Brazil – Peru
This is the first time the South American continent is sending three teams to the world competition.
Brazil’s top scorer was Sara Aparecida Silva, scoring 22 points for the winners, while Milagros Rodriguez scored 13 for Peru. The audience of 5,000 cheering fans in the Eduardo Dibos Coliseum did not hurt the great Brazilian performance.
The top scorers in the bronze medal match were Diana Arrechea with 32 points for Colombia and Lucia Lozano with 15 for Chile.
“Today we fulfilled our first goal, to obtain the South American title,” said Brazil coach Luizomar de Moura. “For the growth of my team to face in a huge stadium the host team supported by 5,000 fans is a great experience and we learnt from it to keep growing. Now we will work to earn the World title so we will face, as soon as possible, Asian and European teams in friendly matches as part of our training.”
“To face Peru as a visiting team is a very hard task, they play supported by very loving fans and we felt we were playing a world final match,” said Brazil captain Rosamaria Montibeller. “I am very happy with this title.”
“Our goal was to obtain the South American title but we lost concentration and the needed attitude to face as strong a team as Brazil,” said Peru captain Gina Lopez.
The team’s assistant coach, Martín Escudero, added: “We try to teach this team confidence when playing but they are still very young. Six of our players are youths that are playing against junior teams and that is a disadvantage but also a great experience.”
Colombian coach Oscar Guevara expressed his happiness with the team’s results. “We prepared ourselves for today’s match, we knew it would not be easy but our team fulfilled its goal, qualifying for the first time in our history for a World Championship.”
Final standings:
1. Brazil
2. Peru
3. Colombia
4. Chile
5. Argentina
6. Venezuela
7. Uruguay
8. Paraguay
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