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Handball News  (24/01/2008) Iceland lose last match and popular coach |
Coach Alfred Gíslason resigns as Iceland lose their last match against Spain.
Spain 33:26 Iceland (18:15)
Even though never getting into top gear, Spain made easy work of Iceland who were not able to follow up their excellent display against Hungary. The Spaniards seemed sluggish and even a bit disinterested after their bitter defeat against Sweden. Iceland, however, were unable to take advantage of that as they never got their defence working and the goalkeeping, so good against Hungary, was non-existent in the first half. Even though Iceland‘s goalkeepers only made two saves, the difference at the break was only two goals, Spain leading by 17 to 15. With half-decent goalkeeping, Iceland could have had a comfortable lead by then, but Spain have Hombrados in their goal, and he took care of his share of shots as usually.
At the start of the second half, Spain shored up their defence and Iceland had a bad 10 minutes in which they extended their lead to eight goals and after that Iceland never threatened. In the end, Spain won deservedly by seven goals, 33-26. Their best player and top scorer was Jose Garcia Loranzana who scored nine goals, five of them from 7-meters. Now, Spain will have to wait to see whether they will play for seventh place, or whether this was their last match of the tournament.
For Iceland, this was definitely their last match at this tounament and also their last one with Alfred Gíslason as coach. After almost two years at the helm, he told the Icelandic press present at the press conference about his decision. The reason being family reasons. Gíslason said that his work as coach of German club Gummersbach was incompatible with that as coach of the national team in the long run. |
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