Slovenia made it three wins from three Preliminary Group A games in the 2019 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship in Spain to qualify through to the eighth-finals. Their third win came courtesy of a comprehensive win against the United States of America 43:16 this evening at the As Travesas Sports Hall in Vigo.

GROUP A
Slovenia vs United States of America 43:16 (22:6)

All 16 Slovenia players had valuable court time in this clash and can look forward to a rest day tomorrow knowing that with six points, they cannot now be caught by either USA or Japan in their group and therefore an eighth-final place is already theirs.

Of course, the European champions of their generation have much higher hopes at Spain 2019 but today they showed class in all aspects – in defence, in attack and off the court too.

In defence, the varied 6-0 or 5-1 wall restricted the Americans to getting just 29 shots through to the goalkeeping pairing of Mark Ferjan and Gasper Dobaj, who managed to stop 13 of them (45% save rate), while up front 57 shots were attempted with 43 goals coming from them.

The first 30 minutes saw just six goals chalked up against their defence and the attack, which saw an unanswered eight-goal run from the 21st minute to half-time, ensured a 22:6 lead at the break with the USA goalkeepers making just one save each in the same period from 24 Slovenian attempts.

But the game will be remembered for a perfect example of individual skill from American right back William Scott Kennedy and a show of exemplary sportsmanship from the whole Slovenia delegation – two of the reasons why we all love handball.

With the score at 42:14 to Slovenia and just under a minute remaining, the USA broke out of defence, left back Amar Amitovic threaded a no-look pass inside to Kennedy, who had run from deep, and under pressure from Slovenia defender Gasper Horvat, the Texas A&M University club player spun in the air while collecting the pass to shoot home with his back to goal.

Amitovic ran back to his defensive position, holding his hands to his head in disbelief, while the USA bench stood up and roared with happiness, just like the crowd who had just witnessed this perfect Insta-moment, but, impressively, the entire Slovenia delegation on the bench all stood up and applauded the strike with smiles on their faces – reminding everyone that players are fans of the game too.

“I got the ball, but honestly, I’m not sure what happened,” said Kennedy to IHF.info after the match about his goal. “ I was facing backwards and thought ‘I need to shoot it, I’m in the six [metre area]’ and I fired it. It felt really good.”

With this result, the Slovenians continue to put the pressure on host nation Spain in the group as the Spaniards prepare for a late evening clash against Serbia tonight. Slovenia and Spain will meet in the final group game on Monday (22 July) in what could be the decider for the group winners.

The USA have lost all three games, but coach Julio Sainz is more than happy with the competition so far. “We knew Slovenia would be a difficult game - they are European champions and deserve respect,” he said to SpainHandball19.com. “We have come to Spain to compete, and I'm pleased that we did the best we could.”

Best Player of the Match: Tadej Mazej (SLO)