São Paulo – The Brazilian men’s youth handball team is going to play in Tunisia, an Arab country in North Africa, late this month. Headed by coach Javier Garcia Cuesta, the team will play the World Championship from July 20th to 31st. In addition to Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina will be the other competing South American teams. The Arab competitors will be Egypt, Qatar, Morocco, Tunisia, Kuwait and Libya.
Brazil is going to play in the B group alongside Sweden, Iceland, Puerto Rico and France, according to information supplied by the Brazilian Handball Federation. The A group consists of Germany, Egypt, Qatar, Norway and Morocco, the C group, of Denmark, Tunisia, Kuwait, Benin and Iran, and the D group, of Argentina, Kroatia, Libya, Spain and Venezuela. The Brazilian team will play its first match on the 20th, against France, and will also play on the 22nd, 23rd and 25th.
Last Friday (10th), the group played an exhibition match against the team of the Municipal University of São Caetano do Sul (USCS), during which the coach evaluated the performance of the players. Cuesta is of Spanish origin and took charge of the Brazilian national handball teams in March.
The trip to the Arab country will take place on July 17th. Brazil first played a youth’s world championship in 2007. At that time, the team finished in the ninth place. The goal of coach Javier is to improve the performance. The team is going to practice for the World Championship until the 16th at the Vitório Zanon gymnasium, a.k.a. Baetão, in the municipality of São Bernardo do Campo, in the Greater São Paulo region.
The Brazilian players are goalkeepers Alan Santos de Lima, Andrey Fagundes and Lucas José Pinto Santos, and field players Erikson Andrew da Silva Cordeiro, Guilherme Valadão Gama, Jeison Felipe Correia da Silva, Murilo dos Santos Riccini, Raul Nantes Campos, Rodolfo Malandrin de Oliveira, Yuri Robson Ribeiro, Acao Pessoa Constantino, Roger Kleber Oliveira Silva, Alencar Cassiano Rossoni, Emerson Santos Silva, Matheus Perrella Filho and Victor Ferrari Alcântara.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
