Brazil wins Pan American Korfball title and qualifies for IKF World Korfball Championship

With a clear and deserved 20-10 victory over Colombia, Brazil has won the First IKF Pan American Championship, and has qualified for next year’s IKF World Korfball Championship in Belgium.

Following yesterdays golden goal victory against Colombia, Brazil was a light favorite for the title, but a close match was expected. The first 15 minutes Colombia was the better team, with a well-organized European style defense organized by coach Tilbert La Haye. Despite the considerable length disadvantage, Colombia daring took the lead with a goal by Stephanie Canizales. Brazil had difficulty keeping the score level in the first 15 minutes, due to the tight defense, but also avoided the Colombian women making the large number of goals that they made yesterday. However, after 20 minutes, leading 4-3, Brazil in three minutes increased the gap to 7-3 with goals by Wallace Cruz, Fernanda Cardoso, and Daniel Ferreira. The gap gave Colombia a strong blow, from which it never recovered in the remainder of the game. After the half-time break, Brazil cruised to 12-7, when Colombia suddenly made two goals and a short tense period occurred in which the Colombians had several opportunities to close the gap to 2. Andressa Silva however took away any further expectations of the Colombian by scoring 13-9 in the 39th minute. After that, the match was over and Brazil easily expanded the gap to finally win by 20-10. Michele Iatarola and David Ferreira lead the Brazilian scorelist with 5 each, and Juan Lerma topped the Colombia list with 4. Brazil’s women performed very well in defense, keeping the Colombian women to only 3 goals, while they scored 8 between them.