Monday, August 25, 2008

The France team celebrates after winning the Men's Handball gold

France takes first-ever Handball gold

The French closed down Iceland's trademark shooting, and whenever Iceland found a gap they were denied by goalkeeper Thierry Omeyer, who saved an incredible 49 percent of all shots and made the Olympic Games All Star Team.

By comparison, Iceland goalkeeper Bjorgvin Pall Gustavsson saved just 36 percent, and his job was made harder by Iceland's suffering defense.

Left-back Nikola Karabatic fired one sharp shot after another, either straight over or straight through Iceland's defense, netting eight goals for France from nine attempts.

Center-back Bertrand Gille (FRA) effortlessly burst through Iceland's defense, scoring four out of five shots from the 6m line.

The match remained close for only 13 minutes, when France netted five goals in a row to take a 9-4 lead, and from then on France were too strong for the Icelandic men.

France steadily increased their lead throughout the second half as Iceland started missing passes, letting France get away with easy steals.

Iceland did have the most fast breaks in the game, but only managed to score from five of 11.

Iceland's attack suffered most from the lack of goals from leading scorer Snorri Steinn Gudjonsson (ISL), as the French blocking restricted him to two goals. The French also succeeded in neutralizing pivot Robert Gunnarsson (ISL), who only got in two shot attempts in the entire game.

A rare success for the Icelandic team was right-back Olafur Stefansson (ISL), who put five shots past goalkeeper Omeyer.

France started celebrating when they went nine goals ahead with six minutes left, and with less than a minute remaining Iceland settled for an Olympic silver medal.

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