Sweden won its second world crown after beating the German team 31:29 in a brilliant final of the Men's Junior World Championship in Macedonia.

 

The second goalkeeper of Sweden, Andreas Palicka, made it real with his saves in the second half, helping his team to make an outstanding reversal. Combination of strong defence and high efficiency in attack gave Germany a five-goal lead in the middle of the first half.Germany opened the second half managing a seven-goal lead before the real drama began. Meanwhile, Palicka saved five shots and, on the other side, left wing Joakim Backstrom and playmaker Johan Elf scored four times each, levelling the score for the first time in the 48th minute. Sweden had great chances to take the lead but Jurgen Muller saved from clear positions. It happened two minutes later and, in the final phase of the match, Germany's game totally collapsed. Palicka made a few more saves, while his team-mates being unstoppable in attack.
 

Denmark won the bronze medal beating Croatia 27:26 in a very tight game. The players of Denmark, title winners of the last WCh, won the game in a striking finish, when they scored three goals and concealed but one. The Danish goalkeeper, Tim Winkler, also was in great shape, saving four balls in the last three minutes. Although they lost the game, Croatia attained their ever best WCh ranking in the junior category.

 

Egypt became the best non-European team, finishing sixth after losing to Spain (26:32) in the match for fifth place . Further teams who had high hopes of ranking among the world's top in the run-up of the tournament did not come up to their own expectations. Russia, for example, had to settle with disappointing ninth place. Host Macedonia, to the contrary, reached decent 10th place in the final WCh ranking.

 

All-Star Team
Goalkeeper- Johan Sjoestrand (SWE)
Left wing - Karim El Din Shoukry (EGY)
Pivot - Henrik Toft Hansen (DEN)
Right wing - Ivan Cupic (CRO)
Left back - Alen Blazevic (CRO)
Centre back - Martin Strobel (GER)
Right back - Johan Jakobsson (SWE)


Top Scorer: Jongmin An (KOR) - 75 goals
MVP - Uwe Gensheimer (GER)