Despite being down three goals at the end of the first half, Brazil duly delivered a superb comeback against Japan in the last 30 minutes to seal their second win at the 25th IHF Women’s World Championship, 29:25.

This result means that Brazil, Japan and Croatia are through to the main round, irrespective of what happens in the last two games of Group G, with Paraguay headed to the President’s Cup.

GROUP G
Japan vs Brazil 25:29 (15:12)

After winning their first games at Spain 2021, Japan and Brazil were facing off in a match that was paramount for their future at the 25th IHF Women’s World Championship, with the winner sealing their main round berth.

While Japan brought an inexperienced team to the tournament, Brazil were also undergoing a major revamp, with stars like Eduarda Amorim and Alexandra do Nascimento retiring after the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

Yet Brazil were still looking like favourites to seal the game, after their dominating performance against Croatia two days ago, when they duly delivered a strong attacking game to take a 30:25 win.

This time around, though, Brazil went back to their inconsistent ways, helping Japan take an early lead, after Sakura Kametani, the Asian side’s goalkeeper, saved five of the first nine shots, to lift her side to a 9:6 lead after 16 minutes.

Brazil’s coach, Cristiano Silva, called a timeout to instil new life in his team, but the idea did not go as planned, as the South American side still struggled in attack, posting a mediocre 52% shooting efficiency. With six other turnovers, three of which came from Ana Paula Rodrigues Belo and Bruna de Paula, Brazil looked to be in serious trouble at the break.

But it took only seven minutes for Brazil to change the outcome of the game and seal the win. 

Much better in defence, with substitute goalkeeper Renata de Arruda saving four shots and scoring with one open-goal shot, Brazil started the second part of the game with a 9:2 run to boast a three-goal lead, 21:17.

It was the time when Japan’s coach, Shigeo Kusumoto, called his second timeout of the game, but it was too little, too late for the Asian side, who really hit a wall in attack, with their efficiency dropping.

Instead, Brazil were properly applying pressure in attack, as right wing Adriana Cardoso, who is at her second IHF Women’s World Championship and was named the hummel Player of the Match, had her best outing in the competition, scoring seven goals, seconded by line player Tamires Araujo, who also enjoyed a great evening, putting six goals past the opponent goalkeeper.

Brazil’s second win in a row, 29:25, nearly the same score of their first one against Croatia, 30:25, means that they will travel to Torrevieja for the main round with at least four points in the bag, after securing two points both against Croatia and Japan.

Croatia and Japan, who are also through, will tough it out in the last round, on Monday, to try to improve their tally for the main round, as Brazil face Paraguay in their last match in Castelló.

hummel Player of the Match: Adriana Cardoso, Brazil

Photo: RFEBM / Á. Bermejo