Thrilling draw in the final duel of group A

Thrilling draw in the final duel of group A

Fri Jan 21 2011

France and Spain tied in a high tensioned final match of group A. So everything is decided concerning the Main Round after 60 matches of the Preliminary Round. Iceland and Denmark are the only teams taking 4:0 points to the next stage. The starting composition is like this:

Group I in Jönköping:

Iceland 4 points, France 3 points, Spain 3 points, Hungary 2 points, Germany 0 points, Norway 0 points.

Group II in Malmö/Lund:

Denmark 4 points, Sweden 2 points, Poland 2 points, Argentina 2 points, Croatia 1 point, Serbia 1 point

Group A:

France – Spain 28:28 (18:13)

Thrilling end of a great match: The reigning champion first marched  straight to their fifth victory, but then stumbled after 60 minutes. Spain couldn’t stop France in the first 40 minutes, as the French could count on the world class of goalkeeper Thierry Omeyer and play maker Nikola Karabatic. Every measure the Spaniards took  - even changing the goalkeeper from Hombrados to Sterbik - didn’t bring any change in the game before the break. After the half time score of 18:13 the French even increased the gap to 27:21 and were on the winner’s way in a dominant manner. But as Spain changed their defense to an offensive one they scored outstanding  six straight goals to the equalizer. And the French were shaken completely but didn’t fall. In contrast: In the final second Luc Abalo had the great chance to secure a French victory, but his team mate from the Spanish club Ciudad Real, goalkeeper Arpad Sterbik, saved this shot.

Group B:

Hungary - Austria 32:30 (13:16)

In a meaningless match for the ranking the Hungarians took their fourth victory – but despite the situation for them in the Main Round will not change as they start in Jönköping with 2 points. Though it wasn’t important the game was on a high level. After 22 minutes the score was 11:11, before the Austrians paced up to 14:11, kept this distance until the break and extended the lead to 20:16 in minute 37. But suddenly the game changed completely, Hungary took the control and the turned the score to 24:22 within eight minutes. Four minutes before the end Gergö Ivancsik decided the match by a counter attack goal to 31:27. Top scorer of the game was Austrian Viktor Szilagyi with seven goals. His teamwill play for the places 17 to 20 in the President’s Cup.

Group C:

Serbia – Romania 28:38 (17:20)

Happy ending for the Romanians, meaningless defeat for the Serbs: Romania secured their second victory, but missed the fourth place as they had lost the direct encounter against Algeria (equal in points in the end). Now Romania play for the places 17 to 20. Serbia had been qualified for the Main Round with 1:3 points before, so coach Veselin Vukovic  saved the powers of his key players after the break. The game was equal until the 8:8 before Romania improved – they led with a three goal distance at the break, but then Serbia decelerated completely after minute 45 and the score of 25:27. With an incredible series of 11:3 Romania took the points clearly.

