Spain sweeps to world handball title

In a final to go down in the annals of the sport, Spain swept to victory in the World Handball Championships in Barcelona on Sunday evening. And it did so against the most feared team in the tournament, the potent Danes, in a pitch-perfect match in defensive terms, an offense that seemingly could not miss, with a 64.81-percent strike rate, and a man-of-the-match performance from Arpad Sterbik, who prevented 45 percent of everything thrown at him from finding its mark.

The host nation destroyed Denmark in what was the culmination of Spain coach Valero Rivera’s grand design on the tactics board, which was carried out on the court: Spain’s defense was the meanest at the tournament and Denmark, the top-scoring nation at the championships, was limited to just 10 goals in the second half.

In attack, Rivera opted for an unusual line-up that placed the onus on second-stringers until Antonio García intervened with some telling plays.

We hoped we would win by a goal or so but in the end, it was an easy game”

Valero Rivera, the coach’s son who plies his trade at HBC Nantes and missed the last two games through injury, also came off the bench to have his say: fresh muscle that overpowered the Danish defense.

If Spain shone at the tournament it is largely because of the leadership of Joan Cañellas, who was outstanding in both of Spain’s games at the Palau Sant Jordi and top-scored against Denmark with seven goals. In the second half Spain was not only astute enough to maintain the 18-10 advantage it had secured in the first 30 but cantered to victory in a manner it could scarcely have imagined at 5.15pm when the match began. When on the attack, everything went in, from either flank. Jorge Maqueda and Julen Aguinagalde helped themselves to five goals each and Rivera bagged six. Of the 14 outfield players used in the course of the match, only three failed to find the net.

At the other end, Sterbik kept Denmark to just two goals in a 15-minute period of play.

“All of the boys really wanted the gold,” said Sterbik after the match. “We were nervous over the last few days. We hoped we would win by a goal or so but in the end, it was an easy game.”

The victory was a fitting end to the career of Alberto Entrerríos, one of the finest players to grace the Spanish game who announced that the final would be his last game for Spain. The captain of a golden generation, “Mr Rock and Roll,” who plays with the band Semilla Negra in his spare time, had the privilege of lifting the World Championship trophy as his final act.