By Janina Nuno Rios
PARIS (Reuters) – Brazil are not thinking about their defeats to the United States in previous Olympic women’s soccer finals, coach Arthur Elias said ahead of Saturday’s gold-medal clash with the four-time champions.
Brazil, twice silver medallists, will be seeking a maiden Olympic women’s title at Parc des Princes where they take on the U.S., who beat them at the 2004 and 2008 Games finals.
Elias does not believe the country’s negative record against the Americans will work against them in their bid to upset the gold-medal contenders in Paris.
“Football deserves great games and we should stop whining and talking about the past,” Elias told a news conference on Friday.
“We have new ingredients, new things to talk about rather than be thinking about the past. I’m not worried at all about what happened in the past. I feel we are close to our dream coming true and that our players will do their very best.
“We have a single focus. I see Brazilian women’s football as a one with great players, able to reach finals and to win… we have nothing to do with what happened in the past.”
Orlando Pride and Brazil midfielder Angelina said that playing in the American top-flight NWSL would help her and her teammates in their quest for gold.
“(The U.S.) are a very talented group. We play against them in the NWSL so we know what they’re capable of,” she said.
“I think that helps us to play against people we know already, so we can study them better. It’s not every day you get to play in a final, so we are all very excited with great expectations. We want to seize the moment. We want to enjoy it.”
It will the final game for Brazil’s all-time leading scorer Marta on a big stage after the 38-year-old announced she was retiring from international football this year.
“We want to give this medal to Marta. She really deserves to be playing at the final and deserves to have this opportunity to claim the gold medal,” Angelina said of the six-time Olympian and her Orlando Pride teammate.
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in Paris; editing by Clare Fallon)
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