Women: Netherlands (NED)

 

Coach: Harald MULDER

 

Key Players: Marti-Jaelle VAN EDE (right wing), Lynn KLESSER (left wing)

 

Path to Buenos Aires 2018: 2017 IHF Women’s U17 Beach Handball World Championship - Runners-up

 

The Dutch go into their Argentina campaign as one of the strong favourites to sit on the podium – if not at the very top – having won medals in all the major championships so far.

 

They won the 2016 Women’s U16 EHF EURO in Portugal, beating Spain in the final, and then won the U17 title the following year in Croatia, defeating Portugal.

 

At the 2017 IHF Women’s U17 Beach Handball World Championship, their journey to an eventual silver medal in Mauritius started in bizarre circumstances as they played just one game in the preliminary round to qualify through after Togo and Brazil both withdrew from the competition before it started. That 2:0 win was followed by topping their main round group with 2:1 shoot-out wins over Argentina and Hungary, plus a 2:0 win over Croatia.

 

A quarter-final victory over Thailand followed by a semi-final defeat of Argentina set up the final against Hungary, who got revenge for their main round defeat, switching the shoot-out result to win and take gold.

 

Earlier this year in Montenegro, at the 2018 U18 EHF EURO, it was the same story again. Netherlands won their preliminary group with three 2:0 wins (over Ukraine, Montenegro and Lithuania) and then by the same score in the quarter-finals (against Croatia) and semi-final (Germany), but Hungary again stood in their way to gold, winning 2:0.

 

Marti-Jaelle Van Ede and Lynn Klesser ended as top scorers for the Dutch with 52 and 51 points respectively and are two to watch in Buenos Aires.

 

“It’s an honour to be the coach of this team – the experience is so cool,” said Netherlands coach Harald Mulder to IHF.info. “The team have made some big steps from the beginning of the journey which we started together in January 2016, I have grown as a person and the team has grown as a team.”

 

They face Turkey, Paraguay, Venezuela, Hong Kong and Argentina in preliminary group B in Buenos Aires – a mixed line-up with teams from three continents.

 

“The group is a tough one, but a good one and we will play against teams which we have not played against,” said Mulder. “I expect that Argentina and us, will be first and second, but I don’t want to make any expectations.

                                                                                                                             

“We are well-prepared and it’s our goal to get one, but I have to say without the players’ parents we would be nowhere near where we are now. They have helped us with everything, making us food and taking us to where we need to be, so I want to say a big thanks to them.”

 

To prepare for the Youth Olympic Games, the Dutch held a training camp in Twente last week for a week which followed some time in T’veld, north of Amsterdam.

 

Follow the Netherlands team throughout the Youth Olympic Games on Instagram as well as on Facebook, Twitter and the official federation’s website.

 

Group at Buenos Aires 2018
Group B: Netherlands (NED), Argentina (ARG), Venezuela (VEN), Paraguay (PAR), Hong Kong (HKG), Turkey (TUR)

Preliminary Group B: Match Schedule
All times local

Monday 8 October

10:00    NED vs PAR

14:30    HKG vs NED

 

Tuesday 9 October

12:30    NED vs TUR

17:00    VEN vs NED

 

Wednesday 10 October

10:00    NED vs ARG

 

Photo: Netherlands Handball Federation