The Warriors are not up to much. A short time of good handball at the beginning of the afternoon is not enough at the heights of the Olympic Games, and even less so if they are up against a well-established team like the Netherlands. They started well, but another bad second half ruined it. The great teams are distinguished by resisting crises and coming back from them to score even harder. The weaker ones collapse when the wind blows. This is the case of Spain, capable of a meritorious start to the match and then collapsing without anyone having the tools to prevent it. In the 19th minute, they were leading 9-10. Twenty-three minutes later, they were already losing 23-14. A quick death for a team that once again showed a lack of competitive pulse. If they row, they are only capable of doing so under favourable conditions. Against them, they are always heading for the bottom in these Games.
They did not appear in the opening match against Brazil (18-29), they disappeared against Angola (26-21) and against the Netherlands they were wiped out in the Dutch wave. Three games and three defeats put them on the verge of Olympic goodbye and with very worrying signs in the game. This Tuesday, the spirit and the purpose of change only lasted until the break. On Thursday they meet Hungary (14.00) and on Saturday they close the group stage with France (11.00). Unless there is a radical change of events in Paris, the team is heading towards the inevitable elimination and, above all, the consummation of a departure from the elite.
Against a group like the Dutch, there is no worse mistake than losing balls because the orange bullets make up for it with counterattacks and goals on the run. At half-time, after Spain’s best minutes in the tournament, Ambros Martín’s girls had already accumulated 10. A breath of fresh air for their rival and more ground on their shoulders for them. After the break, another hole in this section ended up burying the Spanish options. Loss, counterattack and goal. A lethal sequence for a team that needs to do too many things well. The last 20 minutes of the match only remain as an inventory. Las Guerreras, however, tried to contain the damage to avoid a hurtful result.
Castellanos leads the initial improvement
The start of the evening session had started well, for the first time in the Games. Goalkeeping is one of the shortest paths in handball to shock therapy and to lift sagging spirits, and Merche Castellanos made four saves in the blink of an eye at the start of the match. Spain shot up 1-4 in the sixth minute. This served as a lever for the first 20 minutes, and even the entire first half, in which a version emerged that allowed them to compete with the Netherlands. It was not at all difficult to improve the presentation of the tournament, but the display was optimal.
From Castellanos onwards, Spain played with style. Also because if the goal works, the counterattack can exist. Jennifer Gutiérrez (four goals at half-time in five attempts) benefited from this for a while. The Netherlands, which is no sidekick, responded with its fast handball, tied the Spanish team down and began its stretch. The score went from 9-10 for the national team to 14-10. The Warriors still had a response to leave things at 14-12 at half-time. Castellanos had eight interventions. And it could have been better if Kaba Gassama had not failed in the last second from six metres, one of those escape routes for the team.
From that response and the good performance it seemed that Spain would have a continuous display on Tuesday to challenge the Dutch to the end. But not at all. Everything that had been built fell apart in the first 10 minutes of the resumption. Losses, seven minutes without scoring and the end. The 23-14 in the 42nd minute put the final nail in the coffin of the match. In Spain, only the rebelliousness of Paula Arcos, the only one who scored for Spain until the middle of the second half, resisted fate.
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