The World champions continue to display their powerful and solid game against the weaker teams of the continent, and that includes host team Canada, which suffered a 48-12 defeat in front of a home crowd.
After only fifteen minutes of the first half, Danish coach Morten Soubak took a time out to change all six field players. The fast breaks were numerous and lethal and Brazil were able to average one goal per minute during the first 20 minutes. Mistakes from the local team were one of the main reasons why the strong South American team was able to take a lead that would only grow as the minutes passed by. Only five goals were conceded by the Brazilians on the first half.
The top scorer of the match was Alexandra Nascimento Martinez, who scored nine goals. “Weimprovedourdefence, compared to ourfirst match here. Wemustkeepongivingourbest, alwaysrespectingourrivals, no matterwhothey are”, saidthe2012 World player of the year.
On the other match from group A, Mexico overcame a negative result from the first half, in which they found themselves three goals behind. The conducted by Monica Piña were able to take the victory against a team of Puerto Rico that was affected by several 2 minute suspensions. Maria Rocha from Mexico and Adriana Cabrera and Nathalys Ceballos from Puerto Rico were the top scorers with six goals each.
On group B, Cuba took the duel against Argentina with a narrow victory for 27-25. A decisive match that was refereed by Danish couple Mads Hansen and Martin Gjeding and that saw the islanders go ahead on the scoreboard on the first minutes of the match. A nervous South American team was erratic on the first ten minutes but fresh substitutes brought them back into the game and narrowed a six goal difference to only one by the end of the first 30 minutes. A very equal second half was decided on details and the conducted by SenovioMaturrell secured a spot on the semifinal. The top scorer was LisandraLusson with 14 goals.
On the last match of the evening Uruguay defeated Chile for 32-26 and obtained their first two points in the competition after a loss on the first day. After an even first minutes, the ‘charruas’ secured a five goal difference that would only be stretched on the second half. Four players scored five times on this match: Valeria Flores from Chile and Alejandra Scarrone, Viviana Ferrari and Camila Barreiro from Uruguay.
The preliminary round of the competition will be over tomorrow, with the following matches:
Group A:
Puerto Rico – Canada: 11:30am
Brazil – Mexico: 1:30pm
Group B:
Uruguay – Cuba: 6:30pm
Argentina – Chile: 8:30pm
TEXT: LAURA AGENA
