What time AEST?

6:30am AEST

Tough first up hit-out, just because of the home crowd factor. It'll be massive. Big ask for refs not to get caught up in that to some degree, and a couple of extra fouls to Penny and/or Liz can really affect the fortunes of this team.

Nervous, but quietly confident.

Cambage gets the scoring underway.

This one's on regular Channel 7

We don't look great to start with... hope we have taken the right team to Brazil!

Ordinary start so far. Any chance of some defence?

I get why the TV has to cut across. But the website and the app as well? Why??
:/

Cambage is going to have to have a massive Games for us to do well. We seem to be a very short team! GO OPALS!!!

Brazil dropping bombs from everywhere... this can't continue.. can it?

Geez I hope Jarry is ok. She's had a lot of problems with that knee.

We still seem waaay too Liz-conscious on offence.

Brazil shooting 17/26, Taylor and Phillips struggling, I think the Opals would be pretty happy to be only four down at half-time.

We need to generate some run from our defence though, either that or Cambage is going to have to score 40 in the half-court.

Definitely happy to be down only 4.

Where the hell is the defence? And the offence for that matter, other than everyone being focussed entirely on dumping it in to Liz.

Ok, Rachel Jarry is ok. That's a huge relief.
And starting the 2nd half, which is a little surprising. Opals going with a slightly taller lineup.

Lavey ties it up.
Brazil actually starting to miss some shots now.
Time to go get this.

Liz, you're already doing way more than your share. No need to start jacking up threes as well ;)

Jarry's fine, thankfully.

Joyce's job prospects? Hmmm.....

Someone get Bill Woods some up-to-date player profiles :/

Great steal and assist at the other end from Phillips and then a dagger 3.

Have got my VPN working in China and a good live feed from the BBC.

Opals ahead 57-53 at the final break.
Brazil got sloppy that quarter, thank goodness.

Opals looked positive and in sync against the USA last week. They're far from it tonight.
Hopefully we can get away with this one.

Ok we got this one now :)

Opals win 84-66

Hopefully we can put that first 30 minutes down to nerves.

Thank you Cambage & Mitchell for saving our arses.

Good second half. George nailing some big threes on the pick and pop and Tolo getting back into nick.

Most of the Brazil women, particularly their bigs, never look fit to me. Erica looks like they get her out of jail for each tournament.

Good night for Aussie basketball.

Great game after trailing early.

Recap: Opals weather the storm, catch fire from downtown to beat Brazil

Really good performance after copping an absolute storm early. Outscored them 67-38 after the opening minutes of the second quarter which is very comprehensive.

Mitchell and Cambage were huge in the first half keeping us in the game (Mitchell was incredible pretty much all game) and I though Jarry and Lavey did a great job upping the defensive intensity in the third.

From then we started getting easy baskets from our D and we looked like the team from two years ago. How good was Jarry's D? She was an unsung hero today.

I liked the fact that we were able to match a big, physical frontcourt, Joyce made a good adjustment playing Tolo and George at PF, I thought Cayla did a good job defensively and it was nice to see her find her range.

Onto Turkey, no doubt they'll want a faster start so Cambage can get more rest, they can't afford to play her as much as today throughout the tournament.

Fair play to Joyce.

Has copped heat, although is proving to be a quality international coach. He didn't panic today after the initial barrage.

He didn't stick with Burton which was a fear of mine.

George really opened up the game with her shooting.

I'm not a fan of the way they have Liz guarding the pick n roll. I don't think you want her hard trapping guards out at the 3pt line. She should drop, especially if the other teams centre can't pick n pop.

couple of things I liked - the 2 talls option with Tolo popping for an outside shot - hard to guard 2 quality bigs.

Cayla George in the last few minutes some good steals and pressure causing turn overs.

Brazil broke it down nicely when we only had Liz inside - that back cutter from the weak side elbow when Liz went and helped was not covered well.

Was a very physical game and the tough prevailed and lesser teams would have put their head down with that crowd chanting - I am sure I heard a whistle in the crowd which is also very off putting.

Liz wants her name pronounced with a french accent.

Joyce coached well, that was a tough game 1st up, Brazil rated and home crowd advantage.

Penny a great player

not a fox40 or whatever standard whistle they were using - it was a similar tone but not identical. Will go back to replay and see if I can pick it again.

Her names always been pronounced like cabbage but you add an M,

Joyce is lucky he has Taylor and Mitchell, penny worked her butt off covering others errors at times, Mitchell was brilliant as usual, George needs to be played more,

Apart from that not much else impressed, sorry not even Ms Cabbage, when your that big you should be able to catch the ball way better and not miss the easy baskets

Anyone else laugh at 'Castro the Clown'?
My 95 year old grandmother can apply better makeup than that.

some of you posters are very hard to please!!!

I wonder what great levels you achieved yourselves in both playing and coaching!!!

why not give the players and coaches some positive support. I think they have all achieved more than most posters on here!!!!!!!!

I don't know how that Brazilian player got away with that bright red lipstick ...
Very distracting for one thing lol , but also imagine if it ended up on uniforms , players would be leaving the CRT for the blood rule for nothing.

Seriously weird make up

I was at this game. The Brazil fans are incredible. They live and die in every shot. Even free throws. A made free throw has them celebrating like they just won gold. Makes for an amazing atmosphere.

There was only about 20 other Aussies in the crowd and we were all quite far apart. I was very isolated and even had to compete against my own wife! So glad we got the result though.