Olympics
This is how Brazil will play against Super Falcons in Bordeaux
![](https://sportsvillagesquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/MARTA.png)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sportsvillagesquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/KS-logo-paris-1-1.png?resize=360%2C257&ssl=1)
Nigeria’s women football team, Super Falcons are returning to the Olympic Games 16 years after their last participation. Sports Village Square recalls that the team is starting from where they ended – a clash with Brazil.
The Brazilians were the last team the Super Facons faced at Beijing 2008. This time, they are meeting at Bordeaux this Thursday.
Sports Village Square investigated the Brazilian team which the Super Falcons will face at Stade de Bordeaux.
Brazil have a nice mix of star quality with experience, as well as a number of promising youth players expecting to make the squad.
Their new coach, Arthur Elias, joined the team after last year’s World Cup and has since led Brazil to a final in the Gold Cup earlier in the year.
The team looks on the up, and with Brazil recently being announced as the next hosts of the Women’s World Cup, there is plenty of optimism among the nation about its future.
Following Brazil’s women’s Copa America win in 2022, they sealed their spot at the Olympics and are now placed in a group along with Spain, Japan and Nigeria.
Their current group is tough, but with a third-place spot potentially being enough to qualify, Brazil expect to reach the knockout stages. The team operates a 3-4-2-1 formation.
There are several experienced heads in the Brazil squad. Seven of the players are 30 years old or older, which would have given them numerous attempts at both the World Cup and the Olympics in the past.
.A further six of the starting eleven for Brazil are in their prime years of their career, between 27 and 30 years old.
This mix of experience, peak performers, and several young stars joining the team makes an exciting combination, shaping up a side ready to battle at the Olympics in the perfect conditions and balance of the squad.
Information gleaned from the publication of Total Football Analysis focuses on Brazil women’s team since Elias took charge in October of last year, and how he has been setting his team up in the past few months.
His most likely starting line-up against the Super Falcons runs thus: Luciano, a 37-year old will be in goal following her strong showing in the Gold Cup earlier this year. In 12 league games for her club, Ferroviaria, she conceded five goals showing the strong form .
Antonia Silva is expected to start at the right side of the back three. She has performed the role in 14 of the coach’s 15 games in charge. In the heart of defence – the centre of the back three, 21-year-old Lauren will likely play.
At left centre-back, Rafaelle has regularly featured in the role. After swapping Arsenal in England’s FA Women’s Super Leaguen for Orlando Pride, she is currently part of the defence which has only conceded eleven goals in thirteen league games.
Adriana, Rafaelle’s teammate, will likely hold the width on the right flank, playing as the wing-back, although she is an attacking-minded player.
Duda Sampaio of Corinthians is reportedly helping her club dominate the league with 12 wins in the 13 opening games of the season from the centre of the pitch.
Although she is a more attack-minded option, her partner, Duda Santos, will attempt to provide some balance. At left wing-back, Yasmim, a natural left-back, will play.
Bia Zaneratto is expected to start on the right-hand side in the front three.
The front three will remain fairly narrow, so even though she has often started as the centre forward for her club and managed nine goal contributions in eight league starts, the role will be fairly similar for Brazil.
On the left side, 38-year-old Brazil legend Marta is expected to play, although she missed the Gold Cup earlier in the year.
Gabi Nunes will lead the line at centre forward after 11 goals in 23 starts for Levante in the Spanish Primera Division.
Olympics
Paris to name sports venue after dead Ugandan Olympian Cheptegei
![](https://sportsvillagesquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/https___cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com_reuters_QP7LWO6GFBIDVIOXPCPYCKOIZA.jpg)
The French capital will pay tribute to Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set on fire by her boyfriend, by naming a sports facility in her honour, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced on Friday.
The marathon runner, who competed in the Paris Games last month died on Thursday, four days after she was doused in petrol and ignited by her boyfriend in Kenya, in the latest attack on a female athlete in the country.
The 33-year-old, who finished 44th in her Olympic Games debut, suffered burns to more than 75% of her body in Sunday’s attack, Kenyan and Ugandan media reported.
“She dazzled us here in Paris. We saw her. Her beauty, her strength, her freedom, and it was in all likelihood her beauty, strength and freedom which were intolerable for the person who committed this murder,” Hidalgo told reporters.
“Paris will not forget her. We’ll dedicate a sports venue to her so that her memory and her story remains among us and helps carry the message of equality, which is a message carried by the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Cheptegei is the third prominent sportswoman to be killed in Kenya since October 2021. Kenyan Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen described Cheptegei’s death as a loss “to the entire region”.
“This is a critical moment— not just to mourn the loss of a remarkable Olympian, but to commit ourselves to creating a society that respects and protects the dignity of every individual,” Uganda’s Athletes commission Chair Ganzi Semu Mugula said on Friday.
-Reuters
Olympics
Row over plan to keep Olympic rings on Eiffel Tower
![](https://sportsvillagesquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/eiffel-tower.jpg)
Engineer’s descendants say French capital landmark ‘not intended as advertising platform’
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has triggered a heated debate by saying she wants to keep the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower after the summer Games are over.
“The decision is up to me, and I have the agreement of the IOC [International Olympic Committee],” she told the Ouest-France newspaper over the weekend.
