Three sides finish preliminary round at Croatia 2023 with maiden wins

Chile, Morocco and Saudi Arabia all opened their accounts at the 2023 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, delivering excellent performances to head to the President’s Cup with bigger confidence.
 
Morocco secured their highest-ever win in the competition and the first one since 2007 (43:18) against New Zealand, while Saudi Arabia recorded the same performance in only their second win in history at the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship (43:14) against the United States of America.
 
Chile will also start the President’s Cup with two points after the 30:28 win over Mexico. Still, the tightest game was between Czechia and Japan, with the Asian side dominating for the first 45 minutes, only to falter in the end and enable the European side to clinch a 26:30 win.
 
Czechia drastically improved their chances of securing a place in the main round after this win, which can be mathematically confirmed after the match between Egypt and Iceland.
 

• Group B

Morocco vs New Zealand 43:18 (21:7)
 
Without a win at the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship since 2007, when they beat Australia (38:24) in the Placement Match 15/16, and riding a nine-game losing streak, Morocco had always circled the game against New Zealand as the one where they had the best chance to break that streak at Croatia 2023.
 
And win they did, with a well-polished performance in attack and a sturdy defence, while also scoring through their first 14 shots, to take a healthy lead after 14 minutes, 14:3, which was clearly unassailable, as much as New Zealand tried to stop Morocco run away with the win.
 
Centre back Noam Bernard El Ouadrhiri was unstoppable in the first part of the game, scoring four goals and dishing other four assists, with a direct hand in 57% of Morocco’s first 14 goals, as New Zealand’s defence failed to adapt to his creativity and always being a step behind.
 
While New Zealand had their best first half so far at Croatia 2023, with six goals, the gap continued to grow, as back Ouahib Ilyasse was unstoppable for Morocco, scoring eight times in the first half to build a 21:7 lead at the break.
 
Once again, it was the turnovers which hampered New Zealand, which lost the ball 33 times in the game due to mistakes, and Morocco was there virtually all the time to take full advantage, increase the gap and secure a historic win (43:18), with Ilyasse dominating with 12 goals.
 
This was not only Morocco’s first win at the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship since 2007, but also their highest one in history, beating the previous record set against Australia 16 years ago, a 14-goal win.
 
The African side will start the President’s Cup with two points and will be facing fellow African teams Rwanda and Algeria, while New Zealand hope to extend their chances to avoid finishing on the last place when they face the same two sides on Monday and Tuesday, but starting on zero points.
 
hummel Player of the Match: Ouahib Ilyasse (Morocco)

• Group C

 
Japan vs Czechia 26:30 (15:13)

There is one simple fact about handball. It is a 60-minute game. Japan learnt that the hard way in the Josip Samardžija-Bepo sports hall in Koprivnica today with a four-goal loss against Czechia, meaning they are now out of contention for a shot at the 2023 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship title and into the President’s Cup.

It had been a dream start for the Asian team in their final preliminary group encounter: their ruthlessness on the counter pushing their European opponents into disorganised, panicked attacks resulting in turnovers and mistakes. It was no surprise that a first Czechia time-out was called on the eight-minute mark with themselves 2:6 down.

Czechia – looking for a win to progress themselves depending on other results – did not score until the fifth minute (1:3), but it should have been at least 4:0, if not 5:0, in favour of the Japanese who had hit the crossbar and turned the ball over in the opening exchanges.

But Japan could only go into the break two goals ahead (15:13) and with Czechia making the relevant adjustments in the pause, they drew level for the first time (16:16, 37th minute) shortly into the second period, before going ahead soon after.

Another push from Japan saw them come back to take a three-goal lead 22:19 (46th) but this was the end of their energy and Czechia stepped up, supported by goalkeeper Pavel Dufek and a 4:0 run put them back ahead (23:22, 49th minute) going into the last 10 minutes.

This would prove to be the catalyst for Czechia to power through for victory as Japan’s attack died out, scoring just four times in the last quarter, outscored by seven (11:4) to be on the end of a four-goal loss and wonder what might have been.

Czechia will now hope that Egypt do not lose to Iceland in the final game of the group later today, with a draw or win for the North Africans enough to see them and Czechia through and Iceland join Japan in the President’s Cup.

hummel Player of the Match: Pavel Dufek (Czechia)

 

 

 

• Group E

Chile vs Mexico 30:28 (19:12)

Both rivals had lost a chance to reach the main round and will proceed to the President's Cup. Chile's first win at Croatia 2023 means that they will start the consolation round with two points, while Mexico have no points to take to the next stage. 

Chile had struggled in attack in both their previous games, scoring just 32 goals combined against Denmark and Austria. In particular, they scored only three goals in the first half against the Austrians on Friday. But now the South Americans finally had an opportunity to show their firepower.

Five minutes into the game, the teams were level at 3:3 before Chile used to 4:0 run, propelled by Fernando Castillo's goals, to pull clear at 7:3. The Mexicans tried to fight back and reduced the gap to two goals several times but they were making a lot of mistakes, and Chile used a 6:1 run late in the first half to create a seven-goal cushion.

However, the Mexicans did not give up and improved their game after the restart, as their goalkeeper Christian Molina started to have an impact. A 4:0 run helped them slash the gap to 19:21 by the 37th minute, and they continued to push for a comeback.

Yet, Chile weathered the storm, as their leader Castillo continued to score and finished the game with seven goals, and goalkeeper Francisco Latorre, who was elected hummel Player of the Match, made some important saves. 
The South Americans led by several goals for most of the second half, and when their advantage reached 30:25 with 90 seconds to go, the game was settled. Mexico scored three unanswered goals in the remaining time, but it was too late. 

hummel Player of the Match: Francisco Latorre (Chile)

• Group G

Saudi Arabia vs United States of America 43:14 (22:7)

Saudi Arabia took their job seriously and went for the biggest margin they could pull off to get their hands on the main round spot. They still need to see Germany beat Argentina and have a better goal difference than the South Americans. The inexperienced squad of the USA already know they are going into the Presidents' Cup and starting from scratch.

The Asian side opened the game with eight straight goals, exploiting the USA's lack of confidence. The Americans had to wait for the full eight minutes to be able to score their first and not much changed throughout the whole first half. Saudi Arabia was scoring from fast breaks while having almost 70% attack efficiency.

Players from the States were giving their best in elevating their game and increasing their attack, which was at 33% on average. They tried to shake things up with a 4-2 defence in the second half and the player who delivered the most was the goalkeeper Mattia Cercola. He had six saves out of 14 attempts (43%).

Hussain Alsafwani had the same response on the other side of the court with 57% save efficiency or 12 saves out of 21. Saudi Arabia hit the 20-goal difference ten minutes before the final buzzer as Qasem Alturki scored his fifth of the day. The United States of America couldn't get past their opponents' defence for the last eight minutes, only being able to score from penalty shots.

Scoring only 14 goals in the game is their lowest number of goals scored in the competition. Right wing Hussain Furaij delivered 15 goals in a strong Saudi Arabia win. Bronze medallists from the 2022 AHF Men's Youth Handball Championship were celebrating a +29 win and are now eager to see will their second-ever appearance at the flagship competition bring them their best placement after 20th place in the 2019 edition.

hummel Player of the Match: Ahmed Al Saeed (Saudi Arabia)

Photos: Croatia 2023/Kolektiff images