It didn’t give to the unpublished finalist. The title of the Sand Football World Cup is, for the seventh time, Brazilian. By 4-3, the team surpassed Belarus this Sunday (11), on Mahé Island, Seychelles, to expand its hegemony in sport – the second country with more cups is Portugal, which has three.
This year’s trophy joins the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2017 and 2024 achievements. In a total of 13 editions of the competition’s history, Brazil won more than half of them.
In the decision, the current champions were not easy before the Belarusos, who did very well in their fourth participation in the tournament. They won all the matches until the final, surpassed their best campaign so far – quarter place last year – and had the World Cup top scorer (Ihar Bryshtsel with 11 goals) for the second time in a row.
Brazil opened the scoring in the first few minutes, with Lucão’s arrival in the second post to push the ball to the bottom of the net. Still in the first half, Belarus tied with Novikau, who took advantage of goalkeeper Bobô.
The second of three periods was from Brazilians. Rodrigo, captain and current best player in the world in the sport, stole the ball in the Belarussa area and did not waste. In possession of the next ball, Catarino sent a strong kick in the left corner of goalkeeper Avgustov to score a great goal and open 3 to 1.
In the final period, two goals from top scorer Bryshtsel, one penalty, replaced the Belarusos in the match. But just under two minutes from the end, Rodrigo took advantage of a defense recovery, advanced in the attack and kicked. The ball went up after hitting the sand, deceived the opposing goalkeeper and died in Belarus’s network.
“When we do what we love, things happen naturally,” said Captain Rodrigo after the end of the match. He praised the defensive performance of the team, which conceded only nine goals throughout the World Cup.
“It is very difficult to spend an entire cup receiving few goals. And we have a very large offensive power,” he said. “The problem now is getting a place to [colocar] the star [na camisa].”
In the group stage, Belarus surpassed the hosts of Seychelles, Japan and Guatemala. He eliminated Iran in the quarterfinals 4-3 and defeated Senegal 5-2 in the semifinal.
Already the path of Brazil until the final had wins over Spain, in the Wednesdays, 6-0, and about the three -time world champion Portugal, 4-2, in Semi, and triumphs about El Salvador, Italy and Oman in the group stage.
The only time Belarus and Brazil had faced each other before the final was in the first phase of the 2021 World Cup. At the time, the national team won 5-0.
