The Spanish men’s handball coach, Jordi Riberalamented the loss on the second day of the Olympic tournament against Sweden (29-26), which he attributed to his team’s lack of automatism, but reckoned the team would grow as the games went on.
“The team will progress and as it progresses, if we are lucky enough that the results are with us, it will grow. If we go to the quarterfinals we will go higher and then there are no limits,” the coach told EFE.
Spain is now tied with Slovenia, Croatia and Sweden with one victory, while Germany is outstanding with two. Ribera appealed not to be overconfident against Japan, his next rivals, who are yet to make their debut.
“It’s not going to be an easy match, they already showed against Croatia that they have their way of playing and their arguments and that they are dangerous,” said the reference to the Japanese team coached by Spaniard Antonio Carlos Ortega, also Barcelona coach.
Regarding the match against Sweden, Ribera pointed out that Spain “stumbled” in front of the consistency of the rivals and that “there were moments of clarity in others where they lost balls that gave them the chance to run .”
“In the first half we could have had a one-goal lead because we missed some clear shots and in the second we had a bad start that gave them a four-goal lead,” he analyzed.
“We tried to find solutions and maybe we took risks, which gave them options to run and achieve a big advantage,” he added.
The coach praised his team’s dedication to limit the distance as much as possible “because this is a championship where a goal down or up can be decisive.”
“I can’t take away from my team that they are dedicated, every minute, every ball they fight for,” he said.
In its part, Jorge Maqueda He assured that, despite the defeat, Spain’s chances of making it to the quarterfinals are still intact.
“The options are intact. We have to go out and win the three games we have left. We are Spain, we have a very good team and if we do things as we know there will be no problem,” he said after losing against Sweden 29-26.
Maqueda appealed to take the positive from the match, which was the team’s reaction to avoid a big defeat, in a tournament where goal difference could be key.
He recognized that Sweden did their job well, forcing them to find shots from a distance and that caused a lot of mistakes because they were not comfortable playing.
Dani Dujshebaev He attributed the defeat to a poor start to the second half, after regaining the lead against Sweden at the end of the first.
“We know that Sweden is a good team, but we didn’t play our best game. It was a strange rivalry, with a lot of comings and goings, but the bad start in the second half killed us, they left very quickly,” he studied after losing to Sweden 29-26.
“At that moment we still put our hands down, but we know how to recover and fight until the end, we have to stay positive and think about the next game,” he said.
Against Japan he assured that they should not trust each other because “against Croatia they showed that they know how to compete and that they can fight anyone.”
Source: La Verdad
I’m Jason Root, a professional writer working with Today Times Live, the premier news website. I specialize in sports writing, covering the biggest stories in the world of athletics. With an eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, I provide engaging and informative articles that capture the key elements of any event or issue. My work has been featured on numerous respected websites and publications around the world.
