Handball fans may see the final result of the opening Egypt 2021 Group A game between Germany and Uruguay – 43:14 (16:4) – and think the David versus Goliath clash at the Dr Hassan Moustafa Hall in Giza was only about the German victory, who started their Egypt 2021 campaign in dominant fashion.

But the match was much more significant for the South Americans. It was their debut at an IHF Men’s World Championship and with it, handball was confirmed as the sole team sport in Uruguay which can boast an appearance at both a men’s and women’s senior world championship – with a 24-year wait between the two.

Binding those years together is Uruguay coach Jorge Botejara. He guided the women’s national team to the 1997 IHF Women’s World Championship in Germany, where the team finished 24th, and now finds himself in the same situation, at Egypt 2021 with the men.

“It makes me feel so proud,” said Botejara to ihf.info about his unique place in Uruguay sporting history. “But I never take this personally, I always think that there are many people working for this, and I’ve been lucky that I have been part of some very important groups for us.

“We are happy, we are progressing, and we are playing handball all around the country, but we are improving much slower than we want to. In Uruguay, you know, we play soccer – football – that’s what we play, but, hopefully, with our participation here, we can find more support in our country, from both the private and public sectors.”

Last August, Botejara told ihf.info https://www.ihf.info/media-center/news/debutants-uruguay that it was important for his team to sustain their level of performance, and he is looking for improvements from his squad following the Germany defeat, with hopes to eliminate some errors ahead of their next Egypt 2021 game, against another European heavyweight in Hungary, on Sunday (17 January).

“It was a game as we expected, a very difficult game for us,” said Botejara about the Germany defeat. “But we are just starting here. Most of our players are amateur players and what happened, happened. I did like very much our rhythm, our intensity, and it was the best that we can do but everybody could see we lost too many balls – in the second half we made about 10 turnovers and that’s too much.

“I expect to improve against Hungary, but they will be as difficult as Germany, so we are expecting another very hard match,” he added. “We will work hard and try and improve to have less turnovers so we can play much more of an equal game, but we are trying to prepare and win our third game, against Cape Verde, and we think we can have much more of an equal game against them, but that will be difficult too as they have players in professional leagues in Portugal, Spain and France.”

The emotion and energy displayed by Uruguay at Egypt 2021 can be seen and heard on court, off court and also at their team hotel. They are clearly enjoying their North African experience, creating a ‘mini Montevideo’ wherever the delegation are, either walking to or from their meeting room, to training or for food, thanks to the ever-present mate drink, or the music coming from their mobile speaker.

But they are serious about their work on court, and this was acknowledged with a hummel Player of the Match Award for goalkeeper Felipe Gonzalez against Germany, thanks to his 10 first half saves.

And when it was announced, the entire German team on court and those on the bench stood up and applauded the 27-year-old’s in recognition of his performance. 

“It was an emotional moment,” said Gonzlaez to ihf.info about hearing he had won the award. “It was very emotional to see the German bench applaud me, I was very proud as the German players are a reference for us.

“We played very good in the game and we hope in the next game we can do better,” he continued. “We played the best as possible and wanted to be as competitive as possible. When I heard the national anthem at the beginning I didn’t believe it, I went crazy, I was so emotional.”

Those German players are led by the legendary former THW Kiel coach Alfred Gislason and he also acknowledged the performance of Gonzalez and the gulf in difference between the two teams.

“We were all impressed by their goalkeeper, he played an excellent game in the first half,” said Gislason to ihf.info. “It’s not often a goalkeeper saves 10 shots, most of them alone, and I think we have to honour that. 

“We also know that Uruguay has not the same possibilities to play and train handball like we do so we have a lot of respect for these guys. We know that all of our players are professionals and theirs are not. I think it is extremely positive to get this contact and they come and play in this world championship. 

“We have to respect their attitude and also their play.”

Botejara, when told of the German response to the award, was not surprised.

“I recognise that the German people have a very high respect for ethical playing, so I am very happy with them applauding Felipe’s performance,” he said. “I have a very good impression [of them], they have a high level of sportsmanship, it was a very fair and very nice game.”

One name alongside Botejara’s in the new Uruguayan sporting history is that of left wing Federico Rubbo, who scored Uruguay’s first goal, and, combined with Gonzalez’s award, wrapped up an almost perfect experience for him.

“I am very happy for ‘Pipe’,” said Rubbo to ihf.info about his teammate winning the award. “We have been friends for about 20 years as we started to play together in the same city, La Paz, Canelones, so we are very emotional and I was emotional after I scored too.

“Last year, before we came here, we knew Germany and Hungary were they top teams, so we came to learn and enjoy the matches – the fans still support us because this is wonderful. We are enjoying the experience.”