Reda Saleem (Dubai)
Today, the junior handball team plays its second match against Kuwait, as part of Group B in the ninth Asian Championship that started in Bahrain, and qualifies for the World Cup finals, in Croatia next year, after losing its first match in the tournament against Qatar 22-36.
The match was enthusiastic on the part of our players, who succeeded in advancing with two goals without a response and then advancing 3-1, but the Qatari succeeded in returning and drawing 3-3 after 5 minutes, and progressed 4-3, and our team returned with a draw 4-4, and the level of Al-Abyad was distinguished at first, after quickly overcoming the fear of the championship, as Nabil Ashour, President of the Federation, held a meeting with the players before the start of the matches, in the presence of Nasser Al-Hammadi, the Secretary-General of the Federation, the head of the mission, and the technical and administrative bodies.
After 10 minutes, the Qatari advanced 6-4, 7-5, and played individual errors and lost the ball in the final touch, and did not finish the attack correctly, and our players reduced the difference to a 7-6 goal, and the Qatari team resorted to individual solutions from the shots, and the half-time With a score of 10-7 for Qatar, our players race to waste easy opportunities. Our players score after a 6-minute pause, and the score reaches 11-8 in the 21st minute. The first half ends with Qatar’s lead 17-11.
The level of the players declined at the beginning of the second half and only scored 3 goals in the first 7 minutes, and our players raced to waste opportunities in front of the Qatari goal and the result reached 22-14 for Qatar, and the confrontation entered the last 10 minutes amid the opponent’s control of the match and raised the score to 31-19, Our team lost the first match 22-36.