Tom Morten Svendsen would have lost some money. After his team had lost the last Main Round match against Korea the Norwegian coach wanted to bet that his team will meet Russia in the semi finals of the 17th Women’s Junior World Championship in Korea. But nobody wanted to bet against him – which was good for Svendsen. Despite some expert’s opinion Russia didn’t rank first in their group II, but second – and Norway now plays their semi final on Saturday (16:30 local Korean time) against the big surprise team from Montenegro. Russia will meet the host in the first semi at 14:00). 
Montenegro took their seventh victory in this tournament against Hungary in the decisive match and qualified for the first time ever for a semi. Their opponent Norway has the same number of victories – both lost one Main Round match, Montenegro against Spain and Norway against Korea. For Montenegro this already means the best ever result at a junior’s competition in history. In 2008 they ranked eight at the WCH in Macedonia, in 2009 their final ranking was ninth at the EURO in Hungary. But the players – mostly from the domestic top club Buducnost T-Mobile Podgorica – are still hungry – and want to reach the final. Montenegro arrived as one of the first teams in Korea – and this additional six day preparation might be one reason for their success. The team is well-rehearsed as the players know each other very well from daily training sessions in Podgorica. And the interest in the smallest Ex-Yugoslavian nations has risen: Both matches – semi final and final or Bronze final – will be broadcasted live in Montenegrinian TV. Aside top scorer Milena  Knezevic (48 goals in 8 matches) the young goalkeeper Marina Vukcevic (71 saves) is one key factor for the Balkan team. 
Montenegro’s opponent Norway has shown some real outstanding performances in Korea. Thanks to a real team spirit their fast counter attack match play and their movable defense their one of the favourites on winning the title – like they did before in 2009 when the Norwegians became European Champion. For Norway it’s the fifth participation in a Women’s Juniors WCH semi final – but they couldn’t win the title up to now. Their best result was silver in 2005, in 1995 and 2003 the Norwegians won the Bronze medal. Their squad might be an advantage compared with Montenegro: As Norway has 16 nearly equal players they have a lot more alternatives on the bench as their counterpart.
In the other semi the two most successful nations in the history of Juniors WCH will meet. Russia (including Sovjet Union) has won eleven of 16 possible titles at the WCH – at 15 WCH participations they have reached the semi finals 14 times, an absolute record! Opponent Korea’s still waiting for their first title, but for them it’s their eleventh semi final in the history of Junior WCH. Korea won the Silver Medal in 1985, 1989 and 1991 and the Bronze Medal in 1983, 1993, 2005 and 2008. So the host is the best ranked semi final participant from the WCH 2008, when Germany won Gold and Denmark Silver – but Norway and Russia hadn’t qualified for Macedonia. Two field players of the Korean team – the only one with eight victories in eight matches - really left their footprints on this WCH: Eun Bi Lee and Eun Hee Ryu, who each scored 45 goals up to now and were the absolute key factors for the host as goalkeeper So Ri Park. The Russian top scorer is currently Tatiana Khmyrova who became Women’s World Champion last year in China. But the Russian strength is their collective – they can change their players on nearly every position without losing quality – like Norway which doesn’t have any player among the 30 top scorers.