It was a real David vs Goliath battle in the closing match of the first day of Spain 2019 at the Pavillon Municipal de Deportes de Pontevedra as the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship title-holders and host nation Spain took on the United States of America, who were appearing in just their second-ever championship.

GROUP A
Spain vs USA 34:13 (21:5)

Spain had relocated to Pontevedra from Vigo for just this Group A clash to ensure that fans close to both venues had a chance to see the host nation in action and those inside the arena were treated to an attacking Spanish display which saw 12 different players score and all 16 of the squad gain court time.

While the USA scored first, they fell behind by three (4:1) in the seventh minute and then Spain took control further, with a 8:0 run (12:2, 16th minute) and then an individual performance from Mamadou Diocou Soumare who scored five goals in five minutes to help put his side 15 goals ahead (19:4) with just under seven minutes and eventually earn him a best player of the match award.

Nicolas Robinson in the American goal could not stop the Spanish attack and his fellow shot-stopper, the usually influential Rene Ingram, appeared for less than 10 minutes on court in-between the USA goalposts – they ended with a 21% save rate, compared to a 54% rate from the Spanish pair of custodians and the difference in quality was evident at the other too with the North American side making 18 technical faults in attack compared to just one from Spain.

Both teams will now use their rest day tomorrow to assess their opening effort and look towards their next matches against Serbia (USA) and Tunisia (Spain) on Thursday (18 July).

Best Player of the Match: Mamadou Diocou Soumare (ESP)