In the men’s football, Brazilians were treated to a feast of Joga Bonito (Portuguese for play beautiful), as the host nation thrashed Honduras 6-0 in a very scintillating semi-fianl to reach the final against Germany, where they will have a chance to avenge the 7-1 defeat from the 2014 World Cup.
Advertisement
BEACH BRONZE: Few bronze medal games will feature a more intriguing matchup than the one on Copacabana Beach, where Walsh Jennings, who has won three gold medals, and Ross will face Brazil’s top-seeded team of Talita and Larissa.
To thicken the plot of the final’s storyline, the Olympic gold is the only footballing honour to elude Brazil, which has five World Cups, eight Copa Americas and four Confederations Cups.
Intriguingly, both teams have a variety of players capable of scoring goals. The standard of the men’s competition is extremely low and its outcome has little or no relevance on the balance of power in the global game. We knew it could be hard.
Tactically, Germany were the stronger side in the first half. “Everything is in our favour as we are at home in Brazil”.
Italy -based Umar Sadiq should have put Nigeria level on 12 minutes after goalkeeper Timo Horn miscued a goal -kick, but with only the goalie to beat, he could not put his act together. The goal was the first made by Klostermann at any level of the German national team, according to Federation Internationale de Football Association.
But Brazil were disappointed not to have added a gold medal to their tally, after their duo composed of Agatha and Barbara lost in the beach volleyball final to Germany. But what does it all mean?
Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst claimed the second straight Olympic gold medal for their homeland and establishing it as a power in the beach volleyball world.
Brazil’s Neymar celebrates at the end of a semifinal match of the men’s Olympic football tournament between Brazil and Honduras at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro Wednesday Aug. 17, 2016.
It is a pertinent question, but first comes the matter of claiming gold. It has never won the gold. Their three over-age players have just 26 full caps between them, while Brazil’s three have 81. Slightly better scoreline for the home nation than that match they played against Germany in 2014.
The team got off to a rocky start in this tournament drawing its first two games 0-0.
Consequently there was no fluidity or constructive passing.
Gabriel Jesus gets a second!
Neymar, Luan and Marquinhos. At times both have gone deep to combine and, as the full-backs have burst forward, so the two Gabriels have cut infield inside the penalty area.
After a poor start to their campaign, Brazil have improved from game to game.
Neymar was soon “jogging”, though, and managed to come back into the game after a quick treatment at the sidelines.
Advertisement
After only 15 seconds, Neymar pounced, scoring the fastest goal in Olympic history, and football’s legendary samba sound went loud.
