"Breaking: 18 US players test positive for coronavirus and their participation in the Egypt World Cup is in jeopardy."

Handball, this Tuesday afternoon, in suspense.

Will they be able to compete with only 12 players out of 30 preselected? Will they have a healthy goalkeeper?

Will they give up the tournament? And one question above all: How is the United States qualified for the World Cup?

And it is that beyond the disgust, the PCR, the confinement, the participation of the Yankee team is one of the great surprises in the championship that opens this Wednesday with an Egypt-Chile (7:00 p.m., Teledeporte).

20 years after its last presence, USA returns to the front line of handball with bad manners and good intentions.

Bad manners?

The International Handball Federation (IHF) had to expand the participants from 24 to 32 and give him the North American seat so that he could enter.

Good intentions?

They plan a professional league with 10 franchises by 2023;

they already have a strong sponsor, Verizon;

their games will be broadcast on ESPN +;

And before the shock of the coronavirus, his team did not look so bad.

In Group E, the most difficult group, against France, Norway and Austria, the dream is to save a point, although the objectives of the selection are beyond.

Specifically, in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

After the appointment, the United States Olympic Committee (USA Team) started a project to compete in one of the three sports in which they lack an Olympic gold -the others are badminton and table tennis- and, as it is a national emblem, the ambition is exaggerated.

They have created a program for thousands of institutes;

have signed former Norway coach

Robert Hedin

;

and they have found average American players around the world to set an example for young people.

Among them, the

Heuter

brothers

, central and pivot, from Germany;

goalkeeper

Pal Merkovski

, half-Hungarian;

French left-back

Aboubakar Fofana

;

and so on to the Galician central

Álex Chan

.

From Virginia to Pontevedra

His grandfather emigrated, he met his grandmother, from New Orleans, they both moved to Virginia and there the mother of the player was born, who lived and trained in Pontevedra until she discovered that the United States had obtained a place for the World Cup.

«I already sent them an email years ago, but they didn't even answer me.

When I saw the World Cup, I spoke with my coach, this one with

Manolo Cadenas

[former Spanish coach] and he with the team coach,

Robert Hedin

, who called me.

Now I hope to be able to make my debut, ”explains Chan, a player for the Asobal League Swan Club, who received his first call just a month ago and has only played one friendly as a Yankee.

Years ago he was summoned to youth Spain, but faced with the impossibility of making a place for himself in the absolute, he decided to accept the project of his mother's country and try to make it grow.

In Ranker's latest poll of America's most popular sport, handball was ranked 58th behind fishing, darts or cricket, but ... "If they stick with it, they'll make a competitive team for Los Angeles 2028. Now we are far from the great powers, but they have enormous quarry possibilities ", explains Chan, who has made good friends with pivot

Andrew Donlin

who came to Ademar de León to train within the Marines sports program and has ended up entering team rotation.

A few hours after their debut this Thursday against Austria, it was not yet known if the United States will be able to compete in the World Cup with only 12 players or even if they will renounce the championship, but, if they propose, for the Los Angeles 2028 Games they will have a selection to take into account.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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