Morocco end 14-year wait for IHF Men’s World Championship win

There were tears of joy and grins on the faces of Morocco players after the African side stopped a five-game losing streak in the IHF Men’s World Championship at New Capital Sports Hall on Friday evening.

The 32:25 win against the Republic of Korea is Morocco’s first World Championship victory since 2007, while Korea could have their first-ever winless IHF Men’s World Championship.

PRESIDENT’S CUP GROUP II
Morocco vs Republic of Korea 32:25 (15:14)

Both Morocco and Korea were searching for their first win at Egypt 2021, therefore something was bound to give after the final whistle.

And for large instances of the first half, it looked like Morocco were finally ready to take their first IHF Men’s World Championship win since 2007.

The highly physical style of the Moroccan defence proved to be an unsolvable problem for Korea in the first 20 minutes, especially as goalkeeper Yassine Idrissi went back to his antics, stopping seven shots, including two penalties, for a 57 percent efficiency.

But the usual Moroccan drop was unavoidable, and Korea duly took advantage with their pacey attacking game.

A 9:3 run engineered by right back Kim Jinyoung, Korea’s top scorer in the tournament, helped the Asian side tie the game close to the break at 14:14.

A 2:0 run to start the second half saw Korea take the lead for the first time, but the youngest team in the competition hit a wall soon after.

Morocco created their own 5:1 run with an improved defence to open a 21:17 lead after 40 minutes, as Korea relied too heavily on Kim, the hummel Player of the Match, who scored nine goals.

With Idrissi back in top form, finishing the game with 19 saves (50 percent efficiency), taking his tally to 60 saves throughout the whole tournament, Morocco were unstoppable.

Eventually, the 32:25 win was the second-largest margin of victory win in Morocco’s history and only their third in 38 games at the IHF Men’s World Championship.

The African side will look to build on their success on Sunday against Chile, in the last game of the group, while Korea have one last chance to win a game, against Austria.

hummel Player of the Match: Kim Jinyoung, Republic of Korea