After an exciting an highly entertaining match, Algeria was confirmed as the winner of the President’s Cup after a finally clear final 29:23 victory against Argentina in the placement match 17/18 in Guadalajara on Tuesday (22 January).

Placement match 17/18 – final of the President’s Cup:

Argentina – Algeria 23:29 (10:12)

Algeria is the fourth winner of the President’s Cup in the history of Men’s World Championship – after Norway 2007, Spain 2009 and Egypt 2011 – and they took a clear and well-deserved victory against Argentina. In the three first editions this victory finally meant position 13, since the newly installed playing system with eight-finals replacing the main round the final victory in the President’s Cup in Spain means position 17 in the final ranking.

The Algerians, who highly closely had missed the qualification for the eight-finals against Egypt, were jumping on the field in Guadalajara, after IHF Secretary General Joel Delplanque (France) had handed over the winner’s trophy to team captain Adel Bousmal, who had been the match winner against Argentina. And finally they threw coach Saleh Bouchekriou up in the air and posed for the winner’s photos.

But though both teams met in the final of the President’s Cup 2013 they rank below their position at the 2011 World Championship in Sweden, when Argentina was best Non-European team ranked twelfth and Algeria finished on position 15. The best Non-European at the current World Championship is Tunisia (rank 9) ahead of Brazil (13) and Egypt (16), which all had been eliminated in the eight-finals.

The intercontinental final in Guadalajara was attended by more than 2000 spectators – and was clearly dominated by Algeria most of the time. Argentina was unable to score for more than ten minutes in the beginning, while the African silver medallist extended the gap easily to 11:5 in minute 23. But when they were twice with a one man advantage, the Pan-American champions found their rhythm, scored five goals and were close to turn the match, while now Algeria was struggling hard in attack and became nervous.

History repeated after the break, when the Algerians had the clear better start and the “Gauchos” failed to score including two penalty against goalkeeper Adel Bousmal. Even by their offensive defence, Argentina could not put Algeria under pressure, in contrast: When Riad Chehbour hit the net by a counter-attack for 20:15 the old distance was back again, and Argentine coach Eduardo Gallardo tried to stop the downswing and the 2:6 series by a time-out.

But nothing changed, Argentina missed too many chances, as Bousmal shut up his shop completely – and Algeria profited from those saves by counter-attack goals to forge ahead to the pre-decisive result 24:16 in minute 53. Argentina had to play full risk with highly fast attacks and a full man-to-man defence to scored quick goals. But despite some goals, Algeria was clever enough to keep the distance clear.

Algerian statements after the match:

Saleh Bouchekriou, coach: We had a difficult start in this World Championship against host Spain, losing by 13 goals, but later-on my players showed character and moral, clearly improving in the second part of the preliminary round. We wanted to beat Australia and Egypt, but finally we only tied with our African opponents, which in the end meant that we missed the eight-finals due to the weaker goal difference though we really played well against Hungary. Now we won both encounters in Guadalajara and we ware the winners of the President’s Cup – and we really improved match by match, proved by our final performance against Argentina.

Hichem Daoud, player: We started perfect against Argentina, but too many suspensions prevented us from having a clearer result at the break. Argentina came close, but we started the second half very focused, fearless in attack and with a good defence. Thanks to this great half we took a deserved victory.

Final ranking of the Men’s World Championship in Spain from 9 to 24:

9. Poland*

10. Serbia

11. Tunisia

12. Iceland

13. Brazil

14. FYR Macedonia

15. Belarus

16. Egypt

17. Algeria

18. Argentina

19. Saudi-Arabia

20. Qatar

21. Korea

22. Montenegro

23. Chile

24. Australia

*the positions 9-16 had been decided by the results of the eight-final losers in their matches against the other teams in their preliminary groups, who qualified for the knock-out stage.