European constant
Once again, we have to admit the futility of the efforts of the International Handball Federation in terms of planting and stimulating competition between Europeans and people from other continents. The variegated flags at the opening parade and the exotic posters of some pre-match matches (for example, Kuwait-Greenland or Brazil-Argentina) turned into the traditional cohesion of the elite. The struggle for medals will continue 11 teams of the Old World and only one African - from Tunisia.
This is an exact repetition of the proportion of the previous World Cup two years ago, held, by the way, in Tunisia. However, two years earlier, in Portugal, the European teams even completely divided all the first twelve places ...
What's next?
Two of the best teams from each group reached the so-called main round, grabbing the results of their meetings there. In practice, this turned out to be that half of the teams already have an important victory on the balance sheet, while for the other half the “restart” will take place from scratch.
The position of the teams before the start of the main round
Group I (Halle, Dortmund): Iceland - 2, Slovenia - 2, Poland - 2, Germany - 0, Tunisia - 0, France - 0.
Group II (Manheim): Spain - 2, Croatia - 2, Hungary - 2, Denmark - 0, RUSSIA - 0, Czech Republic - 0.
However, the first applied draw scheme is quite tolerant of initial failures. Tournaments in the sixes will be followed by a playoffs, which will begin with the quarter finals. This means that even those who finish the main round in fourth place in the groups will retain the chances of rewards.
All plots plot
The preliminary round turned out to be commendably rich in fights that were unusual for this stage of intensity. But the scenario of rivalry in group B. turned out to be the most twisted. This was made by the Ukrainian team, which unexpectedly beat the authoritative Icelanders on the second day. It seemed that the sensation opened the door to the main round for the pets of Sergei Kushniryuk. Only such an unlikely victory of the northerners against the European champions of the French in the final match of the group could cancel such luck.
And it’s necessary: the angry Icelanders not only defeated the “three-color” - they smashed them to pieces! With such an advantage, which was enough to even the points of the three teams even lead the final table of the group. And the Ukrainians, due to the unimportant difference between the neglected and the missed, remained the third superfluous - the only team in the championship that did not have enough four points to continue the fight ...
Accept condolences
No less than the "yellow-blakitnyh" was at least two teams have occasion to bother: Norwegian and Egyptian.
The Scandinavians still four minutes before the final siren held a draw with the Danes, lifting them above their geographical neighbors in the final situation. But lost.
And the Egyptians did dominate one and a half times in matches with the Spaniards (world champions!) And Czechs, but failed the endings.
Daring Poles
The preponderance of the Polish national team over the hosts of the championship by the Germans seems abnormal. However, upon closer inspection, it is not so surprising. After all, 9 of the 16 players included in the Polish application play in the German Bundesliga clubs, and the majority (goalkeeper Slavomir Schmal, welterweight Karol Beletski, Marcin Lievski, Grzegorz Tkaczyk, extreme Mariusz Jurasik) have mastered leading roles there. This means, firstly, an excellent adaptation to the tournament surroundings, and secondly, the apparent absence of neighborhood inferiority complexes.
We add here the rich German experience of head coach Bogdan Venta. The star of Polish handball ended his career as a player ... playing for Flensburg and the Bundesmannschaft. And today, in addition to the national team, he manages to rule in the German “Magdeburg”!
Who's new?
The preliminary round did not turn into an avalanche of names unfamiliar to handball connoisseurs before. Under the definition of “discovery”, only the Egyptian welterweight team Ahmed El Ahmar is eligible. A 21-year-old left-hander from Cairo Zamalek surprisingly topped the list of league scorers with 26 goals, representing an out-of-date prudent and fantastically technical handball player.
Another unexpected hero is goalkeeper-mountain Nenad Pulezevich, who made a brilliant debut in the national team of Hungary at ... 34 years old. The late premiere is due to a change of citizenship. In previous years, the goalkeeper of the Szeged Peak played a lot for the national team of Serbia and Montenegro at that time. At this World Cup, he had a wonderful victory fights against the Danes and Norwegians. Its 44% reliability (reflected 32 shots out of 72) was the most important success factor for the Hungarian national team, which finally produced the game and the results corresponding to the huge potential of this country's club handball.
It will not be enough
The Russian team and its admirers have not had much joy in Germany yet. The team of Vladimir Maximov, the indicator of "pre-match" (3 points) is the most modest among all who went to the next round. It’s good that the excitement over the starting draw with the South Koreans turned out to be short-lived. A day later, Asians played so weak against the Croats that they buried their chances to beat the Russians in terms of the difference in goals. So, the Russian national team started the final match of the stage with a pass to the main round and argued with the Croatian team for points in the offset of the next stage.
The argument looked lively. But in the end, the arguments of only one side seemed convincing. For the entire match, the Russians were ahead only once when they opened the score in the 2nd minute. And starting from the 7th to the final siren, the Olympic champions were leading, playing sparingly, but never letting go pursuers closer than two goals.
From what we liked in the game of the Russian team, we single out intransigence in front of an opponent who more masterful and much richer in bright personality. Maximov put the wards well in defense, and this, combined with the periodic inspiration of goalkeeper Alexei Kostygov, sometimes gave the team some tactical harmony.
But frankly guarded by the low variability of positional attack. He is led without an intelligent conductor, relying mainly on the catchy zeal of the irreplaceable Alexei Rastvortsev. It will not be enough.
Russian national team in the preliminary round of the 2007 World Cup
results
01/20 . Russia - South Korea - 32:32
01/21 . Russia - Morocco - 35:19
01/22. Russia - Croatia - 27:32
Player participation
E. Koksharov - 3 games, 18 goals / 26 shots (10 goals from the penalty spot / 13 attempts); A.Rastvortsev - 3, 16/30; V. Ivanov - 3, 10/15; D. Kovalev - 3, 9/10; K. Igropulo - 3, 8/17 (1/1); D. Krivoshlykov - 3, 7/8; M. Chipurin - 3, 7/8; T. Dibirov - 2, 5/12; E. Evdokimov - 3, 5/5; V.Myagkov - 3, 4/5 (3/3), A.Kamanin - 3, 3/7; V. Filippov - 3, 2/5; A. Kainarov - 1, 0/0; goalkeepers: A. Kostygov - 3 games, 43 saves / 124 throws; E. Titov - 3, 0/2.
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German with a Chinese accent (World Cup preview)