The fifth day had clear target – decide the final ranking of the pools. The first of these deciding matches was the game England against Germany. England started more concentrated, but Germans soon hit back and were ahead at half time 6-5. The second half was balanced until the 33rd minute when England scored three times in the row and this helped to decide the game in their favour, the game ending 18-14 in their favour. England then had to wait until the third match of the day to see if they would finish second in the pool. A win by Poland against the Czechs would place them 4th.

The Czechs started very nervously and it looked that Polish squad may well beat the Czechs, leading 3-1 after 12 minutes. A tactical change by the Czech team changed things dramatically and the Czechs went in at half time 8-4 in the lead. They kept this better level of performance until the end winning 15-7. This result made the English team very happy and Pool B ended with following ranking –

1. BELGIUM

2. ENGLAND

3. GERMANY

4. CZECH REPUBLIC

5. POLAND

In the other pool, Netherlands vs. Turkey was good  learning lesson for the Turks with a clear 28-12 (16-6) win for Dutch squad.

The fourth game of the day, Portugal vs. Catalonia, decided who would finish second in pool A. The Portuguese showed their strength and didn’t give the Catalans any more space than necessary, winning each half of the match in identical scores, 10-7, making the final result 20-14 and placing Portugal in second place.

The last game of the day, Russia vs. Hungary decided the lower rankings in pool A. Russia started better and ended the first half 10-7 ahead. However, Hungary didn’t give up and turned the score round to lead 15-12. At this stage it looked like the Hungarians became satisfied and gave the Russians chances to change the score again, which they did to lead 17-15. Hungary pushed hard to 16-17 and in last minute, despite having very long attack with 8 shots, their bid for saving the game was unsuccessful, making the Russians happy to win. So Pool A ended –

1. NETHERLANDS

2. PORTUGAL

3. RUSSIA

4. CATALONIA

5. HUNGARY

6. TURKEY

The third day started with game Russia against Turkey. There were no doubts about winner from the beginning as Russia was far stronger. Final score 17-10 (half/time 13-3). The following matches Belgium vs Germany 25-9 (h/t 15-6) and The Netherlands vs Catalonia 36-8 (h/t 20-4) just confirmed the expected victories by two dominants.

In the fourth game the result was clear as well because Portugal overcame Hungary 19-12 (h/t 9-2). The final game, however, produced the best game of the day and the biggest surprise so far when Poland shocked England by winning 21-13 (h/t 11-4). The English started badly and, like the Czechs the day before, seemed to be unsettled by what they considered to be some strange refereeing decisions in the opening minutes. This, coupled with hardly ever having more than one shot per attack (and that mostly inaccurate), led to what was probably the worst England display seen for many years and the Polish team thoroughly deserved their win. To make England’s day even worse, one of their better male players suffered a badly injured knee just before the end and had to go to hospital.

The second day started with very close and emotional match, Belgium vs England. The English team performed above expectations and spectators in the sports hall saw a really great game. The Belgians seemed to have left their guns in the hotel and needed a kind of luck in winning the match by a narrow margin – 13-12 after a 6-5 half time score.

The second match brought together the teams of Hungary and Turkey. In the first minute of the match there were three goals and the audience was looking forward to a big fire fight. However, the powder keg of goals didn’t explode. However, we got to half time with the score quite close – 8-7 but Hungary turned the score in their favour in the second half wining this stormy game 16-13.

For the Czech audience the most attractive game was the third game in which hosts clashed with rivals from Germany. It took a long time before the first goal was scored by the Czechs but within 10 minutes the Germans built up a three goal lead and held this until half time – 6-9. The Czech players and supporters seemed often surprised with decisions of the referee, so the atmosphere in sport hall became almost explosive. Confrontation between the Czech players and the referee continued in the second half, culminating with yellow cards for Jan Simek and Denisa Kolarova. The Czechs tried hard, keeping within one goal, but in the end failed to overcome the German defence. The match was ended 14-11 for Germany.

For the fourth game of the day we had Catalonia and Russia. The Catalans did not pass well in the first half which led to an increase in goals for the Russian side. Half-time was reached with a score of 7-11 in favour of Russia. In the second half the Catalan coach changed several players, which proved to be a good move, bringing the scores level at 14-14, and at the end of normal time the scores were still level at 19-19. This led to the second match to be decided by a Golden Goal, with the Catalans having lost the day before by this manner. Catalonia scored from first attack and Russian failed to reply in their attack, even getting yellow card for Sergey Glazkov, leaving the final score 20-19 in Catalonia’s favour.

The last match of the day was the Netherlands against Portugal. The Dutch team started quickly and with accurate shots from almost any point on the field took lead, which in the first half increased to 14-6. In the beginning of second half the Dutch coach replaced a whole quartet of players, which brought even faster korfball and more quality shooting opportunities. Portugal also managed to add a few more goals and the match ended with the score 32-13 in favour of the Dutch.

Tomorrow 6 July start the 16th IKF U21 European Korfball Championship in Olomouc, CZE.

THE 15 WINNERS OF THE IKF U21 EUROPEAN KORFBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

1.   1973 – Zutphen                         The Netherlands                    The Netherlands

2.   1975 – Marbella                         Spain   10 May                       Belgium

3.   1976 – Antwerp                         Belgium                                 The Netherlands

4.   1977 – Bochum                         FR of Germany                        Belgium

5.   1978 – Maidstone                      Great Britain                           Belgium

6.   1979 – Hoorn                            The Netherlands                     The Netherlands

7.   1981 – Deurne                          Belgium                                  The Netherlands

8.   1982 – Dordrecht/Papendrecht  The Netherlands                      The Netherlands

9.   1986 – Marbella                         Spain                                      Belgium

10. 1990 – Drachten/ Leeuwarden/ Heerenveen  The Netherlands    The Netherlands

11. 1996 – Wilrijk/ Hoboken             Belgium                                  The Netherlands

12. 2000 – Ghent                             Belgium                                  The Netherlands

13. 2002 – Rio Maior                       Portugal                                   The Netherlands

14. 2006 – Oeiras                            Portugal                                  The Netherlands

15. 2011 – Budapest                        Hungary                                  The Netherlands