World Games Day 3

Chinese Taipei – Russia 24-20 (15-9)

After the deception of the day before Chinese Taipei started without much conviction allowing Russia to take the lead. But with clear instructions from the coach the team soon set things right to obtain a comfortable position at the break.

It was a similar game after the break with Taipei assuring the goal difference and Russian eagerly trying to close the gap. At the end everybody was happy with the score of a rather predictable result.

The Netherlands – Czech Republic 42-19 (15-10)

Sometimes when teams play The Netherlands they show too much respect but the Czechs started the game trying to keep the gap as close as possible and they pretty well succeeded in this mission. That was, of course, until the Dutch machine became fully operational.

In the second half, with a big crowd to entertain, the Dutch team showed that korfball players are highly skilled athletes. In a thrilling atmosphere the lack of struggle for victory was highly compensated by the technical moves of the competitors. Excellent entertainment and a record aggregate score (61 goals) in a World Games korfball match surpassing the 58 scored in yesterday’s Dutch match.

Great Britain – Portugal 17–20 (8-8)

Much emotion in this game. Both teams knew they had to win to preserve their chances for the semis. Portugal put all its efforts in quick but nervous physical play. It was countered by slower actions as a result of the more tactical plan of Great Britain.

Misunderstandings, bad passing, bad shots and exceeding the shot clock time were typical occurrences for the start of the second half. Portugal then managed to create a small lead for which there was no answer in a first stage. England somewhat unlucky missed a few good chances that could have kept them hope. Portugal missed a penalty that could have been decisive and this gave confidence to the opponents. An atypical situation, a shot without any chance on a rebound, went in for the Portugal to win this exciting match.

Belgium – Germany 33-7 (20-4)

Germany did not field their best team so Belgium did not have a hard time to set things in the right direction from the start. The second half continued in a similar vein.

This was an attractive match for Belgian supporters and addicts of statistics.