[b]Group 1[/b]
TUN-GER 28 : 35
POL-ISL 35 : 33
FRA-SLO 33 : 19
[b]Standings[/b]
France 4 +15
Iceland 4 +12
Germany 4 + 11
Poland 4 -5
Slovenia 2 -13
Tunisia 0 -20
Christian Zeitz paced Germany with 7 goals and “Man of the Match” Henning Fritz had a stellar game between the posts to beat Tunisia 35-28 in front of a sell out crowd of 12,000 in Dortmund. Thanks to Poland knocking off group leader Iceland they move into a 4-way tie at the top of the group. France it appears to have shaken off their preliminary round loss to Iceland as they won their second straight match in convincing fashion, 33-19 against Slovenia. With the 4 way tie for first, no team has booked a ticket for the quarterfinals yet and every team, but Tunisia still controls their own destiny. And even Tunisia can advance, but they will need some help.
[b]Group 2[/b]
CZE-RUS 26 : 30
CRO-HUN 25 : 18
DEN-ESP 27 : 23
[b]Standings[/b]
Croatia 6 +14
Spain 4 +6
Hungary 4 -3
Denmark 2 +1
Russia 2 -5
Czech Republic 0 -13
Croatia became the first team to book a ticket for the quarterfinals by winning the battle for first place against Hungary. Russia kept their hopes for advancing alive with a big win over the Czech Republic and Denmark finally looked like a contender as they knocked off previously unbeaten Spain. Saturday night sets up a showdown between Russia and Denmark. Currently tied for 4th place the winner of that match will be in a good position to qualify while the loser will likely be looking at playing for 9th place.
[b]President’s Cup (Places 13-18)[/b]
KUW-ARG 25 : 28
EGY-KOR 30 : 36
Argentina knocked off Kuwait to set up a match against Ukraine Saturday for Group 1 supremacy. South Korea continued Egypt’s woes with a 36-30 victory. Korea will now play Norway Saturday for first place in Group 2. Egypt and Kuwait will play for 17th place on Sunday. When you think that 1 more goal against the Czech Republic would have placed Egypt in the Main Round it has to be disappointing to now play for 17th.
[b]President’s Cup (Places 19-24)[/b]
GRL-BRA 30 : 33
QAT-MOR 27 : 44
Morocco blitzed Qatar 44-27 in the first match of the afternoon. The evening match on paper between Greenland and Brazil could have been predicted as more of the same as those two teams had already met this past summer in the semifinals of the Pan-American Championships with Brazil winning 37-17. A spirited Greenland contingent, supplemented by arriving German fans, however, cheered on Greenland as they gave Brazil all they could handle. Brazil scoring was led by Man of the Match, Fernando Pacheco with 9 goals while Greenlander Angutimmarik Kreutzmann also scored 9 goals to bring his tournament goal scoring lead to 43. (No, that’s not a misprint, a Greenlander is leading all scorers). Pan-American Handball followers should get used to hearing the name, Angutimmarik Kreutzmann for many years to come. At only 18 years of age, chances are he’s going to be around awhile.