Brazil remembers how to score and win soccer games, advances in Rio Olympics
As it turns out, Brazil has not forgotten how to play soccer.
With the Selecao’s backs against the wall in their group stage finale of the Rio Olympics men’s soccer tournament, Neymar and Co. needed a win to ensure passage to the quarterfinal and avoid the biggest humiliation in their nation’s soccer history. They got it by dispatching Denmark 4-0 in Salvador on Wednesday.
After 0-0 ties with fairly woeful South Africa and Iraq teams in Brazil’s two opening games, angst had built to levels that might have proven crippling. Indeed, following the 7-1 loss to Germany in the 2014 World Cup semifinal on home turf, the national team had been in freefall. First there had been the premature flameouts at the Copa America in consecutive summers. And now it seemed like the boys in gold might not even make it through their dead-simple group at the Summer Games in another major tournament on their own soil.
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But a pair of goals from Gabigol, another from Gabriel Jesus and a fourth from Luan ended the spell and brought catharsis at last. Brazil not only won the game convincingly, but won the group, and all is well again.
Like in the previous 180 minutes at these Olympics, Brazil spent the first spell of the game directing one-way traffic and creating endless chances, succeeding at everything but actually putting the ball into the goal. When Gabriel Jesus once again applied a lamentable finish to waste a gilded opportunity, it seemed like it was going to be yet another one of those nights for Brazil. They had three-quarters of possession then, but still no goals.
But in the 26th minute, Gabriel Barbosa – who goes by Gabigol – delivered one of those goals at length. Douglas Santos sent in the low cross. Gabigol scuffed the ball off the outside of his foot but got just enough of it to beat goalkeeper Jeppe Hojbjerg. It was a fitting way to end an epic goal drought: a mishit shot trickling over the line.
Before halftime, Gabriel Jesus, the recent Manchester City signing, put the game out of the reach of the overwhelmed Danes. Luan was freed up on the right on a give-and-go with Gabigol and swung in a cross, which Gabriel Jesus poked in on the run.
Then, just after the break, Luan got the third goal from a tap-in.
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The Brazilians got a scare when Neymar seemed to roll his ankle and crumpled into a heap. They learned in 2014 just how dependent they have come to be on his ability to open up defenses. But he eventually picked himself up and ran off the knock.
Then, to provide an exclamation mark, the captain and Barcelona star dispatched Gabriel Jesus through the defense, who reached the back line and cut back for Gabigol, who whipped in the fourth in the 80th minute.
When the final whistle rang out, the relief was plain on the faces of the young Brazilians. A crushing weight had been flicked from their shoulders. Three wins now separate them from a first-ever Brazilian Olympic gold medal in men’s soccer. Colombia awaits in the quarterfinals on Saturday in Sao Paulo.
