In-form South Korea stormed past Germany 30-20 at Beijing Olympic women's handball event here on Monday, showing their strong determination to claim a third Olympic title.
Although Germany finished third in 2007 world championship, they seemed helpless in front of South Korea's tight defence.
"It wouldn't have mattered at all to change anything in our play because today nothing worked. No matter what we did, the opponent was always one step ahead of us," said Anja Althaus, pivot of Germany.
Speed and agility was South Korea's key to win the match. They kept intercepting Germany's passes and scored 13 points from fast breaks.
"The key to our victory was fast breaks, which helped us widen the gap. We have watched a lot of videos of Germany's games. I felt nervous because they looked strong. But after the game began, we realized they were not that strong as we imagined, "said South Korean right back Hong Jeong-ho.
South Korea, which clinched the 1988 and 1992 Olympic gold medals, is the only candidate in people's mind to break the European dominance again in Beijing. They also finished runner-up in 1984 and 1996 Games.
After taking a sliver in Athens 2004, South Korea had to see the retirement of several seasoned key players. However, a reloaded South Korea team has returned, aiming to the third Olympic title.
In their opening game, the energetic South Korea already stunned world champ Russia by coming back from a nine points deficit to level the score 29-29.
Also as an Asian squad, host China received their second defeat, losing 20-34 to Romania, the 4th placer of 2007 world championship. Laura Meirosu of Romania netted two goals to celebrate her 23rd birthday today.
Liudmila Postnova of Russia also celebrated her birthday with a victory, when the reigning world champ edged out Sweden 28-24.
European champion Norway trounced African champion Angola 31-17 to clinch their second win at the Beijing Games. Angolan coach Vivaldo Eduardo blamed the defeat on the loss of their starting pivot Bombo Calandula, who twisted her knee in the beginning of Saturday's game and never managed to return to the court again.
Also losing a key player, France enjoyed their second win instead. Right back Camille Ayglon got her nose badly hit in the opening game, but she rested comfortably on the substitute bench on Monday to see France outscore Kazakhstan 21-18.
Right back Zsuzsanna Tomori saved Hungary from an embarrassing defeat when she netted in a freekick at the last second of the match.
Winning all the four previous encounters, confident Hungary enjoyed a flying first half, leading 17-12 at the break. But the opponent Brazil resumed the game with five unanswered goals to level the score. They could have snatched the win but for Tomori's miraculous goal. The two sides tied 28-28 at the end of the game.
"The last seconds decides the whole world," said Brazilian left wing Aline Rosas.
(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2008)