The Brazil women’s team got their continental campaign off to a bright start. In their debut for the SheBelieves tournament, they got off to a good start with a 4-1 victory over rivals Argentina.
Goals from Marta, Debinha, Adriana and Geyse settled the fixture without fuss.
Despite the score-line, it was far from a convincing victory for Brazil, at least in the first half.
It must be said that Pia Sundhage did experiment with the lineup a bit in the first half. Júlia Bianchi and Adriana represented two of the major changes in the starting XI. It was no surprise that Brazil had lots of misplaced passes and little to no creativity in the first period.
However, Adriana was fouled in the box just at the hour mark and skipper Marta stepped up to score the resulting penalty
The only positive spark in the first half was Adriana who showed good movement in midfield.
However, the team got much better in the second half after the introduction of Andressinha and Geyse. Just one minute into the second period, Debinha grabbed another for Brazil before creating an assist for Maga seven minutes later to make it 3-0.
Mariana Larroquette grabbed one back for Argentina in the 60th minute but Geyse restored the three-goal cushion eight minutes from time.
Elsewhere, Manchester United youngster Ivana Fuso also made her first international appearance for the women’s team.
On Sunday, the most anticipated game will take place when Brazil face hosts and current world champions, United States.
Pia Sundhage says she will take the match as a chance to see just how prepared the Brazil team are ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games less than six months from now.
