, they struggled to make chances and it was the Germans who nearly opened the scoring after 10 minutes when Julian Brandt smacked the bar with a lovely curling shot from outside the box. Brazil, frenetic in both attack and defence, failed to deal with the German right-back’s overlap and the Hoffenheim player was given the time to pick out Meyer to level things up.
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“We knew there was huge responsibility on the Olympic team because of how important football is to the country”.
