The only sour note for Australia was that they didn’t win by more.
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In the 74th minute, Brazil’s Alves took a first time shot after receiving a long pass over the top of the Australian backline, but her shot went wide.
With 60,000 fans expected to attend in Belo Horizonte, Brazil will be looking to avoid the same fate their male counterparts suffered at the same venue in the 2014 FIFA World Cup semi-final.
The Australian women’s team believe the referees were scared to upset the parochial home crowd, despite previously pledging at a pre-tournament meeting to crack down on goalkeepers advancing off their line for penalties with yellow cards. Led by mercurial talent Lisa De Vanna, Australia poses a threat to every team they face, in any competition.
The average player age of Australia is 23 years old and they have ten players all under the age of 25, making them one of the youngest if not the youngest, squads at the Olympics.
“All my family is here and they love it in Brazil”. Her flair and attacking ruthlessness will allow those around her to flourish and if Australia decides to place too many markers on Marta, others like Cristiane, Deabritz or Andressa Alves will capitalize on the space afforded to them. Brazil will be hopeful that Cristiane will be ready to play on August 12th after she picked up an injury in the second group game as she has been the ideal foil to Marta’s creativity.
Fortunately for China, Sweden had been dealt a 5-1 thrashing by Brazil in their second group match, and fortunately for Sweden, New Zealand had lost 3-0 to France prior to the final matches in Group E, meaning a draw would see both teams through to the quarter-finals.
In order to ready themselves for the unusual start time, the Matildas scheduled an 8pm training session on Thursday night. To make it to the quarters was a goal of ours and we’re achieved that.
“You could call up 1,000 games where that has happened”.
Three penalties later and the weight of the world was on Kennedy, who had had to score to keep Australia in the match.
For the Matildas, it was a heartbreaking end to a bold bid to bring home their country’s first Olympic football medal.
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Brazil will face Sweden in a semi-final on Tuesday after the Scandinavians defeated the United States on penalties in their quarter-final.
