And with that, I’m off. Team GB got the win they needed, and a positive performance to build on in their next game, against Japan on Saturday. Here’s the match report again. Bye!
Two more goals to tell you about: Sweden have gone 2-0 up against the USA, a header from a corner that hit a post and was then volleyed into the roof of the net by Blackstenius, her second of the game! And Brazil have gone 4-0 up against China, Andressa scoring an 80th-minute penalty.
Updated
Suzanne Wrack was in Sapporo to see Team GB’s win over Chile. Here’s her report:
After the clasp of teammates around Ellen White peeled away following her close-range strike against Chile that brought Team GB’s first goal in 3,277 days, the forward looked down and held her hands to her face in her familiar glasses celebration. It was muted; a world away from the exuberant uplifting celebration that became a staple of England’s run to the World Cup semi-finals in 2019.
Yet despite the lack of spectators, the Covid concern gripping the Olympic Village and the stunted preparations, the return of competitive international women’s football still felt joyous, with White’s double and a solid Team GB performance to build on providing cause for optimism.
Much more here:
Here’s a report on the very first event of the 2020/2021 Olympics:
After a year’s delay and months of rancour … finally, some Olympic sport. Few will remember the details of Yukiko Ueno’s opening pitch to Michelle Cox in Japan’s softball match against Australia in Fukushima on Wednesday morning. But her delivery, witnessed by the organising committee president, Seiko Hashimoto, signalled that the most bizarre Games of modern times really are happening.
Depending on how deep the world’s reserves of optimism run, the first action of the 2020 Games, could mark a turning point for the troubled Olympics or, more likely, bring only ephemeral relief from the viral cloud that hangs over the host city, Tokyo.
Much more here:
In other Olympic football news, Marta has scored again for Brazil, who lead China 3-0.
Final score: Team GB 2-0 Chile
90+5 mins: It’s all over! A dominant and thoroughly deserved victory for GB. Chile had one shot on target in the entire match, and two overall, to GB’s seven and 20. GB had 61% of possession. GB will be happy with their ball retention and with the victory, but there’s also plenty to work on.
Updated
90+3 mins: A ridiculous, face-clutching dive from Yenny Acuna, just outside GB’s penalty area. There has been too much of this as well. This time the referee doesn’t buy it.
90+2 mins: Ella Toone replaces Kim Little.
90+1 mins: There will be five minutes of stoppage time, most of it down to that lengthy VAR check.
88 mins: There have been 29 free kicks in this game. I think the one the referee has just awarded is the 30th. This is too many.
85 mins: It’s been a good performance from Team GB, who have been much better than their opponents, but their chance creation has been disappointing. They haven’t done enough to stretch and destabilise a Chile defence that has looked to defend the width of the penalty area.
81 mins: Another substitution, Rosario Balmaceda coming on for Nayadet Lopez, the right-back who Lauren Hemp tortured throughout the first half.
79 mins: A decent GB shot from outside the area, from Rachel Daly, but it’s caught by Endler.
77 mins: Chile bring Yenny Acuna on for Yanara Aedo. It’s not been a great game for Chile’s attackers, who have done very little attacking.
GOAL! Team GB 2-0 Chile (White, 73 mins)
A long throw from the left, flicked on by White and then laid off to Bronze on the right, who chips a cross back in for White, who doesn’t get clean contact to her scissor-kick but it’s enough to send the ball bouncing past Endler!
Updated
72 mins: Sweden aren’t just beating the USA, they’re outplaying them. They’ve had nine shots already, five of them on target, to the USA’s two and one, and 54% of possession.
70 mins: Chile are winning a lot of free kicks, and often for extremely marginal offences, to the GB’s obvious annoyance. While they wait to take their latest they bring Maria Mardones on for Yessenia Lopez.
68 mins: Nikita Parris comes on for Hemp, who was better on the left in the first half than she was on the right in the second. Also, Sophie Ingle, the squad’s only Welsh player, comes on for Keira Walsh.
67 mins: Sweden have taken the lead against the USA, through Stina Blackstenius.
64 mins: In the other matches currently ongoing, Brazil lead China 2-0 at half-time with goals from Marta and Debinha, while it’s still 0-0 between Sweden and the USA, 20 minutes in.
62 mins: Another VAR check, this time for a challenge on Stanway inside the penalty area. Play eventually restarts.
60 mins: She has scored the game’s only goal, when she was behind the ball as it was headed down, but at almost every key attacking moment for Team GB Ellen White has been offside.
59 mins: Before that happened, though, White was fractionally offside. Play will restart with an indirect free kick for Chile.
58 mins: The referee has been told to have a look at this incident. It looks like White was first to the ball, but that her foot was kicked into the ball by the defender.
