After just over two weeks of exhilarating action, the Olympic women’s football tournament reaches its endpoint this weekend, with Brazil and the USA fighting it out for the chance to complete their time at the Games with a gold medal around their necks.
It is set up to be a mouthwatering encounter, not only because it will pit two of the game’s heavyweights against each other but also because it will be a clash of playing styles, with Brazil favouring front-footed, attack-minded tactics under head coach Arthur Elias and the USA adopting a more measured approach under his counterpart Emma Hayes.
This tactical analysis will provide a full preview of what fans can expect from the 2024 women’s football gold medal match, highlighting the game plans that each side could deploy and looking at what each coach can do to gain an advantage over the other.
The analysis will also identify key players on each side who could have an impact on the day and will indicate why involving them as much as possible could make the difference between victory and defeat.
Brazils Attack
Ever since Elias took charge of Brazil last year, he has been looking to transform his side’s mentality and to make them a more proactive outfit, with his preferred style of play as Corinthians Femeninos head coach based around energy and dictating the tempo of their games.
These are qualities that the Brazilian national side has taken to just as well as the São Paulo-based side did, and there is no doubt that playing with that philosophy has been instrumental in them reaching the last two.
One of the key demands that Elias has is for his team to press high up the field, which was most evident during the semi-final against Spain.
Brazil knew going into that game that the reigning world champions would seek to play out from the back whenever possible, with it being a key part of their own DNA, and so recognised that there would be opportunities for them to apply pressure and to force mistakes.
As the match w
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