Narration This is how we live the game
The football marathon ends in a silver, a molten silver, energy spent, the goals dried up and the defense faded against a better, more aggressive, more intense and better moved Brazil from the bench. Two changes in overtime, Malcom and Vallejo, were heads and tails in the action that decided the final, the image of the outcome, after defensive indecisions also gave the Brazilians the first initiative on the scoreboard. Silver is a prize after a tournament that required more extensions than the Eurocup, an excess for players like Pedri or Olmo, who ended up barely standing, one step away from feeling like the heroes of '92 did. The future He has many emotions in store for them, but it will no longer be under the Olympic rings. This is once in a lifetime. [Narration and statistics: 2-1]
Defeat inevitably points to Vallejo, a player for whom things have not been going well since he decided to return from the Bundesliga. He is the captain of a generation that says goodbye to these Games, although relegated to a secondary role. This brooch is cruel and is not sweetened by silver. But neither Eric García or Pau Torres were up to the task in the first goal, nor Unai Simón in the action of the penalty, missed by Brazil, despite their good interventions. The defense was not the best in the final, and neither were key players such as Pedri or Mikel Merino. They reached the limit. Brazil, on the other hand, faced it more fully, including the 40-year-old Dani Alves. His selection renews the title raised in Rio and Spain equals the silver of Antwerp 1920, that of the selection of fury, and that of Sydney 2000. The perspective, the time, will put it more in value.Any silver is a victory but football is something else. Neither fair nor unfair, something else.
The first sign was already bad: Spain did not have the ball. A strange situation, which had not occurred in the Games. Until the final, despite the lack of a goal in the first matches, the selection kept one of its hallmarks. A possession that, although it did not lead him to create danger, at least allowed him to save energy. Against Brazil, he began to run after the ball for the first time, under an unbearable humidity index. Bad.
The impressions were those of a very physically fair team. Brazil interpreted it quickly and, after a few minutes of caution, advanced their lines, with great intensity in the disputes. He won them all. Spain felt confused in such a scenario, misplaced, because it is not made for forcefulness, but for the game. Pedri, the vault key, was still unpublished. Mikel Merino, without the connections of other parties. Asensio, chosen for the title instead of Rafa Mir, isolated, waiting for balls that did not arrive because there was no play where he could be the protagonist. At halftime, he lost the opportunity to be from now on. He was among De la Fuente's first two changes. His band was for Bryan Gil, more aggressive, ungainly, with a wild touch, a la Futre. It was not enough.
Brazil's chances followed one another as a consequence of the scenario, with a lot of prominence from forwards who not only seek the goal, but also the fight. Richarlison is the best exponent, physical, brave, to the auction as to the shock. For Eric García it was a torment. The Spanish defense, with so many conditions to get the ball out, was soft for the occasion. Brazil's first goal was like the portrait of the match: Alves wins on arrival at 23-year-old Cucurella. The center is repelled, falls from the sky. Neither Eric García nor Pau Torres take the initiative and Cunha finds the space to beat Unai Simón. The action was reminiscent of the one chosen by the match against Ivory Coast, but in reverse.
Brazil's goal came in the first half extension time, but it could have been done much earlier. Above all, at the penalty spot. In that trance, Richarlison failed. He threw soaring. The maximum penalty was indicated by the referee after being alerted by the VAR and consulting the monitor. A Simón measured badly in an exit, did not clear the ball and took Cunha ahead.
Spain needed something else, because another first time on the same train would have been suicidal.
De la Fuente called the players he had already used as an alternative in the Games, Bryan Gil and Carlos Soler.
However, it was necessary more than new pieces, it was necessary to give the ball greater speed against a Brazil that was going to position itself for the counter, and with very fast footballers into space, such as Cunha or Antony, apart from Richarlison.
At the first, the last cut in the area and failed the duel against Unai Simón, who deflected just enough for the ball to go to the crossbar.
The party, however, had already changed.
The Brazilians, excited, and the Spaniards lament, after the game.
Carlos Soler has always been good for Spain in situations of traffic jam. It's dynamic, it moves throughout the arc of attack, between the lines, and it's deep. Bryan Gil does it vertically, with an overflow, and diagonally. They both have a powerful shot. Bryan's went to the crossbar. The effects and the pace of the game changed. The area where the activity was was now the Brazilian one. The first action in which they were able to win duels, both on the wings, came the draw. Carlos Sóler beat Arana in the race and Oyarzabal did it over Alves to meet his center. It sounded like a cannon in the silence of Yokohama.
Spain took advantage of the psychological effect of the goal to implement the rhythm, but it has the right fuel, especially those who also played everything in the Euro, up to six, always headlines. Excessive. Pedri has appeared at times; Olmo has not been the one for the month of June. It is fused. The precautions commanded on the attacks and pointed to an extension, although Óscar Gil, in a center that became a shot, and Bryan Gil were able to avoid it. Wood said no.
De la Fuente looked for more energy on the bench, with Vallejo and Miranda.
The first one did it to act on the side, by Óscar Gil.
They ate it.
For his part, Soares, Brazil coach, was the first to put on the field and an old acquaintance, Malcom, a former Barça player.
On the left, he put pepper on the attack of his team, with more intentions and more strength in extra time, and ended up defining a final in a race in which Vallejo misjudged the trajectory of the ball, his options and those of the opponent.
Malcom won the space and the ball, and turned, direct.
Nothing could stop him, in the same place that, almost 20 years ago, it was impossible to stop the resurrection of Ronaldo, the real one.
The truths of Spain lacked goals and had minutes to spare.
This silver is like sweat, molten silver.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
sports
Soccer Olympics
Spain Olympics
Tokyo GamesOyarzabal's goal, 170 minutes later, remakes the Olympic dream
Tokyo GamesRafa Mir, with a hat trick, leads Spain to the semifinals on a roller coaster
Tokyo OlympicsSpain, from dominance to suffering, draws with Argentina and will face Ivory Coast in the quarterfinals
See links of interest
Last News
Translator
Tokyo Results
2021 business calendar
Home THE WORLD TODAY
Master investigative journalism
France - United States, live
Egypt - Spain, live
Brazil - Spain, live