Cristiano Rocha, coach of the Brazilian women’s national team assures that they are already preparing for Los Angeles 2028, and as part of this preparation they will seek to win the title in the South Central American Handball Championship to be held in Rio de Janeiro.
The Brazilian team is going through a very intense 2024, after having played the Olympic Games in Paris, they did not stop their preparation. Cristiano Rocha, coach of the Brazilian women’s national team, kept the focus on international competitions.
Preparation
In September they played a tournament in Portugal and at the end of October they will be participating in a Trophy in Romania.
- What is your focus for each of the international competitions?
Our preparation for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle has already begun, Brazil is already focused on seeking a place in the next Olympic Games and that phase began in September with the tournament in Portugal, where we took younger players.
Now we are going to Romania to continue with the sequence of this preparation and also thinking about South Central America.
Our goal is to prepare a group that can be more evolved to reach the Olympic qualification and also to be able to obtain good results in the world championships.
In November, they will be competing in the South Central American Games in Rio de Janeiro, where they will seek to retain the title obtained in Buenos Aires in 2022 and also to conquer one of the places for the 2025 World Cup.
- How are you preparing to face this competition knowing that you are local?
The dispute of this tournament is very important because we will be playing at home and with all the public cheering, we are encouraged because after many years the Brazilian women’s national team will play again at home. The goal will be to win the title and qualify for the World Cup.
Renewal and evolution
- Is there a renewal in the selected team to face the South Central?
We have a renewal process since the tournament held in Portugal in September. We want to give a sequence to this process, always mixing the combination of younger players with more experienced ones, so that they arrive at each competition more mature and with more experience to represent Brazil in each tournament.
- The selection has evolved in this 2024, in what aspects?
Brazil had a good evolution this year. We were able to have a good level Olympic Games, reaching the quarterfinals and we hope to give continuity, so we are already thinking about Los Angeles 2028.
Stop to conquer
- The big goal is the South Central, but what are the plans for after this competition?
The South Central is not the final objective, but it is one of our first objectives. Brazil has a record of many achievements in the women’s category in the continent.
We want the title, it is part of the cycle as a whole, it is not a final point but an important point in this new Olympic cycle. Playing at home will make it a great competition.
In closing, Rocha said that the coaching staff enjoys the competition instances much more than the preparation ones, “…because they are the moments in which clearly everyone gets to play their role and at the same time they are well assimilated by the players. So I think that this is the moment they enjoy the most, it is the most important”.
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If you liked Cristiano Rocha, coach of Brazil’s women’s national teamyou may also like to read Cristiano Rocha: “it is important to create a heterogeneous team with a mix of experience and youth”.
Photo credits: CoSCABal / Germán Paez / Paris 2024 / Sasa Pahic Szabo / Kolektiff
By Loly Coria
