Reda Saleem (Dubai)
Today, the junior handball team plays its second match once morest 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, following losing its first match in the tournament once morest 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 following 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, following 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 following 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.