The Spanish women’s team, the European champion, passed Kazakhstan (24-5) and is already in the round of 16 of the Fukuoka World Cup tournament, where France awaits next Saturday (8:30 CET), an affordable rival to continue dreaming.
After the defeat against the Netherlands (7-6) at the start of the competition, Spain knew that it would have no problem reaching the next round due to the level of the other two rivals it had in the group: Israel and Kazakhstan.
The negative is that it would not be saved from the toll of the round of 16 -the first in the group directly accesses the quarterfinals-, the positive, very positive, is that it would not cross paths with the United States until a hypothetical final.
And that is a great fact, because the Americans are the great dominators of this sport, winners of World Cups and Olympic Games. In the last World Cup, Miki Oca’s team lost to Adam Krikorian’s by 13-8 and said goodbye to the medals.
The game only had history in the first quarter. Spain scored four goals in five attacks and thought it would still be easier than they thought. The disconnection allowed the Kazakhs, who had lost 17-6 to Israel and 30-2 to the Netherlands, to score three consecutive goals (4-3) with Laura Ester in goal.
After the 5-3 scored by Anni Espar at the end of the first quarter, Spain chained a 4-0 run (9-3) and Kazakhstan’s last goal before the break was 9-4. From that moment on, the Spanish defense prevailed, leaving their rival without scoring for more than seventeen minutes, and the attack worked, with a 13-0 run to make it 22-4.
In the end, the Spanish won 24-5. The captain Pili Peña, with 4 goals, was the most accurate in attack and four other players: Nona Pérez, Judith Forca and the buoys Paula Leitón and Paula Camus, scored three goals. Today the discarded player was Maica García.
24 – Spain: Laura Ester; Anni Espar (2), Nona Pérez (3), Paula Crespí (2), Elena Ruiz (-), Judith Forca (3), Paula Leitón (3) -initial team-, Terré (ps), Cristina Nogué (-), Bea Ortiz (2p), Pili Peña (4), Paula Camus (3) and Ariadna Ruiz (2, 1p).
5 – Kazajistán: Zharkimbayeva; Pochinok (1), Anossova (-), Novikova (2), Khritankova (-), Mirshina (-), Tsoy (2) -equipo inicial- Glukhova (-), Kaplun (-), Rakhmanova (-), Vorontsova (-), Nabiyeva (-) y Martynenko (ps).
Partials: 5-3, 8-1, 5-0 and 6-1.
Arbitrators: Debreceni (HUN) and Stewart (RSA). Elimination: Khritankova.
Incidents: Match of the third and last day of group B of the Fukuoka World Cup tournament.
