Tokyo Games gets green light

In the end, God was still Brazilian. After 120 minutes of compelling and combustive box-to-box football, the hosts’ lodestar Neymar delivered salvation from the penalty spot for Brazil to clinch their maiden gold medal at the 2016 Olympic football tournament in the final against Germany. The final itself was not a pent-up grudge match for that unforgiving afternoon in Belo Horizonte two years earlier, but even so victory served as a redemptive triumph for the South Americans. At the final whistle, the Maracana, the cathedral of Brazilian football, exploded in an apocalyptic bedlam.

Those scenes of delirium won’t be repeated in Tokyo. Having been drawn alongside Germany, Saudi Arabia and Ivory Coast in Group D, the Brazilians could well reach the final again, but football does not enjoy the same cultural significance in Japan, even if it’s imperative for the host nation to offer a respectable showing. Above all, because of the