With a kiss of the ball and an unforgettable kick, Brazil’s biggest soccer star gave the Olympic hosts their biggest moment of the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Brazil on Saturday won their first Olympic gold medal in soccer with a dramatic penalty by Neymar to defeat Germany, sending the nation into a frenzy after a 5-4 shoot-out victory after the score was 1-1.
Before the decisive shot, Neymar picked up the ball, kissed it and placed it on the penalty spot. With a stutter-step and a smooth kick, he calmly sent a shot into the top corner and fell to his knees before being mobbed by his teammates.
Photo: AFP
“That’s it,” Neymar said. “We made history.”
Brazil had been battered by recession, political scandal, health scares over polluted water and the Zika virus and questions over whether it could pull off hosting the Olympics.
All the troubles were forgotten when Neymar’s kick sailed into the net.
Jubilant celebrations broke out around Rio, reminiscent of the parties following five World Cup championships won by the soccer-mad nation. Fireworks burst over the stadium, car horns blared and fans sang and tossed beer into the air.
As the team stood atop the medal podium, gold draped around their necks, tears streamed down the faces of fans as all of Maracana Stadium joined in belting out the national anthem.
The victory came two years after an embarrassing 7-1 home loss to Germany’s senior team in the World Cup semi-finals. Brazil were also coming off a demoralizing elimination in the group stage of this year’s Copa America and struggled in the first round of the Olympics.
Germany, playing with a young team that looked nothing like the World Cup-winning squad, made it hard for Brazil, hitting the crossbar three times in the first half. Neymar put Brazil ahead 1-0 with a superb free-kick in the 26th minute.
Germany tied it with a goal in the 59th minute by captain Maximilian Meyer, and neither team came close the rest of regulation and two extra periods of play.
After the teams traded four tense goals during the shootout — both sides lining up arm-in-arm for each attempt, barely able to watch — Brazil goalkeeper Weverton stopped Nils Petersen’s shot from the spot. As if scripted, that set up Neymar with a chance to win gold for Brazil with one kick.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique