The coach of the Women’s National Team, Arthur Elias, praised his team’s participation in the SheBelieves Tournament, which ended on Tuesday night (9) with Brazil’s third-place finish. In the United States, the Brazilian Warriors were defeated by Canada in the semifinals on penalties and defeated Japan, also on penalties.
The competition served as preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics, in July. Arthur mixed the call-up between young and experienced athletes, with an eye on the competition in France. The strategy paid off. In the press conference after the game, he revealed that the number of selectable athletes has increased.
READ MORE
++ 2024 Brasileirão: When does the Brazilian league start?
++ How many members does each Brasileirao 2024 club have?
++ Brasileirão: More foreign players allowed for the 2024 Brazilian league
“The certainty with which I leave is that we are on a very good path to further strengthen our environment, our relationships, to reinforce the game ideas that I have for the Brazilian national team, and that the list is getting longer and longer,” he said.
Since the Copa Ouro, Brazil has only suffered one defeat in regular time in the last eight games – a 1-0 loss to the United States in the final. Comparing the call-ups, only nine players represented Brazil in both tournaments: Yasmim, Antônia, Lauren, Tarciane, Thaís Ferreira, Duda Sampaio, Vitória Yaya, Julia Bianchi, and Gabi Portilho. But the significant difference in the lists did not reflect on the field for Brazil, which demonstrated a lot of competitiveness.
“Today, Brazil shows, even with little time to work, with many changes that I have been making, promoting debuts of players, the return of others, and giving opportunities to many athletes, that it maintains a level of competitiveness against great teams,” he emphasized.
Against Japan, the national team relied heavily on Lorena’s decisive power, who saved four penalties in the game, one in regular time and three in the penalty shootout, and whose performance was praised by Arthur Elias.
“I have known Lorena since she started in football, at the Centro Olímpico, I received her when she arrived in São Paulo. I know her story very well, but it had been a long time since she trained with me. We needed to bring her into our environment, our training sessions, our ideas,” he explained.
“We put her in the game without putting any extra pressure on her and for her to enjoy today’s game. I think she did that very well, with the four penalties she managed to save. It’s something that I don’t remember happening, at least recently. So, congratulations for the effort, for the game, just like the whole team,” he added.
Also on Tuesday (9), Brazil learned the opponent for their debut at the Paris Olympics: Nigeria, who defeated South Africa 1-0 in the Africa Pre-Olympic.
“It is a very strong group in terms of recent performance. I believe that we drew the strongest teams from each pot in the draw. What we need to do is to know how to face each opponent, to continue strengthening what we are already doing here in the national team. I strongly believe that we will have a great Olympics,” he stated.
