Handball Day 8 Review: Dynamos get weathered, surprises spring

Updated: 2008-08-17 02:28:08

(BEIJING, August 16) -- Iceland snatched a tie with Denmark and a spot in the quarterfinals, and Poland surprised Croatia on day eight in the Men’s Handball competition at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium on Saturday.

Brazil vs. China: 29-22

China’s defeat to Brazil put its win-loss record at 0-4 and ended the host team’s Olympic Handball campaign. Though the young Chinese team played hard in the first half, they were hindered by goalie Wang Long’s injury and retreat early in the match and could not survive Brazil’s attacks. Thanks to wings Helio Justino, Felipe Ribeiro and Silvio Laureano, who scored a team-high five goals each, Pan-American champion Brazil overcame China and secured their first victory in the tournament.

Still, Brazil’s chances of entering the quarterfinals are slim.

Egypt vs. the Republic of Korea: 22-24

Egypt has to bid farewell to the Beijing Olympics, after they failed to overpower the ROK team in this live-or-die match, forfeiting the quarterfinal spot to their opponent.

Though Egypt played strong in the first half, and the ROK team fumbled in defense, key player Mohamed Abd Elsalam, who scored a team-high eight goals for Egypt, was stifled in the second half by the opponents. By improving its attacks, the ROK gradually pushed the margin to the minimum and finally led by a narrow advantage of two goals in the end, thanks to top scorer Paek Won-chul, who contributed two goals in the remaining three minutes.

France vs. Spain: 28-21

A confident French squad beat Spain and crushed the opponent’s hopes of an early quarterfinal berth. Les Bleus have won all four of their matches and now stand at the top of group A.

The game started passively with both teams playing under pressure, but France quickly found its rhythm and took advantage of the two-minute suspension attached to Spain, enlarging the score gap to 16-10 when the first half ended. The second half saw an even fiercer duel and Spain’s inability to break through the French defense, though key player Juan Garcia (BRA) helped narrow the gap and netted seven goals. The top scorer for the French team was again Bertrand Gille, who put in six goals out of eight tries.

Spain has to win over Brazil if they want to play in the quarterfinals.

Russia vs. Germany: 24-24

A tie gave one point to each team but saw a suspension of their quarterfinal spots, though Germany, with five points so far, has a better chance than Russia, who only has three points.

Germany led 4-1 after six minutes, only to have the rest of the match become a close affair, since Russian goalkeeper Oleg Grams saved an impressive 52 percent of all shots in the first half to give his team an 11-10 lead at the break. The second half saw a “goal for goal” contest, but in the last minute when Germany was one goal ahead, Russia grabbed one more point to end the game in a draw.

Vasily Filippov was the top scorer for the Russian team with six goals out of eight attempts, while for Germany “score machine” Michael Krause netted a team-high six goals.

Croatia vs. Poland: 24-27

The former Olympic champion suffered a blow from the current Worlds silver medalist Poland, after both teams had already qualified for final-eight berths.

Croatia had an aggressive start in the first half, but Poland put in six consecutive goals later on to narrow the gap and lead 13-12 before the break. Though the second half was very close, the Polish players managed to get in three goals in the last three minutes and wrapped up the game three goals ahead.

Denmark vs. Iceland: 32-32

An intense, fast and dramatic match that ended in a tie saw Logi Geirsson (ISL) punished with a red card in the second half. Seconds before full-time, trailing Denmark by just one point, Iceland was rewarded with a 7m penalty shot; Snorri Steinn Gudjonsson scored and secured Iceland a ticket to the quarterfinals. Gudjonsson scored a team-high eight goals. Denmark also earned an extra point, and if they can secure a final win against Germany on Monday, they will add their name to the list of quarterfinalist teams.