Brazil held to scoreless draw in men’s soccer

Home advantage, a multi-million dollar strike force and a man advantage for nearly half the match could not help Brazil to a winning start as South Africa held the home side to a 0-0 draw in their opening match at the Rio Olympics on Thursday.

But the little-known South Africans matched them until they had Mothobi Mvala sent off 10 minutes into the second half.

Brazil next play Iraq on Sunday while South Africa take on Denmark the same day.

SA’s men’s under-23 Olympic team held Brazil to a 0-0 draw in their opening game – a feat made more impressive by that fact that they were a man down for 25 minutes.

The disappointing 0-0 draw against 10-man South Africa prompted loud boos from the crowd and renewed fears of another embarrassment at home just two years after a humiliating 7-1 loss to Germany in the World Cup semifinals. Denmark hit the post after three minutes but Iraq had the best chances, with Ali Adnan forcing Danish keeper Jeppe Hojbjerg into three fine saves from free kicks. “Our next game, against them, will be very important for us”, he added.

Gabriel Jesus has just reached a deal reportedly worth more than 30 million euros to move from Brazilian club Palmeiras to Manchester City.

Rio de Janeiro – The night was supposed to be all about Neymar as he captained Brazil in their opening Olympic clash against South Africa on Thursday, but it didn’t quite work out for the Barcelona superstar.

Thursday’s result in Brasilia heaped pressure on a young team that has the task of helping the nation regain lost pride by winning its first Olympic gold medal in football.

Neymar defended his decision to act as more of a playmaker, comparing his role to that occupied by five-time World Player of the Year Lionel Messi at Barcelona. The team played to win, but we know our responsibility. Wanting to ensure that doesn’t happen again, Brazil held Neymar out of this summer’s Copa América so he could focus on staying fit for this tournament.

“We had the best chances but the ball didn’t go in”, Brazil coach Rogerio Micale said.

“No one gave us a chance, we came here as an underdog to play against the host team but we managed to play as a team”.

The Rio 2016 hosts found no way through their first opponents at the Games, and their skipper warned taking the gold medal would be no easy task.

Neymar skipped that tournament to be able to play at the Rio Games.