Against Germany: Entrerríos, Dujshebaev and so on forever: Spain is already approaching the quarterfinals
The question opens every two years: How to organize a World Cup for a sport that is not played all over the world?
Handball, so European, wants to appear in Times Square, have an Asian star, sell shirts in Senegal, but it is impossible.
Their headquarters are what they were decades ago and will remain so forever.
In fact, the only historical novelty is Spain, non-existent before the 1992 Barcelona Games and omnipresent afterwards.
That is why the strategy of the International Handball Federation (IHF) is complicated.
For years, he has insisted on the four non-European countries with a certain tradition, Egypt, Tunisia, Argentina or Brazil, but now he is trying something new.
For this edition of the World Cup, it expanded the participants from 24 to 32 and began offering places to teams that have disappeared until now such as the United States, Cape Verde, Congo or Uruguay.
The intention was that the championship would serve to create a training project, but the reality is violent.
The United States withdrew before starting the coronavirus, Cape Verde did so after the first game and Congo and Uruguay accumulate goals that dismantle any future.
The South American team, for example, qualified for the second phase thanks to Cape Verde's farewell, lost 29 goals against Germany, 26 against Uruguay, 14 against Poland and this Saturday 15 against Spain (23-38).
With only three professionals, all three playing in the second and third categories of Spanish handball, they did what they could against
Jordi Ribera's
substitutes
who simply completed a training session.
Uruguay was good sparring for the debut in the tournament of the young goalkeeper
Sergey Hernández
and the winger
Iosu Goñi
and for hitherto out-of-tune players such as
Jorge Maqueda, Aleix Gómez
or
Aitor Ariño
to score goals
.
Most of the essentials,
Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas, Raúl Entrerríos, Joan Cañellas, Álex Dujshebaev or Ángel Fernández
stayed in the stands or barely appeared on the track.
If anything, a greater contribution from
Dani Sarmiento
was lacking, still lacking pace in the World Cup.
For Spain, the importance of the victory was that, if Hungary defeats Poland this Saturday, it will already be classified for the quarterfinals and on Tuesday it will fight to be first in the group (or even not be).
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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