Reda Saleem (Dubai)
Our junior handball team lost against Kuwait 23-37, in the second round of Group B, in the first round of the ninth Asian Championship currently held in Bahrain, which qualifies for the World Cup finals in Croatia next year. The team had lost its first match against Qatar, and meets Japan on Tuesday, after getting a 24-hour break.
The match came quickly after both teams lost in the first round, and despite the progress of “Blue”, our team responds quickly in two attacks 2-2, and our players make many mistakes in receiving and delivery, in addition to wasting easy opportunities and playing “Blue” on quick counter-attacks, and raises The result is 5-2, and Hamad Al Balushi returns and scores the third and fourth goals for our team, reducing the difference to a goal, and the result returns to a 5-5 tie.
The match turns in the interest of our team by progressing 7-6, and 8-6 by the brilliance of Saeed Khalfan and Fahd Khaled Jumaa, and the confrontation returns again to the 8-8 draw point. The team has its first time-out, after Kuwait advanced 9-8, and our players missed easy opportunities to advance by a large difference, and our team returns to the tie again 9-9 in the 20th minute, and the first half ends with Kuwait’s lead 20-12.
The second half was not new, although our team reduced the difference to 5 goals at the beginning, but the retreat and mistakes were the prominent title for our players, at a time when the Kuwaiti players took advantage of the opportunity, and played the “Fast Break”, and expanded the difference to 10 goals, then To 13 goals 36-23, and the confrontation ends in favor of Kuwait 37-23.