Spain lost in its World Cup debut against the Netherlands (7-6), in the game that decided the leadership of the group and practically the direct pass to the quarterfinals, a sweet defeat that would prevent them from meeting the United States until a hypothetical World Cup final from Fukuoka.
It was a game with little rhythm, many errors and a multitude of attacking fouls, which was decided between the end of the third quarter and the start of the last, a period in which the Dutch achieved a 4-0 run to turn their lead around. Spanish, who dominated 3-5 at the time.
The difference between the two teams, two of the contenders for the medals together with the untouchable United States, was in the success in the plays in superiority, since the ‘oranje’ made five of the seven they had and Spain failed the four that they had .
Without Miki Oca, suspended and unable to direct the game, Jordi Valls was in charge of sitting on the bench for Spain, a team that moved to the sound of the saves by Martina Terré and the play of their buoys (Maica Garcia and Paula Leiton).
However, the top scorer was Elena Ruiz (3), and she was the one who opened the scoring and also made it 1-2 in the first quarter. The break was reached with a minimum of 2-3 for the Spanish and at the start of the third, they opened the gap to 3-5, after two goals from Anni Espar and Paula Leitón.
But six minutes from the conclusion of the third quarter, Spain stopped. She was not successful in the outside launch and the continuous fouls in attack committed by Leitón and Maica García, made the Spanish buoys desperate.
The Netherlands equalized with a superiority goal from Van der Sloot and another from Van der Kraats (5-5), and extended the set with two more goals from Sleeking (7-5), after a 4-0 run in 6 :30 minutes.
Elena Ruiz reacted with her third goal, obtained from a penalty, but with 7-6 Paula Crespí failed to equalize with 25 seconds to go and victory fell to the Dutch.
Datasheet
7 – Países Bajos: Arch; Wolves (-), Sleeking (2) Van der Sloot (2), Keuning (-), Van de Kraats (2), Joustra (-) -equipo inicial-, Bente Rogge (-), Sevenich (-), Rogge ( -), Moolhuijzen (1) and Ten Broek (-).
6 – Spain: Land; Anni Espar (1), Bea Ortiz (-), Nona Pérez (-), Paula Crespí (-), Elena Ruiz (3, 1p), Maica García (1) -initial team-, Pili Peña (-), Judith Forca (-), Cristina Nogué (-), Paula Camús (-) and Paula Leitón (1).
Referees: Ferrari (ITA) and Peris (CRO). No eliminated.
Partials: 1-2, 1-1, 3-2, 2-1.
Incidents: First game of the qualifying phase, group B, played in the pool of the Fukuoka Convention Center.
