The defending champion missed the Olympics

Not long ago, the Chinese women's basketball team qualified for the Paris Olympics, becoming the first of China's three major balls to qualify for the Olympics. While Chinese basketball fans are happy, in the distant South American continent, there is a group of people who are tasting the bitter fruit of missing the Olympic Games, and they are the Brazilian Olympic Games.

In the South American Olympic qualifiers, Brazil lost to Argentina coached by Little Ma in a crucial match, missing out on the Olympic ticket. This is an absolute shame for Brazil, who are the kingdom of football, football is their national sport, but they will not be able to compete for a medal in the men's event at this summer's Olympics.

The men's sport has always been a source of pride for Brazil, having won the World Cup five times and never missed the World Cup, the highest tournament in football. In the 21st century, they have even guaranteed the quarterfinals every time and are the most consistent team. However, the big contrast is that in a grand event like the Olympic Games, they have not been able to win the gold medal for a long time. It was only at the Olympics in '16 that they broke the spell.

At London 2012, they were confirmed to be the hosts of the '16 Games, but they still hope to break the men's championship spell at this tournament. They went all the way and eliminated South Korea, who were bent on winning medals and exempting themselves from military service, in the semi-finals. In the final, they faced Mexico, who had not won a gold medal at the Olympics at the time. The whole world was looking for a stronger Brazil side, but the title curse was one last time bothering them.

In less than a minute of the opening minute, Mexico scored against Brazil. Although Brazil has a star like Neymar, they still can't knock on Mexico's door. In the second half, Brazil made a desperate gamble, bringing on a number of strikers, which was bound to void the back. Mexico's Olympic team doubled their lead from set-pieces, with Brazil not pulling one back until stoppage time, but it was too late. In the end, Mexico were able to win their first gold medal at the London Olympics, while Brazil still failed to taste an Olympic medal.

Four years later, the Brazilian Olympic team made a comeback. It is worth mentioning that that year also happened to be the Copa America in the Centennial, but Neymar chose the Olympics. In order to successfully participate in the Olympics, Neymar gave up the Copa America. In the group stage, although Neymar was already a world-class superstar at this time, they stumbled and barely qualified from the group. Fortunately, in the end, they made it to the final without any danger, and their opponent was the German Olympic team. In the World Cup two years ago, it was also on the same stadium, and it was Brazil as the host, and it was Germany that sent Brazil a 7:1 national humiliation. But by this time, the Brazilian team had come out of their demons, and they fought with the German team to the penalty shootout. Neymar scored the winning penalty and Brazil got a historic taste of the gold medal in football.

The gold medal is not the end, and Brazil still reached the final at the Tokyo Olympics. Due to the Copa America that year, many of the stars who participated in the Copa America were unable to participate in the Olympics, and Alves, who was not selected for the Copa America squad, became the leader of the Brazilian team. In the end, Brazil defeated Spain in the final to successfully defend their title. It's just that this year, before the Olympics even started, they were doomed to fail to defend their title.

Let us wish Brazil an early recovery.

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