Both
qualificants for the 2012 Olympic Games are known at the Men’s Qualification
Tournament in Gothenburg after the second match day already: After their each
second victories Sweden and Hungary have made their way to London – FYR
Macedonia and Brazil are out of the race.
Brazil vs. Hungary 27:29 (15:16)
Despite in
total 20 saves of their outstanding goalkeeper Nandor Fazekas, Hungary had to
shiver until 15 seconds before the end, until their second victory at the
Olympic Qualification Tournament was secured. Due to a very weak performance in
attack against a brave fighting Brazilian team the Europeans could not decide
the game earlier. Top scorers were Gabor Csaszar (6 goals for Hungary) and Jose
Fernando Pacheco with seven goals for the Brazilians, who still wait for their
first point in Gothenburg.
Pushed by
their again brilliant saving goalkeeper Maik Santos Brazil was on eye level in
the first half. The defense on the Pan Americans stood strong and was well
adapted to the Hungarian attack. On the other hand, goalkeeper Nandor Fazekas
showed the same high level as on Friday 6 April, when his team had beaten FYR
Macedonia. Hungary was in lead all the time in the first half and
intermediately was away with four goals. But the Brazilians were able to
catch-up several times, including some samba goals of their top scorer Felipe
Ribeiro. With some more concentration in attack they could even have equalized.
Brazil coach
Javier Cuesta needed an early time-out in minute 40, as his players had stopped
scoring: After only one goal in ten minutes and failing seven times against
Fazekas, Cuesta pulled the break at 16:20. And the Hungarians could not take a
bigger advantage of this weak re-starting period of their opponents as they
caused too many mistakes in attack – whilst the Pan-Americans again were on
track at 20:22. Like during their 20:25 defeat against Sweden the day before,
Brazil ran off their power minute by minute in the final stage. But the
Hungarians were not able to decide the game, as they missed clearest chances
like in total three penalty shots and several counter attacks. And with only
six minutes to go and a close 24:25 on the scoreboard the audience in
Gothenburg realized that a surprise was in the air – and started shouting
“Brazil, Brazil” for the brave fighting underdogs, as Hungary had lost their
pace and confidence completely and missed means and ideas to get through the
very offensive Brazilian defense.
39 seconds
before the final buzzer and a tight 28:27 Hungarian coach Lajos Mocsai took his
time-out to instruct his team for the final attack – successfully, as Szabolcs
Zubai decided the game 15 seconds before the end with the 29:27 and made his
team mates dance and jump on the field.
Statements after the match:
Javier Cuesta,
coach Brazil: “I am absolutely satisfied with the work of my players. This was
one of the best matches of this team, since I am their coach and I am proud to
be their coach. We fought, we tried everything, but in the end we lost. I
believe this team will improve in the future.”
Lajos Mocsai,
coach Hungary: “I admire the work of Javier Cuesta, as we know for more than 20
years. And he has a real powerful team, which was fresher than us after their
first game. We had to give full energy against FYR Macedonia on Friday 6 April
and it was hard for us to find a recipe against the open Brazilian defense. We
could have decided the match earlier, but we missed some great opportunities.
But this is handball. We needed to use our creative players in the end game,
and this was successful. Now I hope that we already qualify today for the
Olympic Games.”
Mate Lekai,
player Hungary: “Brazil was much better than last year at the World
Championship. It was hard for us to play against their open defense, but we
controlled the game for 50 minutes. Then we missed clear chances, the final
stage was open – but we were the lucky winner. Thanks to our spectators, who
created a positive atmosphere.”
FYR Macedonia vs. Sweden 23:27 (12:14)
They had to
wait twelve long years for this moment: Thanks to 17 saves of goalkeeper Johan
Sjöstrand and eight goals of brilliant Kim Andersson, Sweden qualified for the
2012 Olympics in London. After their second victory they did not only take
their ticket to the Olympics for the seventh time in history, but also decided
the whole tournament, as Hungary is through to London, too. Both teams fight
for the tournament victory on Sunday 8 April.
After missing
the qualification for the Olympics 2004 and 2008, the Swedish men have followed
their female team, which had already booked their ticket. In the Olympic
history the Swedish men have been three times in Olympic finals (1992, 1996,
2000), but never took the Gold medal.
When leaving
the field after a highly emotional duel, the Swedish players received the
applause of the Hungarian players and were celebrated by their spectators after
their coaches Staffan Olsson and Ola Lindgren had been jumping on the bench
even before the final buzzer.
More than 4000
Macedonians shouted, sang and cheered for their team on the one side of the
Scandinavium, the same number chanted “Heja Sverige” on the other side. A wall
of red and yellow beside a crowd of yellow and blue caused a great, vociferous
atmosphere. The Swedish team had changed their tactics in contrast to their
victory against Brazil to a more speedful one, counting on their counter
attacks. Aside the defense of the “Tre Kronor” team played extremely strong
with an intermediate man-to-man defense against Macedonian top star Kiril
Lazarov and a great cooperation with goalkeeper Johan Sjöstrand.
But the Balkan
team stood strong, fighting for their last chance for an Olympic ticket after
losing against Hungary the day before. Their powerful back court and line
players weren’t easy to stop, their goalkeeper Borko Ristovski played better
than before in the first half. But the Macedonians could not turn the game
before the break – and right at the start of the second half two initial
hammers of Kim Andersson hit them really hard, as Sweden was ahead with four
goals at this moment (16:12).
The time was
running for the host – and the Sjöstrand saves secured a constant four-goal
lead which calmed down the enthusiastic Macedonian crowd for some minutes.
Searching for the right means to catch-up, Macedonian coach Zvonko Shundovski
took his time-out in minute 42 at the score of 15:19, as well-shielded Lazarov
at this time had scored only one field goal. The game remained with a high
intensity and tension seeing the Macedonians drawing nearer to only two goals
ten minutes before the end. But every time the Macedonians were close to turn
the game either Sjöstrand saved brilliant or the precise shots of right back
Andersson hit the triangle of the goal. A double strike of the left handed top
scorer (in total eight goals) paved the Swedish way to London hitting the net
to 25:21 five minutes before the end.
Statements after the match:
Staffan
Olsson, coach Sweden: “We are absolute happy to have qualified for the Olympic
Games. Our defense and goalkeeper Johan Sjöstrand did an almost perfect match-
I am absolutely satisfied.”
Zvonko
Shundovski, coach FYR Macedonia: “We came to Sweden to get a ticket to the
Olympics, but we did not have lucky days here, as we are out now. Sweden
correctly won this game, as they were the home team supported by a big number
of fans.”
Johan
Sjöstrand, player Sweden: “Thanks to our great defense we reached our goal.”
Kiril Lazarov,
player FYR Macedonia: “Sweden played completely different than yesterday 6
April, when they were very slow. Our team missed the form we had during the
European Championships, since then the form went down – despite our huge number
of spectators who supported us here in Gothenburg. We can play better and now
we have to analyze how to improve in the future. Maybe there was too much
Macedonian mentality in us today, so we need to work to become better.”
Friday’s results:
Hungary vs.
FYR Macedonia 28:26 (15:13)
Sweden vs.
Brazil 25:20 (12:10)
Sunday’s
matches:
14:45 hrs
local time: FYR Macedonia vs. Brazil
17:00 hrs local
time: Sweden vs. Hungary