The Brazilian women’s goalball team won the bronze medal at the Nations Cup, a tournament held in Berlin, Germany, from October 7-9, with 14 countries participating.

In the decision for third place, the Brazilians beat the Canadians 5-2. The Brazilian men’s team failed to qualify for the semi-finals and were excluded from the fight for the podium. At the end of the competition, coaches Gabriel Goulart (women’s team) and Jônatas Castro (men’s team) analyzed the performances on German soil and projected how the World Cup, scheduled for Portugal in December, will take place.

“We have the help of the performance analyst to film the opponents and notice various details that will help us in the Worlds. It was also important to see the athletes manage certain situations. Matches in which we were ahead of the score and they knew how to control the game. Or in disadvantaged situations where we kept our emotional balance and turned things around,” said coach Gabriel Goulart, who this year had already led the national team to the podium in the Malmö Cup and the Ankara Cup.

The Brazilians beat Denmark (8-6) and France (10-0) in the qualifying round, and lost to the United States (6-2). In the quarter-finals, they overtook Great Britain by 3 to 1. After the defeat in the semi-finals against Israel (11 to 5), the bronze medal resulted in a victory over Canada (5 to 2) – the Israelis, by the way. who had already knocked out Brazil from the Malmö Cup, were the champions in Berlin beating the North Americans 5-1 in the dispute for gold.

Brazil’s men’s team has already struggled in the group stage, which featured six countries in each group. Only the top two from each team qualified for the semi-finals. After beating Poland (8-1) and Belgium (14-4) with ease, the current double world champions took an unexpected turn from Turkey (5-6) in the final stretch of the match which ended the first day, forcing the team to win its two second-round duels. However, after beating Denmark (11-4), Brazil were overtaken by Lithuania (13-8) in a direct showdown for the vacancy, remaining out of the playoffs. The Turks were champions of the tournament in a close decision against the Lithuanians (3-2). The United States won bronze after defeating Germany 7-5.

“Surprising, no,” replied coach Jônatas Castro, regarding the outcome of the competition. “Maybe the surprise applies to our own game, which we didn’t manage to adapt the way we wanted. But the teams were stronger, as we hoped. We came to important conclusions. One of them is that we have to improve in training to stay ahead of the other championships. The World Cup will be played out in detail”, analyzed the coach.

“We feel that the teams have evolved a lot since the Tokyo Games so far, which was very good. It was an important test for our team. We managed to play evenly despite being a little tired after the Brazilian Football Championship. everything to beat Brazil. Certainly, Professor Jônatas will come to the next phase of training with strategies to apply after what we have seen in this competition”, commented winger Parazinho.

Photo: Disclosure / CBDV

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