Handball World Cup: tough defeat by the Gladiators on their debut

The Argentine men’s handball team lost 29-19 against the Netherlands, in their debut in group F of the World Cup between Poland and Sweden.

The match, valid for zone F, was played at the Tauron Arena in the Polish city of Krakow and Dutch goalkeeper Bart Ravensbergen was chosen as man of the match.

In Guillermo Milano’s debut as head coach in major events, the team started without finding their best game and went down by seven goal difference midway through the first half.

The Gladiators rallied in the dying minutes of the first half but couldn’t help but go up 11-14 at the break, a deficit that could have been less, but Pedro Martínez smashed through a counter-attack into the Dutch post who was on goal empty.

In the second half it was up for the national team, which in the first almost 12 minutes only managed to score two goals and the European Championships gradually managed to widen the gap again. In closing, the gap was widened by the effectiveness of the European counter-attacks, who managed to close the score at 29-19.

The national team thus began its 14th consecutive participation in the World Cup with the hope of surpassing the historic eleventh place obtained in the last edition of Egypt 2021.

The second match will be on Sunday the 15th against Norway (4.30pm) and the third and final match in the zone will be played on Tuesday the 17th against North Macedonia (2.00pm).

Together with Slovenia, the Netherlands received the invitation (wild card) from the IHF in recognition of their rise in the sport and their good performance in the European championship.

Argentina was the gold medal winner at the Odesur Games in Asunción, Paraguay last October and Pan American champion in Lima, Peru, 2019, and qualified for the World Cup in January 2021, finishing second in the tournament of the Centre-South, which was held in Recife, Brazil.

With information from Telam