[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.

[b]Group 1[/b]
SLO-GER 29 : 35
TUN-ISL 30 : 36
FRA-POL 31 : 22

Germany and France got back on track with key victories over Slovenia and Poland respectively. Iceland beat Tunisia and is in sole possession of 1st place with 4 points. France was trailing 11-12 at the half, but came alive in the 2nd half and outscored the Poles 20-10 to eventually win 31-22. The German and French victories creates a logjam at 2nd place with 4 teams with 2 points.

[b]Group 2[/b]
CZE-HUN 25 : 28
ESP-RUS 33 : 29
DEN-CRO 26 : 28

All 3 teams which entered the main round with 2 points earned victories Wednesday night to create pool of haves and have nots. Spain, Croatia Hungary have 4 points a piece and are in good shape to make the quarterfinals. Denmark, Russia and the Czech Republic have yet to garner a point. Tonight Hungary and Croatia will meet in battle of unbeatens while Russia and the Czech Republic will play in a match for survival.

[b]President’s Cup (Places 13-18)[/b]
KUW-UKR 23 : 33
EGY-NOR 18 : 27

Ukraine and Norway, the 2 European sides which failed to make the main round took out their frustrations on Kuwait and Egypt respectively.

[b]President’s Cup (Places 19-24)[/b]
GRL-AUS 34 : 25
ANG-QAT 33-27

The President’s Cup opened today in Halle/Westfalen, Germany with Greenland getting its first victory of the tournament against Australia by the score of 34-25. Greenland dominated the game with excellent backcourt play from Angutimmarik Kreutzmann who scored 15 goals on 23 shots and Minik Dahl Hoegh who added 9 goals on 13 shots. Darryl McCormack led Australia with 11 goals.

The atmosphere at Gerry Weber Arena was excellent with vocal contingents from both nations being supplemented by a German crowd awaiting their Main Round match vs. Slovenia

Audio: [file={e_BASE}request.php?26]Australian Coach Morten Fjeldstad on the importance of the President’s Cup[/file]

Audio: [file={e_BASE}request.php?27]Post Game interview with Coach Fjeldstad[/file]
[link={e_IMAGE}newspost_images/fjeldstad_interview.jpg][img]{e_IMAGE}newspost_images/fjeldstad_interview_thumb.jpg[/img][/link]

Group A
KUW-GRL 39 : 27 (19:13)
TUN-SLO 27 : 34 (14:16)

Slovenia wins the battle for 1st place and takes 2 points into the main round. Kuwait takes 3rd and will play in Lemgo for 13th place. Greenland will join the other 4th place group finishers at Halle and Dortmund.

Group B
UKR-AUS 37 : 18 (18:8)
FRA-ISL 24 : 32 (8:18)

Iceland needed to beat France to advance and they did that and more with a convincing 8 goal victory against a shell shocked French side which looked anything but like the current European Champions they are. Iceland repeatedly found ways to score against the normally stalwart French defense. Expect plenty of French quotes along the lines that it’s better to get our wake up call now then in the quarter finals like they did against Russia at the Athens. They’ll also compare it to their preliminary group loss to Spain in last year’s European Championships. Those analogies could very well be correct and it will be interesting to see how they bounce back in the Main Round. Tough luck for Ukraine, who will now head to the President’s cup on goal differential.

Group C
GER-POL 25 : 27 (12:14)
BRA-ARG 20 : 22 (10:7)

Poland took 2 points into the main round with a 2 goal victory against the German hosts. Germany was able to fight back from a 2 goal halftime deficit and was leading 23-21 with 10:30 remaining the game. They then went scoreless for nearly 10 minutes to fall behind 23-26 with less then a minute in the game. Poland hung on to win 25-27. Argentina surprised Brazil 22-20 to take 3rd place in the group and the right to play for 13th place. The loss had to be a bitter pill for Brazil to swallow as they played both Germany and Poland closer than Argentina, as well as having beaten Argentina in all recent head to head Pan-American competitions. This victory should give Argentina renewed optimism that they can beat Brazil in Rio this Summer at the PANAM Games when they will likely play each other again for a ticket to Beijing.

Group D
EGY-QAT 35 : 24 (14:11
ESP-CZE 35 : 29 (19:15)

Spain completed their sweep of Group D and starts the Main Round Competition with 2 points. Egypt picked up their first win over Qatar.

Group E
HUN-ANG 34 : 31 (19:15)
DEN-NOR 27 : 25 (15:13)

Denmark sent Norway to the President’s cup, but will take 0 points into the Main Round. Hungary will go through with 2 points, by virtue of their earlier victory against Denmark. I’m going to have to check out the video of the Hungary-Angola game. It would appear that the Angolans are making great strides since their 28 goal opening game loss to Norway. Hungary, in fact, was leading by only 1 goal with 4 minutes left in the game. It’s true that the game had no meaning for Hungary, but that still is a very surprising result.

