“We currently live our dream – and we will continue dreaming.” Manoel Oliveira, President of the Brazilian and Pan American Handball Federation, is highly satisfied – from sportive point of view. Brazil is the first ever host of a Senior Handball World Championship on the American continent.

 

For the first time in the history of women’s handball, a team from Brazil has won their preliminary round group after beating European top nations like France or Romania. Apart from defending champion Russia and former three-time Olympic winner Denmark, the host is the only team with a clear spot of five victories after the preliminaries. Facing Ivory Coast in the eight-finals the dream will not end too soon, they hope.

 

Apart from Brazil Europe - as expected - plays the key role in this competition, highly important for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Eleven of twelve teams from Europe have made their way to the knock-out stage, which starts with the eight-finals on Sunday 11 December. Only Germany missed the round of the last 16 – and their Olympic dream has already come to an end. In contrast EHF Euro Champions Norway, defending World Champions Russia and Denmark have won their respective groups like host Brazil did. The eight-finals will bring five of eight all-European duels.

 

Another big surprise was Japan, reaching the eight-final in the group of the host, and Angola, ranking second in their group and leaving behind top nations like Montenegro or Germany.

 

The summary of the groups of the preliminary round:

 

Group A in Santos:

This group was a real hammer, full of surprises and calculations until the final whistle of the last match. In the end Norway made their way despite losing their opener against Germany – as no single team was able to win all their matches. The biggest surprise team was Iceland: At their first ever World Championship campaign they sensationally beat top nations like Montenegro or Germany – and qualified for the eight-finals, where they have to face the “Russian machine”. Norway recovered easily from the opening defeat, winning all other matches later-on, including the highlighting final clash against Montenegro (28:27). The Balkan team – one of the favourites for the semi-finals-  was like a roller coaster, but caught the third place in the end below (another surprise) African Champions Angola, which finished the German dream by a 25:22 victory on the last match day. The Germans were far beyond their possibilities after their victory over Norway – and the defeats against Iceland and Angola meant that they are the only European team to play in the President’s Cup for the places 17 – 20, starting against Kazakhstan on Sunday 11 December.

 

Group B in Barueri:

The unstoppable Russians taught five lessons to their opponents and were the most dominant of all 24 teams in Brazil in the first stage of the competition. They scored more goals (181) than any other team, had the third best defence (99 conceded goals) and their tactical means have widely spread – the defending champions are THE clear favourite currently, especially for the eight-final with the Northern European underdog from Iceland.

 

Russia defeated their major opponents Spain and Korea clearly – and as the Russians can count on the only squad with an absolutely equal quality of all 16 players they hardly will be stopped to win their fifth World Championship title within ten years. Spain ranked second in the end after having a hard piece of work in the decisive match against Korea (29:26), but their top star Martha Mangue suffers from knee problems. This could be an enormous problem in the all-European top clash in the eight-final against Montenegro. Below third ranked Koreans, Netherlands fought bravely, but were chanceless against their main contenders – and they are the underdog in the eight-final against Norway. Korea improved after their opening disaster against Russia and took the maybe decisive third rank by beating the Dutch team. Asian Champion Kazakhstan and especially total underdog Australia could not keep up with the rest.

 

Group C in Sao Paulo:

European Champions League experience combined with a frenetic audience, a Danish coach and a great fighting spirit: These are the ingredients of the Brazilian flight on the wings of success. With eleven players from European top clubs the Pan Americans now have the skills and the knowledge how to beat opponents from Europe. And the host – winning the group with five victories in five matches – showed the greatest and most spectacular catch-up race in the current tournament: Being 10:17 down against the world class team of France at the break, they allowed only five French goals in the second half and secured a 26:22 victory, which was the key for ranking first in the end. Afterwards they beat Romania and won a thrilling but meaningless encounter against Tunisia thanks to a last second goal by goalkeeper Barbara Arenhart.

 

France was highly disappointed, but gave back their rage to Romania in the last encounter, defeating the EHF EURO 2010 Bronze medallist 39:20. In the eight-final France will face Sweden, another medallist from Herning in 2010 – and if everything runs normal they will have the re-match of the 2009 World Championship final against Russia already in the quarter-finals. Aside Germany, Romania was the negative surprise from the European point of view: Missing several key players like Cristina Neagu, Paula Ungureanu or Ionela Stanca, the Voina team was weak in nearly every position and was far beyond their normal performance level. Ranking third in the end, the eight-final against Croatia will be a tough challenge, if they not improve. Romania even only tied with Japan, the fourth ranked team. And the Asian showed a great fighting spirit until the very end of each match – and had been gifted with two last second goals, which brought the decisive points against Romania and Tunisia. The young Cuban team did not play that bad, but lacked power and practice in their five defeats.

 

Group D in Sao Bernardo do Campo:

The most unequal of all groups in the World Championship saw an early decision of those teams among the top three – but at least the direct duels of Denmark, Sweden and Croatia finalized the ranking. And despite missing eight (!) players from their successful EHF EURO 2010 squad Denmark made their way to be number one with five victories in five matches. The Danes had the best defence of all teams, conceding only 78 goals – and the young and hungry team of coach Jan Pytlick showed their usual strength in attack by scoring from the wing positions and via counterattack. In the clash for the second place Croatia was the lucky winner over Sweden in the end with an absolutely narrow 27:26 victory. The three non-European teams in this group – Ivory Coast (fourth quarter-finalist), Uruguay and Argentina did not represent any hurdle to the top three. But beating Argentina meant a historic day for the “Urus” – it was their first victory ever in the history of Women’s World Championships.

 

Winning the eight-final does not only mean to be among the eight best teams of the World Championship, but also to be highly probably qualified for Olympic Qualification Tournaments, played 25 – 27 May 2012. Aside still two teams need to be decided, which take the tickets to those tournaments due to their ranking at the EHF EURO 2010 in Denmark and Norway.