“So yes, they [the rings] will stay on the Eiffel Tower,” she added.
Some Parisians backed the move, but others – including heritage campaigners – said it was a bad idea and would “defile” the French capital’s iconic monument.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has triggered a heated debate by saying she wants to keep the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower after the summer Games are over.
“The decision is up to me, and I have the agreement of the IOC [International Olympic Committee],” she told the Ouest-France newspaper over the weekend.
“So yes, they [the rings] will stay on the Eiffel Tower,” she added.
Some Parisians backed the move, but others – including heritage campaigners – said it was a bad idea and would “defile” the French capital’s iconic monument.
The five rings – 29m (95ft) wide, 15m high and weighing 30 tonnes – were installed on the Eiffel Tower before the Paris Olympics opened on 26 July, and were expected to be taken down after the Paralympics’ closing ceremony on 8 September.
But Ms Hidalgo said she wanted to keep the interlaced rings of blue, yellow, black, green and red, symbolising the five continents.
She added that the current rings – each one measuring 9m in diameter – were too heavy and would be replaced by a lighter version at some point.
The Socialist mayor also claimed that “the French have fallen in love with Paris again” during the Games, and she wanted “this festive spirit to remain”.
Some Parisians as well as visitors to the French capital supported the mayor.
“The Eiffel Tower is very beautiful, the rings add colour. It’s very nice to see it like this,” a young woman, who identified herself as Solène, told the France Bleu website.
But Manon, a local resident, said this was “a really bad idea”.
“It’s a historic monument, why defile it with rings? It was good for the Olympics but now it’s over, we can move on, maybe we should remove them and return the Eiffel Tower to how it was before,” he told France Bleu.
Social media user Christophe Robin said Ms Hidalgo should have consulted Parisians before going ahead with her plan.
In a post on X, he reminded that the Eiffel Tower featured a Citroën advert in 1925-36.
The Eiffel Tower was built in1889 for the World’s Fair. The wrought-iron lattice tower was initially heavily criticised by Parisian artists and intellectuals – but is now seen by many as the symbol of the “City of Light”.
Ms Hidalgo, who has been running Paris since 2014, is known for her bold – and sometimes controversial – reforms.
Under her tenure, many city streets, including the banks of the river Seine, have been pedestrianised.
Last year, she won convincingly a city referendum to ban rental electric scooters. However, fewer than 8% of those eligible turned out to vote.
But both drivers’ groups and opposition figures attacked the scheme, saying the SUV classification was misleading as many family-size cars would be affected.
France’s Environment Minister Christophe Béchu said at the time that the surcharge amounted to “punitive environmentalism”.
And just before the Paris Olympics, Ms Hidalgo and other officials went into the Seine to prove the river was safe to swim.
-BBC
Olympics
AIU files appeal with CAS against America’s Olympic sprinter, Knighton
![](https://sportsvillagesquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Knighton.png)
The Athletics Integrity Unit said on Wednesday it has filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the case that cleared American sprinter Erriyon Knighton of a doping offence, thus allowing him to compete at the Paris Olympics.
Knighton, 20, tested positive for a banned substance in March but avoided a ban as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said an independent arbitrator ruled it was likely caused by contaminated meat and that he was not at fault and had not acted with negligence.
The finding cleared the 200 metres world silver medallist to run at the U.S. Olympic trials in June and he went on to compete in Paris where he finished fourth in the men’s 200m final.
The AIU, an independent body created in 2017 by World Athletics to manage integrity issues for the sport of athletics, said it has challenged the first instance decision that Knighton had established no fault or negligence.
“This appeal is against the decision of an arbitration tribunal in the United States that the athlete established no fault or negligence after USADA brought charges against the athlete for the presence of epitrenbolone and use of trenbolone,” the AIU said on X.
USADA Chief Executive Travis Tygart said in a statement on Wednesday he understood the AIU’s reasons for appealing the case, which he called an example of the system at work, before pointing a finger at the World Anti-Doping Agency.
“The real issue in this case is WADA’s bad rule. Trenbolone, the substance in Knighton’s case, is a known livestock enhancer and known to be found in the meat supply,” Tygart said.
“We have advocated for the rules around contamination to formally change for years, and WADA has refused to act swiftly.”
U.S. and global anti-doping authorities have been at loggerheads since the case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but were allowed to compete.
-Reuters
-
TRANSFER MARKET3 days ago
Points of Interest as Napoli’s coach apologises to Victor Osimhen
-
Badminton1 week ago
American beats Nigeria’s Segun Obasanjo
-
TRANSFER MARKET1 week ago
Transfer market still bubbling as Chelsea agents lands in Napoli for Osimhen
-
TRANSFER MARKET1 week ago
BREAKING! Osimhen is left stranded! Future remains uncertain
-
TRANSFER MARKET5 days ago
Lukaku pays respect to Osimhen
-
Nigerian Football1 week ago
As in 1974 , 1995 and 2005 another coach, Labbadia disappears from Nigeria’s national team job
-
PARALYMPICS5 days ago
How Mikano powered Eniola to Nigeria’s first medal at Paris 2024
-
AFCON1 week ago
Interim Commander, Eguavoen opens up on his plans for Super Eagles