No upsets in the first day of competition, but the underdog teams made it interesting in several contests, with China scaring Romania, Japan hanging tough against Hungary and Congo narrowly losing to Spain. All told, 8 of the 12 underdogs covered the handicap spread and in many cases by several goals. Day 2 should feature some interesting contests with the upstart teams that battled the group favorites close having realistic expectations of beating the 2nd best team in the Group. Matches to watch:
Group B: Macedonia played the Russians close today, but lost. If they want to advance to the Main Round they'll need to beat favored Brazil.
Group C: Angola will play Austria with the winner likely advancing
Group D: China vs Poland for the Main Round
Group E: Japan vs Spain for the Main Round
Group F: Ukraine vs Korea. Ukraine needs a win or they are headed to the Presidents Cup
Match reports on all of the games are available on the left hand side of the screen from Handball-World. Anybody who wants to help with editing the match reports, please drop me a line at john.ryan@teamhandballnews.com