Marcus Oliveira has led his Brazil side to their debut South and Central America Handball Confederation (SCAHC) Men’s Championship, with a 20:17 win over Argentina in the final played on Saturday (29 January) in Recife, Brazil.

With the title, coach Oliveira and his players re-assert their regional authority after being without a title since 2016, when they won the former PATHF Pan American Championship title. The final edition of that confederation championship was won by Argentina in 2018 and the debut edition of the then newly-formed SCAHC – known as COSCABAL in Spanish – was also won by Argentina, in 2020.

For Brazil, expectations at home were strong to take the gold medal and they did, securing a three-goal victory at the Ginásio Geraldão, despite a 10:10 half-time score. Argentina had started the second half strongly, going 12:10 up, but then failed to score for the next 11 minutes allowing the home side back in, who went 14:12 ahead.

However, Argentina came back again, scoring four unanswered goals to go into the last 10 minutes two goals ahead (16:14). As the game entered the final two minutes it was tight, but Brazil goalkeeper Rangel da Rosa, who had already made a number of impressive saves, stopped three “impossible balls” – according to the Brazilian Handball Confederation website – to ensure his side took the honours. He ended with a 45% save rate.

Following the conclusion of the game Rogerio Moraes was announced as best player of the match, but the SL Benfica line player promptly called da Rosa over and handed him the award in recognition of his exploits, with the goalkeeper knowing what it is like to play in a championship on home soil after starring for Brazil at the 2015 IHF Men’s Junior (U21) World Championship.

With their victory in the final, the gold and greens won all five of their games in Recife, against Paraguay (46:19), Costa Rica (49:13) and Chile (31:22) in the preliminary round and against Uruguay in the semi-final (48:20), thanks to seven goals from Leonardo Dutra.

A new-look Argentina, led by coach Guillermo Milano in his first championship as national coach following the departure of Manolo Cadenas, were disappointed, but had already confirmed their place at the 2023 IHF Men’s World Championship after a top-four finish – their 14th consecutive appearance at that level since their debut at Japan 1997.

“It was a tournament where we were able to see young players who will soon have to stand up for this squad,” said Argentina and Barça goalkeeper Leonel Maciel to HandballArgentina.com after the match. “It is our first tournament of this cycle and we know that the big goal is to qualify for Paris 2024, so we have to go little by little.”

Argentina had gotten to the final with a 36:24 semi-final victory over Chile, despite 10 goals from the inspirational Chilean Erwin Feuchtmann. His side would go on to defeat Uruguay 29:21 to take bronze thanks to a best player of the match performance from Rodrigo Salinas, who scored six goals. Paraguay defeated Costa Rica 26:21 to finish fifth.

The final day also saw the All-star Team named with Brazilian and Argentinean players making up the majority of the squad:

Goalkeeper: Leonel Maciel (Argentina)
Left Wing: Ignacio Pizarro (Argentina)
Right Wing: Rudolph Hackbarth (Brazil)
Centre Back: Joao da Silva (Brazil)
Line Player: Rogerio Moraes (Brazil)
Back: Rodrigo Salinas (Chile)
Back: James Parker (Argentina)
MVP: Thiago Petrus (Brazil)
Top scorer: Erwin Feuchtmann (Chile) 43 goals – five games

With their top four ranking Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay confirmed their direct qualification for the 28th IHF Men’s World Championship, set to be held in Poland and Sweden in January 2023. Colombia had to cancel their appearance due to a number of COVID-19 cases within their squad during the preparation period before travelling to Brazil.

In addition to the action on court, the SCAHC arranged a number of activities off court, including technical analyses before games to help prepare officials for the teams, theoretical and observational workshops run by the SCAHC Development Commission in partnership with the Brazilian Handball Confederation (CBHb) featuring 25 attendees from more than 10 states in Brazil and led by SCAHC Technical Director Diego Soto, a meeting of all seven participating nations’ presidents to discuss the championship itself and the ongoing development of handball in the region, plus a three-day technical and tactical course attended by over 20 coaches.

FINAL RANKING

1. Brazil*
2. Argentina*
3. Chile*
4. Uruguay*
5. Paraguay
6. Costa Rica
7. Bolivia

*Qualified for the 2023 IHF Men’s World Championship in Poland and Sweden

For more information on the championship, visit the official SCAHC Facebook page. 

Photos: South and Central America Handball Confederation