Bronze final:
Korea – Montenegro 23:24 (10:12)
They danced on the field, they jumped in the Tiger
hall, they were singing and waving their flag: WCH surprise team Montenegro has
gained their next and final success: Thanks to a highly close thriller the
Juniors won the first ever Bronze medal for their country in international
handball. The Europeans defeated
the clearly favoured WCH host Korea in the Bronze final of Seoul. Match winner
for Montenegro was top scorer Milena Knezevic (in total nine goals), who scored
the four last – and decisive – goals for her team in the last two minutes and
turned minus to plus and a real joy. Like in the semi against Russia the
Koreans left the field heads hang low – as they missed their fifth Bronze medal
in Junior WCH history very close.
“This is the biggest victory in every competition,”
Montenegro’s coach Dragan Adzic said: “But it was absolutely hard for us, as we
had to play ten matches with the same line-up.” Milena Knezevic shared this opinion: “The whole tournament
was very tough, but this is an enormous success for our small country.”
On the other hand the Koreans again were totally
disappointed. For coach Baek Sangsuh the tiredness of his players was the
reason why they lost the matches, and: “The turning point was the injury of
Eunbi Lee in the second half.” Top scorer Ryu was crying in the press
conference, when she summarized the game:
“Though we were tired we wanted to win this match, now I have real
worries for the people that supported our team. I feel really sorry for
missing this medal!” Baek balanced the whole tournament: “We learnt that we
have to prepare even harder for World Championships, we need physical and mentally
more training.”
Everybody expected a very weak Montenegro team in the
Bronze final, as their batteries already were low in the semis. But
surprisingly the European team played very powerful in the first half and
reduced the speed cleverly, as the Korean tried hard to play with counter
attacks. As the Korean defense was well prepared for the Montenegrinian
attackers like Knezevic the Balkan team waited long until they had the chance
to score. On the other hand their defense – with physical advantages to Korea –
stood strong, including goalkeeper Marina Vukcevic, who saved some important
shots. Both teams started hectic and nervous and didn’t score much in the very
beginning. But as Montenegro had found their rhythm the quality of the match arose. After the 8:6 (the third Knezevic goal) Korean coach Baek took his
time-out, but his team couldn’t come closer until the break. Despite the loud and frenetic support of
the fans in the Tiger Hall in Seoul Korea couldn’t catch up right after the
break – in contrast: Montenegro increased the lead to 19:16 in minute 42. And
as top star Eunbi Lee had to be replaced after a face injury and later-on an
ankle injury (she saw the rest of the game lying on a stretcher) the hopes went
low.
But then the fighting spirit and the will to win this
medal on home soil arose again at the WCH host. It took only eight minutes, as
Korea equalized at the score of 20:20 (the sixth goal of Eunhee Ryu), as the
Montenegrinians were gasping for air – but both teams were out of power in
their 10th match in 14 days. And again Ryu (in total ten goals) brought
the first lead (22:21) to Korea in minute 54, after Mehmedovic had missed the
goal with a penalty shot. The hall went crazy, but the resistance of Montenegro
hadn’t been broken. As Knezevic scored two consecutive goals the Europeans were
in lead again, but Montenegro had to play short-handed in the last two minutes
after a suspension. With
cleverness Montenegro kept the ball, as the time was running out for Korea. 28
seconds before the end Knezevic decided the game with a direct free-throw to
the score of 24:22, the last Korean goal came too late.