Undefeated Brazil crashes out from the 2011 Handball Championship – Handball News
The 2011 World Women’s Handball Championship which is underway in Brazil began from December 2, 2011 and will end on December 18, 2011. The hosts, Brazil, were having a great run in the tournament. They began the tournament with the hopes of winning the competition
and they were proving their worth with each win. They did reached the quarterfinals, but were knocked out by Spain’s women’s handball team.
Placed in Group C of the tournament, the Brazilian handball players were looking for their debut world handball championship win. In the past, the women handball players from Brazil have never won any title but this year while playing on home ground, they were
looking confident. The Brazilian players were placed at seventh place in the 2005 World Women’s Handball Championship, fourteenth in the 2007 championships and at fifteenth place in the 2009 championship.
In the 2011 handball championship, Brazil played its group matches against France, Romania, Japan, Tunisia and Cuba. Brazil won all five of its matches in the group stages and entered the knockout stage as the only undefeated team from Group C. France, Romania
and Japan also managed to enter the knockout stage but they had lost their matches in the group stages.
All teams in Group C were tough and had the potential to become the last for teams of the tournament. In the group stages, Brazil had tough competition only against France and Tunisia. Otherwise, the Brazilian handball players had crushed their opponents in
other matches.
Brazil entered the knockout stages where other participating teams were quite intimidated by the performance of the Brazilians. In the knockout stage or the round of sixteen, Brazil faced Cote d’Ivoire on December 12, 2011.
Cote d’Ivoire were the fourth team of Group D who played the match against the top team of Group C, Brazil. The Brazilian women’s national handball team continued showing their dominance as they defeated Cote d’Ivoire 35-22. Brazil’s Alexandra do Nascimento
was the top scorer with ten goals.
With an undefeated streak, it was thought that Brazil would cruise into the semi-finals. What they did not know was Spain could become a big hindrance for Brazil. The quarterfinal between Spain and Brazil was a very close one and an interesting match indeed.
Brazil were on the edge of winning the quarterfinals, but Spain won the match with one extra goal. With a score of 27-26, Spain became the first team in this year’s tournament to beat Brazil and knock them out of the championship.
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