Photos by Sascha Klahn

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Comments

Fri Jan 21 2011, 00:50
Romanian Warrior writes:
What irony:ROMANIA always led after the first half, except the match with Denmark, but finally defeated only Australia and Serbia.Unfortunately, quadruple world champion ROMANIA,our national team, made a shameful match with Algeria and will have the lowest ranking to a world championship.But after I watched Argentina ...beat Sweden, I realized that could happen to others, too. Victory with Serbia was only for pride. Medal record Competitor for ROMANIA Men's Handball World Championship GOLD1961 West Germany GOLD 1964 Czech Republic Bronze 1967 Sweden GOLD 1970 France GOLD 1974 East Germany Bronze 1990 Czech Republic Olympic Games Bronze 1972 Munich Silver 1976 Montreal Bronze 1980 Moscow Bronze 1984 Los Angeles
Fri Jan 21 2011, 01:19
Hanna writes:
Warrum ist Deutscland nicht so gut! Feire abend! Aus jetzt! Zo now I hope Hungary win all tournament! /Hanna
Fri Jan 21 2011, 01:27
Jon Gunnar writes:
Even though I am happy with the game Iceland vs Norway, I must say I am hugely disappointed with the Norwegian team. What a bunhc of WHINERS. Crying, moaning and whining about everything on the court. The referee was fantastic, made not a single mistake, except maybe they should have suspended O. Stefansson for 2 minutes for interrupting the Norwegian fastbreak. But other than that, the referres were great and even a bit on the side of the norwegians if you ask me. Still the Norwegians kept crying and moaning. Pathetic sportmanship. One particular incident is when Mamelund just ran into Ingimundarson from the side, the referee GAVE the Norwegians the ball again, but still Strand was at the point of assaulting Ingimundarson for this incident which was caused only because of Mamelund's own blindness and clumzyness. Its almost like the Norwegians decided before game they didnt have the team to beat iceland so they were going to try and bully the poor referee to give them the match. Pathetic Norway, hope you lose all your games and it would be suitable to your playiing skills in the tournament.
Fri Jan 21 2011, 12:08
Barrufet writes:
From Barcelona, yesterday I was almost sure that Spain will be defeated against France, specially with the 4 goals deficit with only 6 minuts remaining, the first 4 matches of Spain were just wins without any brightness, and suffering against Tunisia and Germany, while France had a great goal average against all the teams of the group, that´s why I was not confident with Spain chances, anyway, our goalkeeper Sterbik was key player as it always is Omeyer for France, it was more an excess of confidence from french team rather than a great performance by Spain. Semifinals will be: ICELAND vs DENMARK FRANCE vs SWEDEN
Fri Jan 21 2011, 12:50
magyarszurker writes:
And Sterbik and Szilágyi come from Hungary. :')
Fri Jan 21 2011, 12:59
xy writes:
hát ha Árpi nem is Magyarországról, de azért magyar! ;)
Fri Jan 21 2011, 13:12
kollner writes:
Whatever, the best goal of the tournement by Törő Szabolcs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tggKeYbruSI
Sat Jan 22 2011, 04:57
yohan writes:
omg, i mean seriously, there are so many things wrong with this tournament, that is ridiculous... 1. judges, i mean WTF? u really think nobody can see what the judges are doing? this is a DELIBERATE steal for scandinavian teams. the "REFEREES" will do anything they see needed for scandinavian teams. just sick,really sick. 2. this whole website is just so amateur... what did u guys pay for it? 200euros? anything more and u got ripped off, seriously. not to mention excellent english. yeah i understand not everybody can speak perfect english, BUT DONT HOST WC THINKING U CAN! SPOILER: YOU CAN'T! 3.there is no personality in the games. everything is just so sterile. just like a scandinavian would have done it. i'm sorry, your halls are 3/4 empty, and nobody is watching the games. maybe you should ask yourself why is that. you are just lucky some countries have so strong support, otherwise this would be a complete disaster, now its just a disaster. maybe sweden is good country to be a citizen of, but you, organizers, YEAH YOU WATCHING THERE, you are a shame to europe, not just sweden. website/atmosphere/referees could be better if this WC was held in SOUTH SUDAN instead of "oh-so-special" sweden... P.S.: i aint from austria, romania or any other coutry that is out of the competition. i'm just stating the obvious
Sat Jan 22 2011, 05:25
g man writes:
Yep, everybody is talking about refereeing. I guess scandinavians organizing tournament, must be one of their teams up high, right? to the Romanian warrior. You have good team, I am sure that Serbs tuned game down to save energy as they already had spot for finals, I hope to see SERBS and CROATS in the final. Go SRBIJA, GO
Sat Jan 22 2011, 16:11
Kalli Snae writes:
I must agree with some of the points made above, and on other websites concerning WC2011. Though not about the referees, except for the flaming-referee in Gothenburg! It is a shame how this website is, on the border of lifeless and not acceptable to international public. Totally uninteresting and only causes irritation. Covering of the games is almost a disaster even compared to the website from the European tournament in Austria. It is not so much of a bad english as there is bad covering of the news and games. In fact you get the same feeling reading many newspapers from most of the countries that are playing here, especially the Swedish newspapers that cover NOTHING else but their own team! And that with the fact that they are the HOSTS to this tournament. That should make a difference. It's a disaster and shows just human narrow-mindedness and non-interest for other teams even though the Swedes are the host country. Do your homework better, even though you do it just while you are hosting this tournament, put more into this website, and do other nations more justice when writing about them. You should in fact have reporters from different countries writing columns here, even about the same games. Showing more international views on the games, not just......yours. Concerning general interest from the Swedish people with almost empty arenas, it¨s a shame! It shows lack of interest, not just from the general public but not less from failure from the news reportors in Sweden, minimal lack of interest. Skärp är svenskar! Kanske för sent denna gången, men livet fortsätter även om vi förlorar i denna VM. Men att inte respektera och känna bättre till sina opponenter en svenska pressen och arrangörerna i detta VM gör leder bara till förluster, på planen och utanför den också. Enda vägen til vinst i matcherna är att vi visar andra respekt med att studera alla deras styrkor som vi behöver känna till deras svagheter, ner i minsta detaljer. Till att vinna måste man känna sin opponent. Heja Sverige, Danmark, Norge och Island. Semin blir spelat av Denmark, Island, Frankrike och Croatien och finalen av....... (kommer kanske senare ;-)). Livet upprepar sig ibland.