Having won their first-ever game at an IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship, 2:1 in a shootout against Australia on Tuesday (24 July), Paraguay then went on to lose 2:0 to world champions Spain and then 2:1 to Greece in a shootout (6:4).

However, that win was enough to progress to the main round, although the South American side entered the last 12 without any points carried over from the preliminary round as Australia were knocked out.

Their first game in the main round was against the previously unbeaten Polish side, who had won all three games, but earlier today, Paraguay made another piece of history as they came back from 17:9 first set loss against Poland to win the second set 12:8 and take the game to a shootout thanks to a brilliant performance, not least from goalkeeper Maria Alicia Villalba.

In the shootout, Gabriela Brusquetti opened the scoring for her side, but could only manage a single point strike. However, Poland could not score their third penalty, and from that point on, the Paraguayans kept hitting the target with Brusquetti ending the match with her second strike in the shootout to spark wild scenes again on the Kazan sand.
 
After the victory, Paraguay’s coach Jose Ignacio Veloso and specialist Brusquetti spoke to IHFtv and IHF.info about another moment of history.

“At first we didn't expect we could beat Poland,” said the 33-year-old Brusquetti. “But last night all of us had a talk and we decided that we could. We made a tremendous effort just to get to this world championship and once we were here we gave a big surprise beating Australia

“We changed some things we were doing wrong, especially in the emotional part, and we strengthened ourselves us a group, so when we jumped onto court we were determined to win - there wasn't a single moment today in which we thought we were losing this game.”

Coach Jose Ignacio Veloso was quick to point out that the win was part of something even bigger than the games themselves.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game because Poland are a really strong team as they had won their three matches in the preliminary round,” said Veloso straight after the match.

“This is our greatest moment; just being here is already a dream for us as we are learning new trends, meeting people and getting to know fully what the level of international beach handball is - these are the greatest things for us and we are enjoying every moment.”

And for Brusquetti, to be in Kazan was part of an even bigger plan for beach handball back home and she does not want the journey to end.

“We are doing everything to help this sport become more popular in Paraguay,” said the Nueva Estrella player. “We put on lots of activities including food festivals and organised beach handball clinics as many people still didn't know beach handball there.

“This is the first world championship for Paraguay and we are extremely happy to be here, very proud and satisfied for the result we accomplished against Poland, but this is the start of something big. 

“We don't want to just settle for one world championship participation, we want more and more,” she continued. “I think that with the support of all the companies and the support from the people who watch us in Paraguay and through social media send us so much strength and gives us much more energy to continue on our journey.”