ABDULLA Ali displayed a man-of-the-match performance to lead Bahrain’s youth team to a 34-17 win against Hong Kong in their first game of the Seventh Asian Youth Handball Championship.
The tournament, which takes plays at the Khalifa Sports City hall, in Isa Town, sees nine teams vying for three automatic berths – the two finalists and the team finishing third going through – in the World Youth Handball Championship to be held in Georgia next year.
Bahrain started the first half in slow fashion as both teams got on the score sheet taking the score to 3-3 in the first five minutes.
Bahrain coach Ibrahim Abbas, who is loaned to the federation from Samahij Club, was seen instructing his players to switch formations from 6-0 to 5-1 instead.
The purpose of the change was to disrupt any creation of chances early on for Hong Kong.
Following the change, Bahrain managed to take control taking a comfortable lead with Abdulla leading the attacks.
The first half ended with Bahrain leading 17-6.
The second half was seen as a perfect chance for coach Abbas to give a chance for more players to get more involved as he constantly rotated his team while keeping his main players around.
Bahrain started the second half in a strong fashion viciously attacking Hong Kong with the latter unable to stop the hosts.
Hong Kong’s youth team are recently established and are on their first ever Youth Asian appearance.
Also in Bahrain’s group, Japan defeated Saudi Arabia 28-24.
The loss put Saudi in a critical situation as a loss today against Bahrain would mean an early departure for the team.
The results mean Bahrain are in the lead in Group ‘A’ with two points and a +17 goal difference, while Japan come in second on equal points but a goal difference of +4.
Iraq, who are yet to play in the group sit in third place, with Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong sit in fourth and fifth place with zero points and a goal difference of -4 and -17, respectively.
In Group ‘B’, title contenders South Korea needed minimal effort to prove their presence in the tournament after overcoming Uzbekistan 53-27.
The Koreans, who have won the titles in 2005 and 2014, made good use of their technical and physical advantages against a very weak Uzbekistan side.
They played a well-defensive game locking down at the back while depending on fastbreaks and counterattacks to penetrate their opponents’ defense.
The first half ended with a 28-11 lead for South Korea, which made them slow down their tempo in the second half. Having guaranteed a win, Uzbekistan managed to score most of their goals.
The second game of the group saw Qatar overcome China 27-20.
The results mean South Korea currently top the table in Group ‘B’ with two points and a goal difference of +26 with Qatar in second, tied on points but a goal difference of +7. China come in third place with zero points and a goal difference of -7 while Uzbekistan sit at the bottom of the table with zero points as well but a goal difference of -26.