On Friday morning, Pia Sundhage, the coach of the Brazilian women’s soccer team, released the list of players who have been called up for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. It includes 18 players and four replacements who could replace athletes who have been injured.
Cristiane, 36, was left off the list for the first time since the 2003 World Cup and will not compete in a major tournament (Olympics and World Cup).
Cristiane appeared in eight of Pia’s 18 friendlies, three as a starter, and scored two goals, both in a 4-0 thrashing of Mexico in December 2019. Cristiane has 14 goals in four Olympic editions, making her the all-time leading scorer in both women’s and men’s football.
In February, the Santos forward competed in the SheBelieves Cup in the United States, appearing in the second half of all three games, but she was left out of the final warm-up friendlies against Russia and Canada.
The absence of Roma midfielder Andressa Alves, who started eight of the 18 friendlies she played in Brazil, was a major surprise on the list. Duda, a midfielder from Sao Paulo who has only played four friendly matches with Pia Sundhage, is the most recent addition to the squad.
“All of my respect and gratitude go out to all of the players who helped to make this preparation even better,” the coach said on social media in the late afternoon, thanking the 73 players she had summoned for games and training over the previous two years. There were 73 players throughout the course of roughly two years. We are a group of 22 individuals who represent the entire country. We’re on the search for that gold medal.”
A treinadora @PiaSundhage convocou hoje as jogadoras da @SelecaoFeminina que estarão em #Tokyo2020! pic.twitter.com/ZUhxxiSfWg
— Sambafoot (@Sambafoot) June 18, 2021
The women’s team will begin training on June 25th in Portland, Oregon, then depart on July 15th for Japan. Brazil will face China in Miyagi on July 21 in Group F of the Tokyo Women’s Football Tournament. On the same day, the women’s team will face the Netherlands, the current world runner-up and European champion. On the 27th in Saitama, Zambia will be the final opponent in the group stage.
