In Japan, the women's handball world championship has ended. The Russian team held the tournament almost perfectly, scoring eight victories in nine matches. In the last game for bronze medals, Ambros Martin's wards beat the Norwegian national team with a score of 33:28, having managed to win the first medals of the world championships in ten years.
The last time this happened when the team was led by the legendary Evgeny Trefilov. His name was associated with all the main successes of the team. But in August, he left the post of head coach for health reasons, transferring authority to the first foreign specialist in the history of the team.
The first major test for Martin was the World Cup in Japan - a tournament that in itself is extremely important, and at the same time is qualifying for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. After a year ago the Russian team lost in the final of the European Championship, there are two ways to get to the main start of the four-year period - to win the World Cup or an additional qualifying tournament, which will be held in March next year. Of course, the first method was much preferable to the second.
At the World Cup, the Russian national team began with a whole series of warm-up matches - with China, Argentina, Congo and Japan. All of them ended with confident victories of Martin's wards, and with a double-digit difference in the score. In total, she made a fantastic "+59".
In these four matches of the group stage, Martin tried to check as much as possible all the players that he had. The rotation immediately showed its need - in a meeting with the Argentines, the team leader Anna Vyakhireva suffered a knee injury, but her absence did not affect the team’s effectiveness. When she returned to the field, she temporarily played the role of an assistant, whose programs very often ended in goals. Martin could be calm for the goalkeeper position - Anna Sedoykina and Victoria Kalinin, who returned after the birth of her son, shared responsibilities on an equal footing and coped with them perfectly.
The first real test for the Russians was the match with Sweden in the last round of the first round. The game was quite principled - the Scandinavians won in the last three meetings, of which two, however, were friendly. Soon after the starting whistle and the first saves, Kalinina received a slight injury, and the match had to be continued by Sedoykina. The Swedes managed to quickly reduce all the divisions of the Russians, but when point guard Yaroslav Frolov got down to business, the rivals surrendered. The 22-year-old handball player scored 11 goals and brought victory with a score of 30:22.
At the second group stage, each opponent already posed a great danger, and the task for the Russian team was more serious - out of six teams in the playoffs, only two went out, so the winning streak could never be interrupted. This round began with a meeting with the Romanians, whom Martin abandoned to work with Russia. The new coach instilled in the wards very dubious tactics - from the first minutes they began to play with seven field players, changing the goalkeeper during the attacks. This did not bring any result and only allowed Sedoykina to get through the empty net three times. The six of the Romanians, all the more, didn’t break into the defense of the Russians, even the great Kristina Nyagu, who was recognized four times as the handball player of the year in the world, was not amazing. The match ended with a score of 27:18 in favor of the Russian team.
The game with Montenegro took place the day after the scandalous decision of WADA to deprive Russia of the opportunity to compete in world championships under its own flag. But until the decision came into force, the Russian girls, as before, listened to their anthem before the match, and wore a small tricolor on their uniforms.
The Montenegrins approached the game thoroughly - they carefully closed all the leaders of the team in defense. By the break, the advantage of the Russians was only one point. But the rivals still could not cope with the two players. The same Frolova recorded ten more goals, and Julia Managarova completely scored 12 times. Although the Russian national team first missed 28 goals in this tournament, but at the same time on Montenegro's goal there were seven more accurate hits.
Before the playoffs, Martin faced another important meeting for him personally - against his native Spain. At first, the Russians played the strongest line-up, which quickly psychologically broke the rivals, who had not yet known a single defeat in the tournament. When the deed was done, the debutantes of the national team again began to appear on the field, who easily managed to continue the work of their senior friends - goalkeeper Anastasia Lagina not only reflected the balls, but she also scored them, 18-year-old Elena Mikhailichenko scored three goals. And the most productive, now with nine goals, again became Frolova.
The first place in the second group stage allowed avoiding a meeting with the extremely dangerous national team of Norway, which remained the main favorite of the tournament after the departure of the current world and European champions - French. In the semifinals, the Russians were opposed by the Dutch, who also could not be called a gift, because they took away medals from the last four major tournaments, and at the Olympics in Rio da Janeiro they were fourth.
The class of rivals immediately began to affect - they had much more space in the attack, and sometimes Russians simply did not have time to move around the field. When the game nevertheless improved and Martin’s wards had a good scoring series, the Dutch were able to level it. Now the Russians were not easy psychologically, especially since for the first time in the tournament they could not lead in the long run in the long run. In the second, there were too many optional errors and missed points. Vyakhirev tried to save the situation - she scored 11 goals and helped the team stay afloat.
The last minute of the match was incredibly dramatic. After a timeout, the Russians equalized - 32:32, but the last attack remained with the Dutch. They were able to step forward, but hurried, and the Russian team had about 20 seconds to save. The decisive shot was entrusted to Vyakhireva, but the ball flew past the goal after her throw. The handball player accepted the prize for the best player of the match in tears, and her team missed the chance to qualify for the Olympics directly.
The tournament ended with a match with Norway, which the Spaniards unexpectedly beat with a difference of six goals. This game determined not only the owners of bronze medals - it decided which rivals the Russians will get in the Olympic selection tournament. The loss was sent to the same group with Romania, Montenegro and the DPRK, and the winner got a little less formidable Serbia, Hungary and China.
At first, it seemed that the Russian team lost motivation - for the first five minutes the ball didn’t fly into the Norwegian goal, even after a penalty by Frolova. But still, the girls quickly came to their senses and played in full force. Vyakhireva’s personal guardianship forced her partners to open, and together they eliminated the backlog, and led to the break with a score of 18:15. Kalinina again returned to the gate and sometimes locked them for several minutes in a row, and even during the removal she did not allow unscheduled goals. In the second half, Vyakhireva was no longer kept by the whole team, and then she quickly drew up super-productive statistics - scored nine goals and handed out 10 assists to her teammates. Norwegians have already lost their spirit, having lost five goals. For the first time in ten years, the Russian national team won medals at the World Cup, while deserving more valuable than bronze ones.