Brazilian men, Germany women win first Olympic gold

The football tournament of Rio Olympics ended on Saturday, with both men and women gold medalists making history.

Neymar helped the five-time world champion Brazil finally earn its first Olympic gold at home soil, while Germany women footballers, two-time World Cup champion, also won their first Olympic tournament.

Pinned high hopes of getting gold for the "Country of Football," Brazil's two goalless draws in the the group stage put the squad under criticism of fans at home. But Neymar began to resurge in his third game when facing against Denmark. The 24-year-old broke the deadlock and locked the gold in the shooting-out period of the gold match on Sunday, once again showing his potential as successor of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Quite opposite to the men's Olympic path, Brazilian women's team played beyond expectation in group games, but the favorite was downed by Sweden in the penalty period of the semi-final.

CHINA: STILL STEEL

Dubbed the "Steel Roses," China also made breakthrough in women's competition as a quarterfinalist. The young team is expected to surprise the world in coming 2019 World Cup and 2020 Olympics.

China returned to Olympic tournament again after 2008. Although it was smashed 0-3 by Brazilians in its opening match, the 1996 Atlanta's runner-up downed South Africa 2-0 and held a 0-0 draw with Sweden to enter the last eight.

They were defeated by Germany 1-0 in the quarterfinal at Fonte Nova Arena on Aug. 12, but young "Roses" were glad to have gained experience and confidence in the Rio Olympics.

"We're very satisfied with the young team's performance in the tournament, and we will work hard to make the team do better in 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup and 2020 Tokyo Olympics," said by Yu Hongchen, Chinese team manager.

"We have done very well in the tournament as we were in a difficult group. We drew with Sweden who have beaten the defending champions USA in the other quarterfinal today. We only lost 1-0 to a very good German team," siad Bruno Bini, head coach of China, after the first round of the knockout stage.

Besides getting more rising stars, China have improved its players' one-on-one capabilities in competitions. China found themselves fall behind world heavyweights in terms of pace, strength and technique, and tried to fix these disadvantages.

The "Steel Roses" have solid defense now, but the team were still lack of creativeness and personal talents in the field, said Yu.

He said they will try to overcome the obstacles in the next four years in order to enter semifinalist in Tokyo 2020.

RISING WOMEN POWER

To some extent, USA's domination in women's football was terminated by Sweden in Rio. The powerhouse faces reconstruction amid generation transition. So are other elites in the event such as Brazil and Japan. Newly-crowned Olympic champions Germany are considered as favorites to chase major tournament titles along with France and Canada, which have young but experienced squads in the next four years.

Aiming to revive Chinese football, China unveiled the Overall Plan of Chinese Football Reform and Development last year. The plan covers almost every aspect of the sport, including management system, professional clubs and leagues, national teams and grassroots soccer.

Having reached top eight in constitutive major international competitions, 2015 FIFA women's World Cup and 2016 Rio Olympic Games, proved China's ambitious reform is making progress.

According to the plan, China will concentrate on training young players in primary schools and middle school in the next decades. The country will also try to solve women footballers employment problem when they retire. With all these efforts, China aims to join the world's first-class club in the sport. Endit