[b]Group A[/b]
GRL-TUN 20 : 36 (4:17)
KUW-SLO 23 : 33 (11:17)

Two more inconsequential blowouts. Tunisia and Slovenia will play on Monday to see who will take a win and 2 points into the Main Round Group. Greenland and Kuwait will battle it out for 3rd and President’s Cup placement. The winner will play for places 13-18 and the loser will play for places 19-24.

[b]Group B[/b]
AUS-FRA 10 : 47 (5:25)
UKR-ISL 32 : 29 (12:13)

No surprise with France’s all out blitz against Australia, but Ukraine (a 5.5 goal underdog) convincingly took care of Iceland 32-29. Yuriy Petrenko scored 7 goals from the field and Yuri Kosteskiy added 10 (6 of which were penalty) to pace a Ukraine team that took control of the game in the 2nd half. Iceland must now beat tourney favorite France Monday night in order to advance. France is virtually assured of advancing on Goal Differential, but they will be motivated to win and take 2 points with them to the Main Round.

[b]Group C[/b]
BRA-POL 23 : 31 (13:15)
ARG-GER 20 : 32 (11:17)

Brazil played one good half against, but faltered in the 2nd half. Germany and Poland will play their opening Main Round Game and Argentina and Brazil will play for President’s Cup placement.

[b]Group D[/b]
QAT-ESP 18 : 41 (9:21)
EGY-CZE 30 : 31 (17:17)

Spain-Qatar did not provide much entertainment for the fans, but Egypt-Czech Republic more than made up for it. Tied at 17-17 going into the break, Egypt was able to build up a 26-22 lead at the 46:30 mark in the 2nd half. The Czechs fought back hard over the next 10 minutes, outscoring Egypt 8-1 to take a 27-30 lead with 3:30 left to play. Then it was Egypt’s turn to mount a comeback as they came back to make it 30-31 with a minute left. Then depending on your perspective, the following happened:

– The Czech Republic using smart ball movement and attacks forced several free throws and ran out almost the entire remaining minute
– Egypt foolishly fouled the Czech Republic several times
– The German refs “jobbed” the Egyptians with excessive free throw calls and not stopping the clock for slow restarts on the free throws.

Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion- I sympathize with Egypt, but it was probably a mixture of all 3. Tomorrow, Spain and the Czech Republic will play for points in the main round, while Egypt and Qatar play for 3rd.

[b]Group E[/b]
ANG-DEN 20 : 39 (12:18)
HUN-NOR 25 : 22 (15:12)

Well, if the tournament ended tonight I’d give the MVP goalie award to Nenad Puljezevic. He’s been phenomenal the last 2 games and a major part of Hungary’s march to the main round. Denmark and Norway will now fight it out to see who advances to the Main Round with Hungary. The winner will advance and in the event of a draw Norway will go through on over all goal differential

[b]Group F[/b]
MAR-RUS 19 : 35 (7:15)
KOR-CRO 23 : 41 (9:20)

Group F featured two matches with huge goal differential implications. As expected Russia kept the pressure for the full 60 minutes against Morocco and came away with a 16 goal win. Korea, however, severely damaged their hopes of advancing with an 18 goal loss to Croatia. Russia now has a 34 goal lead going into Monday’s games which might be a little too much for the Koreans to make up.