In handball, one thing is clear: if Spain is playing for an Olympic bronze, there is no discussion, it is theirs. The blessed rule of the Hispanos, who fall in the semi-finals and get up to get on the podium. Atalanta 96, Sydney 2000, Beijing 2008, Tokyo 2020 and Paris is the sequence of the happy bronze of the handball team, a team that recycles itself like no other to continue in the elite.
It was decided, as befits Jordi Ribera’s team, in the last metre of the gorge. Mackovskev’s final shot fell at the feet of Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas and the team exploded in the morning in Lille, forced in two days to forget the pain of the defeat against Germany.
The new work of this reformulated Spain of Tokyo was built by Pérez de Vargas, Spain’s greatest certainty, Jorge Maqueda gave him the chilli, Álex Dujshebaev directed the plane in the storm, Aleix Gómez flew in his corner to stop Slovenia, and as he is always capable of finding solutions in the narrowest alleys, a false winger like Miguel Sánchez-Migallón invention two goals from the corner in the second half.
From the bronze in Japan to the bronze in France, another Spain was woven that reached the same destination. More than half of the team changed from the Japanese event. But this time they suffered an extra blow in the semi-finals, because Germany was winnable, they were not the ogre of Denmark, as happened in Denmark. The “it was today” of Pérez Vargas after losing in the semi-finals left the doubt in the air as to whether this time they would also have the emotional response to take the bronze. And they did, of course.
The first response had to be encouraging, and no one better to scare away weaknesses than Jorge Maqueda, a soldier who always goes forward. He stirred up a team that was struggling again in attack: four goals in 16 minutes (4-6). His appearance in place of a dull Imanol Garciandia put the team on another track. Two goals in a row in penetration, a forced exclusion, and a ration of shouts and harangues, plus a defensive improvement woke up the Hispanos in the first half.
Playing for bronze at dawn, with coffee and croissants in the stands, did not seem like the best strategy on the last day of the Olympics. Even so, people flocked to the Lille football pitch, which had been converted into a handball court (and before that, a basketball court). The goalkeepers set the pace at the start and Blaz Janc was the most undetectable element for the Spanish defence (four goals at half-time).
At the break, the two teams had their eyes washed away. Spain took control with slight advantages, but did not break away. At most, they were two goals ahead. They did, however, find goals from less common sources: two from Abel Serdio in the pivot and, above all, a couple from Sánchez Migallón from the left wing when Dani Fernández was given a break. With that and the strokes of Agustín Casado, the team kept up the pace against a Slovenia in which Aleks Vlah followed the path of Janc.
Spain still had one more escape maneuver left, when the Balkan team turned it around to 19-20 with eight minutes left. And that was when surgeon Aleix Gomez came in (21-20). A goal by the elder Dujshebaev seemed to avoid another agonizing final seconds (23-21 with two minutes left), but that didn’t work either. Slovenia got within one, Aleix Gomez was injured and the Balkan team had a final possession of 19 seconds that ended in nothing.
Other thriller And this one with a happy ending. The usual one, that of Olympic bronze. Five medals in one Games and all bronze. An hour after the match, some players were still thinking about “what if we had won the semi-final…”. A thorn that did not prevent another conquest.
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