For the second time in its history that Chile was present at the World Cup, ‘Las Lobas’ was part of Group E. They lost the 3 group stage matches, with Romania, Denmark and Serbia, which led them to play in the President’s Cup , where they achieved 3 historic victories, placing 27th in the competition.
Chile knew that its passage through the 26th edition of the Women’s World Cup was not going to be easy, it faced strong teams and the Danish hosts. ‘Las Lobas’ began their performance, after 14 years without participating, against Romania and fell 19-44.
Two days later, the Chileans had to face the local team, Denmark. Meeting, that although during the first 5 minutes they managed to hold on to the scoreboard, they could not face one of the world powers, and ended up falling 11-46. Against Serbia, luck did not change and they suffered a new defeat 16-30. Despite the result, Madeleine Cortez, goalkeeper of the Chilean team, was chosen best player of the match.
The team led by Felipe Barrientos had an outstanding performance in the President’s Cup. The first game was against Iran. After 18 minutes of the match came a series of quick goals added to the tremendous performance of the goalkeeper, Madeleine Cortez, once again chosen player of the match, sealed a 30-20 victory for Chile. Two days later, they won against Kazakhstan by 27-23, proving to be more efficient offensively than the Kazakhs.
After two victories, Chile was playing against the Republic of Congo for the top of Group II of the President’s Cup. With a brilliant performance by Madeleine Cortez, the Chileans took the pace of the match, finishing the first half 12-8. However, the Congolese’s defensive play began to be a nightmare for ‘Las Lobas’, and Congo managed to beat Chile 24-21.
Finally, the Chilean team closed its participation in the 26th World Women’s Handball Championship 2023 with a smile thanks to the 26-25 victory over China. ‘Las Lobas’ were in 27th position, with 3 historic victories and 4 defeats in the world competition.
Madeleine Cortez, goalkeeper of the Chilean national team: “We knew that it was not going to be an easy task, since in the first phase we had to play against 3 world powers, in addition to playing against one of the venues with a full stadium, a situation that not all They were used to it, therefore, a mental factor also influenced it. But, despite everything, we were left with very positive feelings, since we were able to polish details in attack, become much stronger in defense and finally increase our collective game.”
Photo: IHF
