On Wednesday, August 17th, at Maracanã Stadium, the Seleção (Brazilian national team) dominated Honduras for the 6×0 victory in the semifinals of the 2016 Rio Olympics men’s football (soccer) competition.
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The Barcelona superstar was at his best in the game against Honduras, scoring a goal in the opening 14 seconds of the game and punctuating a 6-0 rout with the final goal off a well-placed penalty kick.
The capacity crowd at the 78,639-seater Maracana were on their feet again in the 25th minute as Manchester City’s £27 million (S$47 million) new recruit Gabriel Jesus finished calmly to double Brazil’s lead.
Marquinhos got a fourth in 51 minutes, which he hammered home from three yards at the second attempt when the ball fell kindly to him at a corner.
With the fastest goal in Olympic history, Neymar led Brazil back to the gold-medal match.
“Neymar is the best or second best payer in world football, so controlling him is not easy”, said Pinto, whose side still have the chance to land Honduras’ first ever medal in Friday’s bronze medal match.
“We know the pressure we are under”, Micale said. In one of the great anomalies of world football, Brazil has never won the Olympic gold medal.
The expectations of the host nation are placed on star forward Neymar delivering gold having missed that infamous clash in Belo Horizonte through injury.
Germany will be hoping to recreate happy memories of Rio as they followed up beating Brazil to lift the World Cup at the Maracana with a 1-0 win over Lionel Messi’s Argentina two years ago. It won the bronze at the time, when it competed as West Germany.
Captain Max Meyer opened the scoring for the Europeans in the 9th minute, after latching home a clever pass from Serge Gnabry that exposed the Nigerian defence.
Neymar, one of the biggest stars at the Rio de Janeiro Games, collided with Lopez on the goal and lay on the field grimacing for several moments before trying to stand.
Men’s world champion and world no.1 Farzan Ashourzadeh Fallah of Iran lost in the last seconds of his preliminary match and the second-seeded Korean, Taehun Kim, was eliminated in his first fight of the day. The Olympics might be an Under-23 competition – allowing three over-aged players – but revenge is at the forefront of Brazil’s public consciousness. To claim the only title that has always eluded them, the hosts will have to win a final in the Maracana against the very opponents who humiliated them two years ago.
“We are a team that is good going forward and we are going to play exactly the same way”.
“We have experienced players who will help them”.
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Brianna Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin finished 1-2-3 in the 100-meter hurdles to give the United States its first sweep in the event, its seventh in the history of Olympic track and the 23rd for USA women, regardless of sport, over the history of the Summer Games.