57 mins: It’s a GB corner, but VAR is checking for a potential penalty, so everyone’s standing around doing nothing. The communication is appalling - nobody knows what’s happening, they’re just being left to work it out for themselves from the fact that nothing is.
55 mins: What a chance! Stanway’s shot from the edge of the area is too close to Endler, but she palms it straight back out to White. It looks like a tap-in, but a defender throws out a foot and gets there first!
55 mins: The physios are on the pitch, helping Maria Jose Urrutia to her feet. She eventually rises and limps to the byline.
53 mins: Endler sends a clearance along the ground and straight to Hemp, inside the penalty area, but she can’t quite bring it under control.
51 mins: There’s no fake crowd noise for this match. I wonder if there’s a plan to add crowd noise to any Olympic coverage. I’m aware that it wasn’t always popular when added to domestic and European football, but things might sound very empty hollow without it.
49 mins: Another off-target Hemp effort, though this one’s from inside the penalty area and after GB work the ball around for a while in search of a decent shooting opportunity, without ever quite finding one.
48 mins: Hemp steals the ball on the halfway line and bursts forward, but nobody makes a particularly good run for her so she has another shot from range, which is off target.
46 mins: Peeeeeep! Chile get the second half started.
Updated
The players are back out, and Team GB doing a quick pre-second-half huddle.
Breaking Olympic news:
BRISBANE 2032 ELECTED AS HOST OF THE GAMES OF THE XXXV OLYMPIAD!
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) July 21, 2021
CONGRATULATIONS! pic.twitter.com/h66C9pHxcG
Half time: Team GB 1-0 Chile
45+3 mins: Peeeeep! Team GB have dominated, and deservedly lead at the break.
Updated
45+2 mins: Houghton heads wide from the corner. “TeamGB set pieces are interesting,” writes the Guardian’s own Suzanne Wrack. “They’ve been practicing them, rehearsing them, and you can tell. Lining up in different ways each time. None come off yet though.”
45+1 mins: There will be two minutes of stoppage time. They start with Hemp pulling the ball back to Little, who has space at the edge of the area but takes a touch, and Guerrero comes out to block.
45 mins: White is played through and is allowed to take her shot - which Endler saves - before the flag goes up.
42 mins: GB lose the ball in midfield and Chile have an overload, but Araya’s ball through to Yessenia Lopez is poor, and Roebuck comes out to claim.
41 mins: A better period for Chile. Nayadet Lopez gets down the right, but her cross goes straight out of play.
40 mins: Another generous free-kick award for Chile, this team for a foul on Araya. She recovers and sends the ball into the area, excellent delivery but GB hold firm and eventually win a free kick of their own.
37 mins: Rachel Daly shoots high from range. Chile are being profoundly outplayed in midfield but they are defending resolutely, forcing GB into taking shots from unpromising distances.
35 mins: Chile get a free kick for a foul on Saez by Little, out beyond the left side of their penalty area. Their coach does an ironic cheer on the sidelines at a decision going their way, just as a replay shows it probably shouldn’t have.
32 mins: After the referee tells a few more players what they shouldn’t be doing, the corner is taken and Francisca Lara heads it away.
30 mins: The ball is in the GB half for a while. Mainly at the feet of British players, Eventually Bronze brings it out of defence really well, and it ends with Kim Little’s shot being deflected wide.
Updated
27 mins: Chile just can’t keep the ball at the moment. GB attack, Chile win the ball, Chile give the ball away, GB attack. Wave after wave.
25 mins: Millie Bright hammers a shot high and wide from a short free kick.
22 mins: GB are completely dominant in midfield, producing passing combinations that Chile have no answer for. This one sets up Hemp to cut onto her right foot and shoot over the bar.
19 mins: Nearly another! This time the ball is cut back from the left to Stanway, eight yards from goal, whose shot is blocked.
GOAL! Team GB 1-0 Chile (White, 18 mins)
Now Team GB take the lead! Bronze chips a cross to the far post, where Hemp heads down and White turns in!
Updated
14 mins: Team GB win a corner. The referee seems very keen on stamping out set-piece-based penalty-area shenanigans, and has a chat with Francisca Lara before she lets the corner be taken, which the Chile defender seems to think is quite funny. The corner is cleared when it eventually comes in.
Updated
11 mins: Disallowed goal for Team GB! Georgia Stanway runs to the edge of the area before sending in a low shot that Endler pushes out, straight to the feet of Ellen White, who taps into an empty net. But she was offside when the shot came in, and the goal is rightly disallowed.
10 mins: Guerrero puts the ball out for a throw-in as White comes in to challenge. There isn’t much contact between the players but the Chilean ends up on the ground, clutching a knee and beating the pitch in apparent anguish.
Updated
8 mins: The free-kick is somehow allowed to make its way through to Maria Jose Urrutia, Chile’s No9, beyond the far post, but her shot is poor and goes well wide.
