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 had the help of a performance analyst to film the opponents and see several details that will help us at the Worlds. It was also important to see the athletes manage certain situations. Matches where we were in front of the scoreboard display and where they knew how to control the game. Or in situations of disadvantage in which we maintained the emotional balance and turned things around, ”said coach Gabriel Goulart, who this year had already taken the team to the podium of the Malmö Cup and the Ankara Cup.

The Brazilians beat Denmark (8-6) and France (10-0) in the qualifying phase, and lost to the USA (6-2). In the quarter-finals, they beat Great Britain 3-1. After the semi-final loss to Israel (11-5), the bronze medal ended up being secured with a victory over Canada (5 at 2) – the Israelis, by the way , who had already eliminated Brazil from the Malmö Cup, were champions in Berlin beating the North Americans by 5-1 in the fight for gold.

The Brazil men’s team is not qualified for the knockout stage

Brazil’s men’s team has already struggled in the group stage, which featured six countries in each key. Only the top two from each side qualified for the semi-finals. After beating Poland (8-1) and Belgium (14-4) with ease, the current double world champions made an unexpected comeback 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 defeated by Lithuania (13–8) in a head-to-head contest for the vacancy, remaining out of the knockout stage. The Turks were champions of the tournament in a close decision against the Lithuanians (3 to 2). The United States won bronze after defeating Germany 7-5.

“Maybe the surprise applies to our own game, which we weren’t able to adapt as we would like. But the teams were stronger, as expected. We managed to important conclusions. One of them is that we must evolve in training to stay at the forefront of the championships. The World Cup will be played out in detail”, analyzed coach Jônatas Castro.

“We feel that the teams have evolved a lot since the Tokyo Games, it was very good. It was an important test for our team. We managed to play even though we were a bit tired after the Brazilian Championship dispute. The others are looking for everything to beat Brazil. Professor Jônatas will certainly come to the next phase of training with strategies to apply after what we have seen in this competition,” commented winger Parazinho.

Brazil national team results at Nations Cup 2022

Feminine
Denmark 6 x 8 Brazil
United States 6 x 2 Brazil
France 0 x 10 Brazil
Brazil 3 x 1 Great Britain (Quarter-finals)
Israel 11 x 5 Brazil (semi-final)
Brazil vs Canada (3rd round dispute)

Man
Brazil 8 x 1 Poland
Belgium 4 x 14 Brazil
Brazil 5 x 6 Turkey
Denmark 4 x 11 Brazil
Brazil 8 x 13 Lithuania