Debutants Kazakhstan and Sweden both grabbed their first-ever Olympic victory, after upsetting host China and Germany respectively at Beijing Olympic women's handball on Friday.
"My focus was on defense. Because defense is crucial to success in match. I am not worried about our attack. To be honest, the Chinese team's defense was not as good as their attack," said Lev Yaniyev, coach of Kazakhstan after the match.
Yaniyev's confidence did not come from nowhere. During the match, his players kept breaking through China's leaking defense. The 1.63m-high winger Marina Pikalova, the shortest player in the court, netted in eight points to lead the team. While the 1.92m-tall Olga Ajiderskaya, the tallest one, earned six goals thanks to her powerful long shots.
After roaring past Angola 32-24 on Wednesday, China could have booked a ticket for the quarterfinal if they beat Kazakhstan. However, Chinese players cracked down under huge pressure, failing to score an opening goal before Kazakhstan surged a 5-0 run at the beginning of the match.
After center back Li Weiwei opened scoring for China eight minutes into the game, host conquered the pressure and regained their pace. However, they could not close the gap due to their poor defense.
The Chinese side can still lay their hope on Angola, who conceded 23-28 to Romania today in their fourth straight loss. If Angola wins their last game against Kazakhstan, China still have chance to enter the quarterfinal due to a better goal difference.
After tasted three bitter defeats, Sweden finally celebrated their first win by outscoring Germany 27-26 in Beijing. It was like a duplicate of the women's Olympic qualification game played in March, when Germany claimed the victory with the same scoring.
"It feels great to be smiling after a game. We have played together for a long time. Everybody has a role and every role counts," said Swedish pivot Sara Holmgren.
"We came here without any targets, so we had nothing to lose. The opponent apparently took on more pressure than us. If we win the next game against Brazil, we still have chance to enter the quarterfinal," said Swedish coach Ulf Schefvert in a post-match conference.
However, the Brazilian team had their own plan. After edging out inexhaustible South Korea 33-32 with a last-second shot, Brazil also saw their hope for the last eight.
European Champion Norway thrashed France 34-24, leading Group A with an all-win record. While world titlist stormed past Hungary 33-24 to become the only unbeaten team in Group B.
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2008)