Maybe Neymar and his teammates can make the Olympics a success for Brazil after all.
Brazil's celebrated men's soccer team rolled to a 6-0 win over Honduras in the semifinals Wednesday to earn a spot in the gold medal match, where they will face Germany who beat Nigeria 2-0.
But Brazil were disappointed not to have added a gold medal to their tally, after their duo composed of Agatha and Barbara lost in the beach volleyball final to Germany.
Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst claimed the second straight Olympic gold medal for their homeland and establishing it as a power in the beach volleyball world.
"I'm speechless," Ludwig said after the 21-18, 21-14 victory over Brazil's reigning world champions on Wednesday night.
Four years after the German men claimed the country's first Olympic beach volleyball title, Ludwig and Walkenhorst beat the reigning world champions from Brazil to give the country its first women's beach volleyball medal.
"My feeling was, 'If they can do it, we can do it,'" said Ludwig, who finished fifth in 2012 and was in the stands for the men's final in London. "It's a pity because never in a big tournament have we (German women) had this success. But, also: happy because we are the first."
Agatha and Barbara took silver just hours after Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross beat Brazil's other women's team in the game for bronze medal.
"We would have liked a final with the Brazilians. It would have been very beautiful," Agatha said. "But the Germans deserved the final, and they deserved the medal."
In other action across the Rio Games, Elaine Thompson won the women's 200 meters and Usain Bolt cruised to a win in the semifinals of the men's 200.
It's no easy thing to push Usain Bolt, even in an Olympic warm-up race.
Might be even tougher upstaging him.
But that happened on a wild Wednesday night in track. It began with the Jamaican star exchanging smiles, then wagging his finger at a brash up-and-comer who dared challenge him in the 200-meter semifinals. It kept going with another Jamaican, Elaine Thompson, completing the first 100-200 women's double since 1988. And it closed with an American sweep of the hurdles to put the cherry on top of a seven-medal day for the United States on the track.
Brianna Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin finished 1-2-3 in the 100-meter hurdles to give the United States its first sweep in the event, its seventh in the history of Olympic track and the 23rd for U.S. women, regardless of sport, over the history of the Summer Games.
After they saw their names come up on the scoreboard, they huddled together, hugged and jumped up and down before grabbing their U.S. flags from the stands.
"I knew that I got the gold but I just wanted to make sure that my other teammates got their medals, as well," Rollins said.
It was a not-all-unexpected result, though this might be an eye-opener: Both 2008 champion Dawn Harper-Nelson and the current world-record holder, Keni Harrison, were back home after failing to crack the top three at the U.S. Olympic trials.
Also parading the stars and stripes were long-jumpers Tianna Bartoletta and Brittney Reese, who finished 1-2; steeplechaser Evan Jager, who won silver earlier in the day; and Tori Bowie, who added a 200-meter bronze to her silver in the 100.
"Who wouldn't be thankful for another medal?" Bowie said. "Now, I have two."
The evening's best entertainment came, as usual, from Bolt, who will go for his eighth Olympic gold medal Thursday.
His main goal during the opening rounds is to conserve energy, which is exactly what he was doing when he looked to his right, saw Canada's Andre de Grasse a few steps behind and put it on cruise control.
Only problem was, de Grasse, the bronze medalist in the 100, didn't back down. He sped up, caught up and, suddenly, the two were nose to nose, peering and smiling at each other down the stretch. Bolt leaned in to finish in 19.78 to win by a scant .02 seconds. He wagged his finger at the up-and-comer as they crossed the line.
"That was really unnecessary," Bolt said. "I don't know what he was trying to do. He's a young kid, he's great. He has a lot of talent. I'm looking forward to the competition in the final."
Empty seats have been prevalent across Rio, but not at the Maracana Stadium, where they packed in to watch Neymar and Co. They didn't have to wait long, with Neymar scoring 15 seconds into the game. It was the fastest goal in men's Olympic history, and Brazil led 3-0 going into halftime to cruise into the final.
"We don't want to disappoint the fans," Brazil midfielder Renato Augusto said. "They want us to play well and they want us to win the gold."
Neymar added a goal on a penalty kick in stoppage time, and Gabriel Jesus also scored twice for Brazil, which got off to a slow start in the tournament. But the team picked up the pace and will face Germany, which beat Nigeria 2-0 in the other semifinal match. Germany's senior team trounced Brazil 7-1 in the semifinals of the World Cup in Rio two years ago.
"Hey Germany, just wait, your turn is coming up!" a fired-up fan base chanted.
Thailand's Ariya Jutanugarn became the first 18-hole leader in the history of women's golf in the Olympics. Jutanugarn shot 6-under 65 for a one-shot lead over seven-time major champion Inbee Park and Seiyoung Kim, both of South Korea. This is the first time for women's golf in the Olympics since the Paris Games in 1900, and back then it was only a nine-hole competition.
The improved play of the soccer team comes as welcome respites for the beleaguered Brazilians, who have seen the Rio Games deal with distraction, disorganization and tragedy for the last two weeks. The problems continued Wednesday when a Brazilian judge ordered that the passports of Ryan Lochte and Jimmy Feigen be seized and that the American swimmers stay in Brazil as authorities investigate Lochte's claims that he was robbed at gunpoint. Lochte's father told the Associated Press that his son had returned to the U.S. before the order was issued, but teammates Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were pulled off of their plane as they were getting set to leave. They were later released.