Direct Narration and statistics
Handball: Sweden returns to the World Cup final twenty years later
"I shit on everything!" Was heard throughout Cairo, a lament at full volume, as the ball continued to stop in front of Denmark's goal.
A few seconds before the World Cup semi-final ended, Spain had a chance to tie and
Álex Dujshebaev
enjoyed it, and shared it with
Rubén Marchán
, and the pivot launched after goalkeeper
Niklas Landin
, but, but, but.
The crossbar left the team without the third final in its history and the only consolation will be a bronze that will have to be discussed with France tomorrow (2.30 pm).
The defeat was a grief, like all of them, whatever they are, whatever they may be, but on occasions like this the defeated should congratulate each other, despite everything they deserved.
Having the Marchán ball was enough for this generation that won almost everything and whose pending challenge will arrive - if the pandemic allows it - in a few months: the
Tokyo Olympics
.
One minute to the end of the game, just before the decisive move, in the faces of the Danish rivals, all at the climax of their careers, you could read the questions that year after year assault handball: But these who still do here?
Don't they give up?
Is it not march?
This Spain is a long list of veterans who have already accepted secondary roles in their teams and who, despite this, rejuvenate every January to take the team as far as possible.
And this time it just couldn't be further.
After a remarkable tournament, the leaders of this group, with decades of matches behind them, disappeared and the team discovered its future.
Without the best
Raúl Entrerríos
,
Joan Cañellas
and
Dani Sarmiento
in attack and without the best
Viran Morros
and
Gideón Guardiola
in defense, Spain was entrusted to what is coming and, in some way, to what was.
His chances of reaching the final were again surnamed Dujshebaev and so great is the inheritance that
Talant's sons
, Alex and Dani, almost succeeded.
Only seven stops
On several occasions, on many occasions, Spain was delivered, with a disadvantage of five goals in the first half (8-13, min. 18) and another of four in the second (29-33, min. 55), but the The character of the descendants of the former central Teka and Ciudad Real did not allow an outcome without a fight.
Both players from the Polish Kielce, where they are trained by their father, exploited to the maximum to score 11 goals between them and to generate many for the rest, especially from Álex to pivots Adrià Figueras and Rubén Marchán.
Only
Jorge Maqueda
accompanied them in a crucial period, the beginning of the second half, the rest were them against the world, as they will presumably be after the Tokyo Olympics.
It was a strange, very strange encounter, because it had nothing to do with any of those that Spain played previously in the World Cup.
The very poor performance of the veterans was the clearest difference, but also the lack of accuracy in the goal.
Between the second and third most efficient goalkeepers of the tournament,
Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas
and
Rodrigo Corrales
, the team only added seven saves from 42 shots and, what's more, Corrales returned to the bench without having touched the ball.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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See links of interest
2021 business calendar
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Panathinaikos - Valencia Basket
Live, semi-finals: Spain - Denmark
VfB Stuttgart - 1. FSV Mainz 05
Torino - Fiorentina