The cerebral palsy (CP) football team secured the bronze medal at the World Championship of the sport, held in Salou (Spain). The country secured third place on the podium this Sunday (15), after defeating the United States 2-0, repeating the campaign of the previous edition, three years ago.
The Brazilians were unfazed by the 4-1 defeat to Iran on Thursday (12), in the semifinals. In the 25th minute of the first half (each half in PC football has 30 minutes), Ângelo Matheus shared with the American goalkeeper in the area and opened the scoring, scoring his fifth goal in the World Cup. At the last minute, Evandro de Oliveira, with a penalty, guaranteed the victory.
?? Congratulations to @andenarede ?? on winning the ? BRONZE MEDAL at the 2022 IFCPF Men’s World Cup ⚽️? and finishing in 3rd position!
ℹ️ Follow the remaining matches here: https://t.co/MAInzD7DCi#ICFPF #CPFootball #WCFTSalou22 #WorldCup #ParaFootball pic.twitter.com/adruFSFwkV
— CP Football ⚽️ (@ifcpf) May 15, 2022
It was the fifth time that Brazil finished the PC Soccer World Cup (which was known as Paralympic seven-a-side football) in third place. In addition to 2019, the selection was also bronze in 1998, 2001 and 2015. The best campaigns were in 2003 and 2013, when the Brazilians went to the final, but got the runner-up.
Brazil ended the World Cup with five wins and only one defeat, precisely to Iran. In the first phase, the team beat Thailand (3-1), Germany (6-0) and Ireland (3-0). In the quarterfinals, the triumph was over rival Argentina (3-0).
In the final, also held on Sunday, Ukraine defeated Iran 1-0 and lifted the cup for the seventh time. The detail is that the Ukrainian participation, the greatest world champion, was uncertain until days before the tournament started, due to the military tension in the country, due to the Russian invasion. The International Federation of Cerebral Palsy Football (IFCPF) organized an online funding campaign to enable the team’s presence in Salou.
Modality
In PC football, athletes are divided into FT1, FT2 and FT3 classes. In FT1 are those with greater physical-motor impairment. Each team must have at least one of them among the holders. FT3, on the other hand, brings together players with a lower degree of paralysis and only one can be on the pitch in each team.
The length of the game is not the only difference to conventional football. The number of athletes per team (seven) and the sizes of the field (70 meters by 50 meters) and the goal (two meters by five meters) are different. In addition, there is no offside in PC football and the throw-in can be done with just one hand.
