In handball, one thing is clear: if Spain is playing for an Olympic bronze, there is no discussion, it is theirs. The blessed rule of the Hispanos, who fall in the semi-finals and get up to get on the podium. Atlanta 96, Sydney 2000, Beijing 2008, Tokyo 2020 and Paris is the sequence of the happy bronze of the handball team, a team that recycles itself like no other to continue in the elite.
It was decided, as befits Jordi Ribera’s team, in the last metre of the gorge. Mackovskev’s final shot fell at the feet of Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas and the team exploded in the morning in Lille, forced in two days to forget the pain of the defeat against Germany.
The new work of this Spain reformulated since Tokyo was built by Pérez de Vargas, Spain’s greatest certainty, Jorge Maqueda gave him the icing on the cake this Sunday, Álex Dujshebaev directed the plane in the storm, Aleix Gómez flew in his corner to stop Slovenia, and as he is always capable of finding solutions in the narrowest alleys, a fake winger like Miguel Sánchez-Migallón invention two goals from the corner in the second half.
From the bronze in Japan to the bronze in France, another Spain was woven that reached the same destination. More than half of the team changed compared to the Japanese event. But this time it had to rebuild itself from the extra blow in the semi-finals, because Germany was winnable, much more so than Denmark in Tokyo. Pérez de Vargas’ lament of “it was today” after losing in the semi-finals left the air with the doubt of whether this time it would also find the emotional spring. And it did, of course. The gold went to Denmark, which swept Germany 26-39.
The first response had to be one of character and no one better to scare away weaknesses than Jorge Maqueda, a soldier who always goes forward. He stirred up a team that was once again struggling in attack: four goals in 16 minutes (4-6). His appearance in place of a dull Imanol Garciandia put the team on another track. Two consecutive goals from him in penetration, a forced exclusion, and a ration of speeches, plus a collective defensive improvement, woke up the Hispanos in the first half.
Aleix Gomez’s injury
Playing for bronze at dawn, with coffee and croissants in the stands, did not seem like the best strategy on the last day of the Olympics. Even so, people flocked to the Lille football pitch, which had been converted into a handball court (and before that, a basketball court). The goalkeepers set the pace at the start and Blaz Janc was the most undetectable element for the Spanish defence (four goals at half-time).
At the break, 12-12, both teams had their eyes washed away. Spain took control with slight advantages, but did not break away. At most, they were two goals ahead. They did, however, find goals in less familiar places: two from Abel Serdio in the pivot and, above all, a couple from Sánchez Migallón from the left wing when Dani Fernández was resting. With that and the strokes of Agustín Casado, the team kept up the pace against a Slovenia in which Aleks Vlah followed the path of Janc.
Spain still had another escape maneuver left, when the Balkan team turned it around to 19-20 with eight minutes left. And that was when surgeon Aleix Gomez came in (21-20). A goal by the elder Dujshebaev seemed to avoid another agonizing final seconds (23-21 with two minutes left), but that didn’t work either. Slovenia got within one, Aleix Gomez was injured in the last possession of the Hispanos and the Balkan team had 19 seconds to force overtime.
Other thriller And this one with a happy ending. The usual one, that of Olympic bronze. Five medals in one Games and all of them in the third place. An hour after the match, some players were still thinking about “what if we had won the semi-final…”. A thorn that did not prevent another conquest.
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