2023-11-29 19:16:11
Austria’s handball women made a successful start to the preliminary round of the World Cup in Sweden, Denmark and Norway on Wednesday. The red-white-red team narrowly won the first match once morest South Korea in Group C with 30:29 (16:12). The last goal was a seven-meter penalty by Katarina Pandza just following the game had expired. This means that following the first match you are very close to your desired promotion to the main round.
Austria will now face Norway as underdogs on Friday (8:15 p.m.) and Greenland as favorites on Sunday (5:50 p.m.). In the 22nd duel with South Korea it was only the eighth victory, the first since the 2001 World Cup (31:29), which was similarly close at the time.
Coach Herbert Müller admitted in the ORF interview that he “sweated a lot, and not just towards the end.” “After studying the video, we thought that if we performed well, we had a real chance. The team deserved it because we simply wanted it more.”
His team was initially only 0-1 behind, but quickly managed a 5-2 and 9-3 lead by the 11th minute. Afterwards, the South Koreans took advantage of some of Austria’s mistakes and came back up to 7:9. By the break, Austria had regained a four-goal lead once morest the Asian champions.
After the break, Austria made it 12:17, but the Asians got stronger and managed to equalize for the first time since the 2-2 draw in the 38th minute. Now the game was on a knife’s edge and for the first time since the beginning, the ÖHB women fell behind 20:21 in the 42nd minute.
The game remained exciting until the end: At 25:26, Ines Ivancok had to leave the field for two minutes, but Austria still managed to make it 27:26. After one of several important saves by goalkeeper Petra Blazek, a two-goal lead was regained at 28:26 in the 58th minute. At 29:27 the decision was still not made, Korea managed to equalize. Only the seven meter brought victory.
Müller’s explanation for the match, which had become so close following the first half: “South Korea came out more offensively. They forced technical errors on us through more offensive coverage. The team didn’t give up for a second, even when it got to the point where the game might be overturned. “We also have the courage to go 7 once morest 6, that was the decision,” he said happily. Seven-meter shooter Pandza was actually not planned. “But she said I would do it. And now we have a surprising but very nice victory.”
Patricia Kovacs, the second best scorer behind Pandza with seven goals, was happy. “We tried to get through the defense and also score goals from the backcourt. That worked great at the beginning. Then the fight was there and we also had a bit of luck. Now we’re super happy.”
World Cup – Group C: Austria – South Korea 30:29 (16:12). Best throwers: Katarina Pandza 8, Patricia Kovacs 7, Ines Ivancok 6 or Woo Bit-na 11, Ryu Eun-hee 6, Shin Eun-joo 5
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