Brazil 3, Saudi Arabia 1. Brazil wins its group, which it has done every time Brazil reached the Olympics since 1984. Interestingly enough, from 1960 to 1972, Brazil never made it out of the group stage. On Saturday, Brazil faces the runner-up of Group C - Egypt. Egypt defeated Australia 2-0 today after drawing group winner Spain 0-0 and after losing to Argentina 1-0 (and Australia had defeated Argentina 2-0... what an unpredictable sport).
Solid win, but so many missed chances. The first half, Brazil was the better team, but Saudi Arabia was dangerous and deserved the tie. In the second half it looked like the senior team against an underdog. Antony hit the post, Arana had a beautiful shot, Cunha scored but also missed an open goal in the second half, and finally we scored with 15 minutes left. Richarlison added one in added time on a great play by Reinier and has 5 goals now. Quarter-final is Saturday. The women play their quarter-final Friday (tomorrow night to Friday morning) against Canada, and whoever wins gets the winner of USA x Netherlands for their prize!
Poor game for the women ends in a penalty shootout elimination after 0x0. Men's team vs. Egypt Saturday morning.
Brazil wins, 1-0 vs. Egypt. It's Brazil's fourth consecutive Olympic final four finish, and if Brazil gets past Mexico, it'll be Brazil's fourth consecutive Olympic medal. From what I read of match reports, Brazil was better throughout and missed several chances, and the Egyptians played a tough game marking aggressively. I haven't watched Mexico play other than some highlights, and while they have good offense, they are not unbeaten - they lost to Japan 2-1. And against Korea, Mexico allowed 3 goals today, for a total of 6 goals allowed in 4 matches (vs. 3 goals Brazil has allowed). And I hope Tite is paying attention. UOL's P-B-P at times shows Twitter user comments and one person said the Olympic team plays better than the main national team and that its style is closer to the classical Brazilian style, rather than the boring and mechanical Tite style (not my words). Still, this team is solid, so hopefully Tite will bring some of these young men into WCQ starting in September.
I set my alarm for 3am to watch this game. Would have loved a few more goals to keep me awake, but it was not by any means a boring game. Brazil was solid. Antony and Bruno Guimarães once again making strong cases for playing time with Tite. You're not wrong. But as you might expect those random comments are not always representative. For example, Matheus Cunha is the top scorer in Jardine's cycle. Between that and the personnel and tactics Tite uses, he absolutely deserves a call-up. But for the first few games of the Olympics, fans who tuned in just for the Olympics were calling him worse than Firmino and Jesus. He was missing a lot of chances. It's a good thing he finally got on the scoreboard last match. Of course, now that means he should be starting on the full squad! Spain was one minute away from being eliminated by Ivory Coast and then they gifted Spain an equalizer and apparently fell apart in overtime. None of the teams left will be easy, of course, and Mexico can definitely be scored on, but I think they are going to be the toughest match. Santos doesn't inspire confidence in me, but at least the defense has been getting more coordinated since the opening game.
Poor game. But Brazil overall were the better team. 0x0, went to PKs. Brazil 4x1 on penalties. Final on Saturday.
Went to bed earlier than usual, woke up at 6:30am. Go online, it's the start of PKs.... I was concerned because Ochoa has been difficult in the past, but four straight Brazilian goals later and Brazil is in its third straight Olympic gold medal match. Brazil did this with the World Cup in 1994, 1998, and 2002, with 2 wins out of 3 finals. Let's hope that it's also 2 wins out of 3 finals this Saturday.
Deu Espanha, 1 a 0. E teve gente dizendo que se os japoneses vencessem, a arbitragem operaria o Brasil na final.
Only a World Cup missing from Alves amazing career. Just like the 2016 Olympics. A couple of these players should transition to the senior team in particular Bruno Guimaraes.