Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Hosts Brazil will open their bid for a first Olympic men’s football title against South Africa after Thursday’s draw was made in the Maracana Stadium.
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The top two sides from each of the three pools advance to the quarterfinals, along with the two best third placed teams. The men’s team will play their group stage matches in Brasilia and Salvador, while the women’s team will play their group stage matches in Rio de Janeiro and Manaus.
In the women’s tournament, Brazil will face Sweden, China and South Africa.
In the 16-team men’s tournament, defending champion Mexico was drawn into a group that includes Fiji, South Korea and Germany.
Olympic champions United States will be odds-on favourites to win the women’s Olympic gold medal for a fourth successive time and fifth in all.
The Football Ferns have been drawn in the same pool as world number one United States and world number three France, along with Colombia.
Only if Brazil lose in the semi-finals could they return, for the bronze medal match, to Belo Horizonte, scene of their World Cup humiliation in 2014.
Meanwhile, Dream Team handler, Samson Siasia has said that his team will prepare well for the Olympic campaign as there will be no easy opponents at the Games.
How do you feel about the United States’ Olympic draw? Group F will consist of Germany, Canada, the tournament’s only debutante Zimbabwe, and Australia. The USA last played New Zealand during a friendly before the 2015 Women’s World Cup, winning 4-0 on April 4, 2015 in St. Louis.
The Nigerian team led by Samson Siasia qualified for the Olympics after their heroic outing at the last Africa U-23 Nations Cup in Senegal past year.
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Lifter Charles Narh Teye becomes the first Ghanaian Para athlete to make it to the 2016 Games, the National Paralympic Committee has confirmed.