7 mins: Lauren Hemp completely wipes out Nayadet Lopez in midfield with a tackle from behind that got none of the ball. She’s very lucky not to get booked for that.
4 mins: An excellent move from GB, who work the ball through midfielder really very well indeed, and it ends with a cross from the right. White attempts an overhead and misses, and Weir runs in to meet the ball with a poked half-volley straight at Endler.
Updated
1 min: GB win an early free-kick, which they toss into the penalty area. Christiane Endler, the Chile captain and goalkeeper who has just joined Lyon from PSG, comes out and claims.
1 min: Peeeeeep! Team GB’s Olympics has begun!
The match is being played indoors, in the Sapporo SuperDome, the futuristic arena built for the 2002 World Cup. The Team GB players take the knee before kick-off, and Chile’s gradually join in.
The anthems have been sung. Carla Guerrero, the Chile defender, is in full tears as her country’s anthem rings out.
The players are coming out! Kick-off is just five minutes away.
🇨🇱❤️ ¡A la cancha a darlo todo por Chile!
— Selección Chilena (@LaRoja) July 21, 2021
🔝 #LaRojaFemenina debuta en #Tokyo2020
🇨🇱🆚🇬🇧#VamosChile pic.twitter.com/103BtYvibX
A live photo from inside the Sapporo Superdome! Chile are warming up, or have warmed up.
Fran Kirby has what I’m told is a knock, which is why she’s not involved for Team GB. Their next match is against Japan on Saturday, like this one at the Sapporo Dome.
While we wait for today’s action to begin, here’s an interview Suzanne Wrack did with Lucy Bronze. Sample quote:
I guess we are a little bit known, in as much as our individual players are well known, and the clubs we play for, and the national teams we play for. But how we’re going to line up and set up, that’ll be a bit of an unknown. We’re probably the team that people are going to be keeping an eye on.
Much more here:
The teams!
Both teams are now in, and this is what they look like:
Team GB (4-3-3): Roebuck; Bronze, Houghton, Bright, Daly; Walsh, Little, Weir; Stanway, White, Hemp. Subs: Telford, Stokes, Ingle, Parris, Williamson, Scott, Toone.
Chile (4-4-2): Endler; N Lopez, Pardo, Guerrero, Saez; Zamora, Y Lopez, Araya, Lara; Urrutia, Aedo. Subs: Campos, Ramirez, Acuna, Balmaceda, Toro, Grez, Mardones.
And today’s big band of match officials:
Referee: Salima Mukansanga (RWA)
Assistant Referee: Bernadettar Kwimbira (MWI)
Assistant Referee: Mary Njoroge (KEN)
Fourth Official: Ndidi Madu (NGA)
VAR: Khamis Al Marri (QAT)
Assistant VAR: Muhammad Bin Jahari (SIN)
🔴⚪🔵 Team news is in.
— Team GB (@TeamGB) July 21, 2021
Your #TeamGB starting line-up for the opener against Chile ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/83kAFLJbmT
Preamble
And so it begins! Football is the second Olympic discipline to get under way, and this is the first match of the football tournament (but the fourth match of the Olympics, after three softball games played earlier), so we are very early climbers aboard the Tokyo 2020/21 bandwagon. It is, I think we can all agree, all jolly exciting.
Let’s deal with format issues first. There are 12 teams in the women’s competition, split into three groups of four. From these groups the top two go through to the quarter-finals automatically, along with the two best third-placed teams. These groups are counterintuitively known as Groups E, F and G (groups A, B, C & D are full of men’s teams and play in a different competition). Great Britain’s group is the first of those, which as well as Chile features Japan and Canada. Team GB only convenes every four years so has no world ranking, but England’s is six and in theory they have been strengthened by a minor transfusion of additional talent. Chile’s is 37, Japan’s 10, and Canada’s 8. In other words, if they are to progress this is a match Britain will want to be winning.
As well as Chile, they must also battle heat (about 30C according to forecasts) and intense humidity. But they seem confident. “I think we’ve got to go for gold,” said Caroline Weir, one of two Scots and only three non-English players in the 22-person squad. “Of course, we know there’s challenges ahead of us. It’s going to be a tough tournament. And there’s all the things that we’re going to have to contend with. But the squad is talented. We’ve got to seek gold and see what happens.”
The other groups, with Fifa rankings in brackets, are as follows:
Group F: China (15), Brazil (7), Zambia (104), Netherlands (4)
Group G: Sweden (5), USA (1), Australia (9), New Zealand (22)
Within an hour of this game kicking off China v Brazil and Sweden v USA will also have started, and after that it’s all go. Well, after Friday’s opening ceremony it’s really all go. This is just a little pre-go, really. Anyway, and most importantly, welcome! Let’s do this Olympic thing!