Group F
MAR-KOR 19 : 32 (9:14) E
CRO-RUS 32 : 27 (16:11)

As expected, Croatia beat Russia, but both teams will still advance as Korea could not overcome the 34 goal difference advantage Russia built up yesterday.

[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.

[b]Group A[/b]
SLO-GRL 35 : 21 (17:9)
TUN-KUW 34 : 23 (14:11)

Slovenia and Tunisia dominated Greenland and Kuwait respectively, although Kuwait made it interesting in the first half. Look for more of the same tomorrow.

[b]Group B[/b]
ISL-AUS 45 : 20 (26:9)
FRA-UKR 32 : 21 (17:8)

No surprises here. Australia was blitzed by a fast-breaking Iceland in the first half. In the second half they played Iceland even for a half period before succumbing to another fast break onslaught. France was also true to form and had no problems taking care of Ukraine. Sunday’s match will see Iceland and Ukraine battling it out for 2nd place and France and Australia playing quite likely the biggest mismatch of the tournament. The Aussies can only hope that the French sleepwalk to victory like they did in their 4 goal preparation match victory over Qatar.

[b]Group C[/b]
GER-BRA 27 : 22 (12:10)
POL-ARG 29 : 15 (12:9)

Argentina hung tough in the first half, but couldn’t keep pace in the 2nd half. Brazil will try to build upon their respectable showing Friday night and surprise Poland on Sunday.

[b]Group D[/b]
CZE-QAT 37 : 23 (18:11)
ESP-EGY 33 : 29 (16:16)

Behind the 1-2 punch of Ahmed EL AHMAN (11 goals) and Hussein ZAKY (8 goals) Egypt gave Spain a knock down drag out fight. In the end Spanish experience prevailed as they pulled away for a four goal win. Tomorrows Czech Republic-Egypt match should be interesting and will probably decide who will go through to the main round with favorite Spain.

[b]Group E[/b]
NOR-ANG 41 : 13 (21:8)
DEN-HUN 29 : 30 (11:13)

Hungary’s dramatic come from behind victory over Denmark was undoubtedly the match of the day. Leading 28-24 with about 5 minutes remaining, Denmark seemingly was in cruise control for a workman-like victory. That is until the wheels came off the car as Hungary capitalized on several Danish missed shots to run off 5 straight goals to take an eventual 30-29 victory. The group of death is living up to it’s moniker. Hungary will take on Norway in another key match tomorrow.

[b]Group F[/b]
CRO-MAR 35 : 22 (18:11)
RUS-KOR 32 : 32 (15:17)

Croatia took care of Morocco as expected, but Russia had to eke out a 32-32 draw against a balanced Korean attack. South Korea in fact appeared to have the upset wrapped up when leading 32-31 with 40 seconds left they deflected a Russian pass. As luck would have it though it bounced right to Alexey RASTVORTSEV for an easy breakthrough goal.

The draw will have a significant impact on the remaining matches. Assuming that favored Croatia wins out- (by no means guaranteed, but still a likely scenario) goal differential for all group matches will decide who advances to the Main Round between Russia and South Korea. Translation: Look out Morocco. Neither Russia or South Korea are going to ease up at all. Makes you wonder what the score lines might be if Angola or Australia were in this pool.

Official Score Sheets for all the matches are at the IHF website: http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idart=588

Even if you never make a wager on a game it’s always interesting to see who’s favored before the match and by how many goals. Or maybe after you’ve seen a match you might be wondering just how big of an upset was that surprise victory.

To satisfy your curiosity we’ve added two pages to our links on the right hand side of the home page. One page lists all of the final placement odds for each Nation, who will win the preliminary groups, Main Round, top goal scorer, etc). The other page will contain the handicap or point spread for every match and will be updated daily. When a result becomes final we’ll bold the result.

Final Placement Odds: https://teamhandballnews.com/page.php?13
Match Handicap Odds: https://teamhandballnews.com/page.php?14

The posted odds are courtesy of bwin.com www.bwin.com and, of course, are subject to change.

Sportfive has now set up an English language site for watching the World Championships on line.

videosport.com http://www.videosport.com/ihf2007/index.php

Options for purchase:
All 92 Matches: 19.99 Euros
Single Match: 2.99

Notes:
– Commentary for many of the matches will be in English and you will be able to select your preferred language.
– The start times for the matches posted on the videosport website are UK local. This is one hour earlier than Central European Time, which is the time listed in most IHF schedules.