For the Brazil women’s team facing Nigeria’s Super Falconets this evening in Bordeaux, the match is one the country hopes to use to reconstruct their long-awaited gold medal in Women’s football. Despite the country’s pedigree in world football, the Olympic gold medal has been elusive.

They are two-time Olympic silver medallist (Athens, 2004, and Beijing, 2008) as well as being  runners-up in the 2007 Women’s World Cup and third in the 1999 World Cup.  

The match with Nigeria is therefore being taken with all seriousness. Other matches with Japan and Sapin will follow. Two teams qualify for the next round while the third placed may qualify as one of the two bests in that category.

The Brazilian coach, Arthur Elias is optimistic of good outing in the opening match with Nigeria. He has been with the team in the past 12 months. He believes that his team is among the probable seven or eight teams that may get the the podium.

. He reiterated that he will line up against Nigeria, a team  with “high expectations”, knowing that he has a group of very high-quality athletes on his hands.

“It will be an Olympics marked by balance, with great teams in a position to advance to the final round. In the case of the Brazilian team, we have worked hard on the idea of taking things step by step, game by game. We have studied our opponents in detail and we are prepared.”

In a team that combines youth with experience, Marta is the most remembered name for obvious reasons. Voted the best player in the world six times, she will be competing in her sixth Olympics. She won silver in 2004 and 2008 and has scored goals in the last five editions of the Games.

The forward was called up because of her excellent season with Orlando Pride and the recent friendlies with the National Team, in which she performed very well, physically and technically.

Since training in Teresópolis, Arthur has been implementing different game plans for each of Brazil’s matches in the first phase. The space between one match and another is short, just three days. He has tested several formations in defense, midfield and attack. He does not like to work with the concept of starters.

The team lineup will only be announced moments before the match and will remain so until Brazil’s last game at the Olympics.

Brazil had two outstanding campaigns in women’s Olympic football. In 2004 and 2008, when they won silver. After that, in 2012, 2016 and 2021, they advanced well from the first phase, but were ineffective in the knockout stages. This is directly related to the fact that the coach called up seven attackers for the Games.

Both in Teresópolis and in Bordeaux, the National Team trained several attacking options, which reinforces the coach’s idea that he is in charge of a group in which all of them are capable of being selected at any time.