Brazilian blind football team is two wins away from seventh Copa América title

Five-time world and Paralympic champions, the Brazilian men's blind football team is two victories away from winning their seventh Copa América title. This Thursday (10), at 5:30 pm (Brasília time), Brazil takes the court against Costa Rica in the semifinals of the tournament, at the Brazilian Paralympic CT, in São Paulo. The competition is free to enter and broadcast live online in English on the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) channel on YouTube. The first semi-final will be between Argentina and Colombia, starting at 3pm.

The Brazilians' opponent in the semis was defined on Thursday night (8), after the end of the group stage. Costa Rica finished in second place in Key 1, beating Guatemala (4-0), adding a total of two wins and one defeat – Argentina came in first place. Brazil, classified one round in advance with two consecutive victories, confirmed the leadership of Group 2 after a 0-0 draw with Colombia. The Colombians qualified second in Group 2.

"We lost a little of our way of playing, of controlling the game. Colombia managed to close the box and use the counterattack a lot, which really wore down our team. Now it's time to prepare the team for the semi-final. I'm sure we'll play a great game and, consequently, reach our final objective, which is to win the title at home", analyzed coach Cesinha after the draw against Colombia.

Whoever wins the semifinals will decide the title on Saturday (12), at 5:30 pm. Before that, at 3pm, there will be a third place contest. The Brazilian team started the Copa América on a high note, after winning the Para-South American Games title around two months ago. The tournament brought together 12 nations in total, divided into two groups. Brazil was in bracket 2 along with Colombia, Peru and Chile. Group 1 brought together Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina and Guatemala.

The main power in the sport, Brazil was champion of the 1998, 2000, 2010, 2014 and 2018 World Cups and won five Paralympic gold medals (Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020).

Women's team is runner-up

The Brazilians were runners-up in the Copa América last Tuesday (8), after being beaten 1-0 by Argentina, the current two-time world champion. Before playing in the final, the team recorded two victories - over Canada (7-0) and Mexico (2-0) - and one defeat, against Argentina (1-0) in the single-round competition. In the dispute for third place, Mexico got the better of Canada (1-0).