Another medal for Spain. The handball team took the bronze after beating Slovenia in a close match that was evenly matched until the last minute. A match that ‘Los Hispanos’ closed with a tight 23-22 in the consolation final of the Paris Olympic Games, thanks to a save in the final moments by Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas.
But even with one man less, the ‘Hispanos’ did not let the one-goal lead (23-22) slip away, with which they faced the last minute and a half of play. And that was despite Slovenia seeming to have everything in their favour after having a final ball to equalise the match, after a more than controversial foul in attack by Aleix Gómez, who had to leave the court in the arms of Abel Serdio after the hard clash he suffered with the defender. However, Slovenia, who took off the goalkeeper to play the last action with seven field players, did not know how to move the ball well and ended up trying to force extra time with a long shot by Borut Mackovsek that was stopped by Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas.
The best possible way to end an Olympic tournament that, by the whims of fate, brought together Spaniards and Slovenians in a bronze medal match fourteen days after the two teams had been in charge of opening the tournament on 27 July. But if then both teams had all the time in front of them to correct any possible error, on this occasion they took it all, nothing more and nothing less than an Olympic bronze, while the loser was left with nothing. A coin toss that seemed to greatly motivate Slovenian goalkeeper Klemen Ferlin who after the first quarter of an hour of play had already recorded the same number of saves, six, as those he recorded in the opening match.
This allowed Slovenia to take a two-goal lead on the scoreboard (4-6) which made it clear that the ‘Hispanos’ were going to have to suffer a lot to beat the Balkan team again as they had done (25-22) in the first phase of the tournament. But if Slovenia could boast of their goalkeeper, the same could be said for Spain, since even though Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas did not reach the figures of Ferlin, who at times exceeded 60% of saves, the Toledo native always emerged at the right moment. The piece that the Spanish team needed to finish settling their defence, which allowed the ‘Hispanos’ to cause more and more problems to a Slovenian attack that ended up reduced to the actions of Blaz Janc.
The defensive improvement was accompanied by the emergence of Jorge Maqueda in attack, who with his courageous style allowed Spain not only to make up for their disadvantage, but to take a two-goal lead (10-8) with six minutes remaining in the first half. A difference that disappeared just as quickly as it came, as Jordi Ribera’s men struggled to stop Janc, who with his electric penetrations was responsible for levelling the match (12-12) at half-time. The equality was maintained at the start of the second half (16-16) in which, although Spain seemed to find the way to goal through pivot Abel Serdio, Slovenia’s full-back Aleks Vlah emerged, who had not been seen in the entire first half.
The tie was one that neither the Spaniards nor the Slovenians were able to break, weighed down by the growing tension that led to the goals coming in dribs and drabs on a scoreboard that, with less than eight minutes to go, showed an uncertain 20-20. A mere foretaste of the tension that was experienced in the final minutes when Jordi Ribera’s men, in another display of competitiveness, proved more reliable than their rivals and climbed to third place on the podium.
