5IVE: Paris 2024 Olympics, Day Two Review
While Canada pulled off a stunning comeback, there was another impressive showing from the USA, as Australia and Zambia exposed each other's frailties in an 11-goal thriller...
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Brazil and Japan showed off their depth
You don’t often expect to see huge amounts of changes between games when so much is at stake, but we saw plenty as Brazil and Japan faced off in one of the first games of the day.
For Japan, it was more a needs must situation, with injuries stacking up against them after Risa Shimizu went home and Aoba Fujino was also absent, but it was Arthur Elias with the more eye-catching switches, making six changes from the team who beat Nigeria.
Perhaps he felt confident enough with three points already in the bag as Yasmin, Thais, Ana Vitoria, Priscila, Angelina and Lauren came in, and for a while it looked like it was working, with Brazil leading 1-0 heading into stoppage time.
Even a point would have sufficed to see them likely into the quarter-finals, but Japan had other ideas, showing too they have some secret weapons on their bench.
When I say secret, probably not to anyone who watches the Damallsvenskan, as FC Rosengård star Momoko Tanikawa curled home a stunning effort after pouncing on an error to win the game minutes after Saki Kumagai had scored a penalty.
It was a sensational, instinctive strike worthy of winning every game and a crucial one for the Nadeshiko who had been staring down the barrel of zero points from two games, and Tanikawa showed Japan too have some quality in depth, despite their injury crisis.
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Banda’s brilliance masks deficiencies
Should we be shocked Zambia was the team to partake in an 11-goal thriller? Possibly not, for those who remember their 10-3 defeat to the Netherlands three years ago in Tokyo.
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