Handball World Championships 2009

Poland in a great dash against Serbia

2009-01-27T09:02:00.000-08:00

The first match of the second day of the Zadar's group brought us a duel between Serbia and Poland. In a very convincing match, the Poles took their victory with the result 35:23.

The first minutes of the encounter showed in which direction would go today's duel between Serbs and Poles, but after 20 minutes everything was clear. Excellent Poles led by the great goalkeeper Szmal, who had 55% defenses at the end of the match, scored to Serbs from all sides. The initial leadership of four goals Poles were increasing from one minute to another, and already in the 22nd minute came up to ten goals of advantage. They went on a break with the result 7:21.

In the second part of the game nothing new happened. Poles have continued in their rhythm, the Serbs have unsuccessfully tried to answer. The team of Bogdan Wenta had the biggest advantage in 45th minute, 15:31. After that, the winner was already been known, the game looked like a friendly encounter of two teams.

The only unknown thing was the result, which was 35:23 at the end in favor of the Polish team.

Serbian coach Jovica Cvetkovic said that he will not grieve after this defeat. "This system of matches is brutal, and 16 is too small number of players who can rotate in this kind of competition. We are turning to the next match and we will try to play the best we can in next matches".

Polish coach Bogdan is satisfied with the match epilogue and with domination of his team. “Serbia plays very fast and risky, but the key to our victory was a great defense with which we stopped their attacks“.

via croatia2009.com

Spaniards experienced first defeat – valuable points for Sweden

2009-01-20T08:33:00.000-08:00

The Swedes surprised everyone pleasantly with an excellent game against Spain and they won valuable points. They started to lead already in the 3rd minute 3:0. They haven't allowed the opponent any reversal. Key moments occurred in the last ten minutes of the first half-time. After the leadership of Sweden 13:9 Spanish selector, Valero Rivera, was forced to call time-out, which didn't help them. Till the break Sweden’s advantage grew to 6 points difference. In the second half-time Scandinavians had even seven points advantage. Spanish were still able to threaten. They scored two pints (28:26), but five minutes before the end the match was resolved. Swedes can thank their goalkeeper, Johan Sjostrand, for valuable points, who achieved 21 defenses. The player of the match was Dalibor Doder, who has scored 11 goals.

Ola Lindgren (Sweden):

We fought all 60 minutes and we have to be satisfied in particular with the first half-time. Spaniards have played more offensively in the second half-time, but we had an excellent goalkeeper, and also Doder who scored 11 goals, although the day before he didn't play because of illness.

Valero Rivera (Spain):

Swedes played magnificently, and we firstly have to improve our defense. I have to congratulate them, especially their magnificent goalkeeper.

Easy two points to Russia against Tunisia

2009-01-20T08:24:00.000-08:00

Russia, which yesterday convulsively fought against Poland, today in the last game of 3rd round of group C at the City Sport Hall Varazdin without major difficulties has beaten Tunisia 36:31. Already in the 12th minute Russians escaped to Tunisians at the result of 6:2 to plus 4, and they put an end to the first part of the encounter with secure 16:11. Not even in other part Tunisians haven't find the way to resist to Russians, who continued without major effort filling their net. Especially successful in that were Filipov, Kovalev and Rastvortsev. On the other hand was a playful Tuati, however, by himself, he couldn't have threatened seriously to the Russians. At the end of the match the result was 36:30 and a two new easy points for Russia.

Nikolay Chigarev (selector of Russia):

This was an important match for us. We wanted to win badly and we realized that, even easier than we expected.

Zoran Živković (selector of Tunisia):

I congratulate to Russia on the victory. I expected the fall in our game after first two matches that were very difficult. Tomorrow we'll take a rest and the next two matches to try to play with quality as in the first and the second round.

Brazilians danced samba

2009-01-20T08:16:00.000-08:00

Brazilians have finally danced samba in the Hall Zatika. The passionate rhythm by which the players of Washington Silva Nunes moved on the field, the Serbians players could not follow. Dramatic match against Denmark left a big print on Serbian players who couldn’t have "opened" the defense of Brazil.
Equal result at the end of the first half-time gave the Serbs hope that they will succeed to make a final result in their favor. Brazilians managed to resist the Serbs goal after goal. Brazil made a Step towards the victory two minutes before the end, when they scored two goals and registered the victory, which they celebrated on the field with lot of emotions.

Washington Silva Nunes (selector of Brazil):

In Brazil, we learn a lot from the Serbian handball and against Serbian team we played a good match. Our defense was better than in previous matches, in the attack we made fewer mistakes than in the matches with the previous opponents.

Felipe Borges Ribiero (player of Brazil):

It is important that we won the school of handball like Serbian is, because we have a lot of problems in matches against European teams. Before us are still two matches and we will try to win them both.

Jovica Cvetković (selector of Serbia):

Defeat in the match against Denmark for us was obviously a big shock, because I do not see any other reason why we lost the match against Brazil. We will attempt to rebuild and play well against Norway.

Ratko Nikolic (player of Serbia):

We started this match pretty bad, and, in addition, we undervalued the strength of Brazil’s team, which avenged to us in the end.

Third time luck for Romanians

2009-01-20T08:08:00.000-08:00

How it was in the first few minutes, it seemed that the Romanians should have made a stock of goals in the first half-time and thus lay the path to their first victory. The crash of both teams, which were defeated in the first two matches, started better Aihan Omer, who had permanent leadership from the first minute. The biggest difference was four hits (11:7), but gauchos didn't give up and in 27th minute they leveled the score (12:12). In the last minute, however, Romania has scored two goals and with this difference went on break.
With two goals in a row Romania has opened the second half-time and in the 44th minute for the first time has achieved +5 goals difference (22:17), Argentina has scored two goals afterwards, but they failed to draw closer and threaten the rival advantage.

Aihan Omer (selector of Romania)

This was a very important match for us. After two defeats we had to win. We were not brilliant but I think we deserved to celebrate. This is our first victory in the championship, but not the last. We must win the remaining matches if we want to enter the next round.

Eduardo Gallarfo (selector of Argentina)

We were close in a couple of occasions, but we have not held concentration long enough. We've made mistakes, and Romania knew how to make advantage of it. The best part for us was in the final stage of the first half-time, when we leveled the score. We could have gone to break with a point of advantage, but by making errors we gave point to the opponent. After that it was difficult to expect that we would level the score.