Brazilian players will be having nightmares of chasing speedy Norwegians down the court for a while to come.
Their Olympic campaign ended in a whimper against an unrelenting opposition, losing 32:15 in the last of Tuesday’s women’s quarter-finals, but hopefully, that won’t take away from what they brought to the competition, inspiring fellow Brazilians at home and the huge numbers supporting them in person.
Brazil came out with a pressing defence, not afraid to take on the Norwegian stars one-on-one, and while they had some early success in set defence, it became clear that their real challenge would be getting back in transition and limiting the damage Norway’s counter-attack could dish out.
Norway knew that would be the making and breaking of this game. Their defence worked hard and whenever it looked like Brazil would shoot, the fast break was on and they led 10:3 by the 15-minute mark.
Brazil continued to fight but you could feel the energy was zapping fast. Norway’s defence was suffocating them and had no intention of letting up, taking a 16:8 lead into the break.
Déjà vu
It’s clear to see that Norway are in championship mode now. They did not slow down in the second half, reducing Brazil to a mere 11 shots on Silje Solberg’s goal.
11 of 12 Norwegians got on the scoresheet in a match where they were far from perfect in attack, but it mattered not one jot with their defensive dominance.
With that, we’re left with the identical semi-finals to last December’s World Championship – Sweden vs France and Norway vs Denmark.
All four teams have developed in some fashion since then but the manner of Norway’s victory tonight will serve as a warning to the rest of the medal contenders. Bring on Thursday!