World Cup exotic celebrates first victory
Cape Verde’s handball giants defy bed scandal
01/12/2023, 8:00 p.m
The preparation for the first game at the Handball World Championship in Sweden could hardly have gone worse for the exotic troupe from Cape Verde. During the night, several players have to change hotels – the day after, there is nothing left of it on the floor.
Despite a turbulent night before the game, the exotic handball players from Cape Verde celebrated their first World Cup victory ever. The Africans won their opening game at the finals in Poland and Sweden against Uruguay 33:25 (17:11) and are about to advance to the main round, which is reached by the top three teams in each group. Other preliminary round opponents are European champions Sweden and Brazil.
The game was not only a premiere for Cape Verde due to the first win, but also for Maike Merz (37) and Tanja Kuttler (34). The sisters from Baden-Württemberg were the first German female referees to officiate a men’s World Cup match. “We consider it an appreciation of our work to have been nominated for this World Cup,” Kuttler had previously said. The duo has been whistling together since 2008 and has also been used in the men’s Bundesliga since 2019.
“I don’t understand what the hotel was thinking!”
The day before there had been a lot of excitement in the Insel team because six players had to change hotels at night. The reason: the beds in the crew accommodation had crashed together. This was reported by the Swedish newspaper “Aftonbladet” on Thursday. “I don’t understand what the hotel was thinking! Some of the players are two meters tall and weigh over 100 kilograms. Nevertheless, they had to lie in wooden bunk beds, which then collapsed,” Nilton Delgado told the Swedish newspaper. The 49-year-old businessman, along with other supporters, is sponsoring the stay of the Africans at the World Handball Championship.
Cape Verde had already caused a stir at its World Cup premiere in 2021 in Egypt. At that time, the Africans were supposed to play against Germany in the preliminary round. However, due to numerous corona cases, the team had to cancel the game and ultimately withdraw from the tournament altogether.
Meanwhile, Hungary and Slovenia easily performed their first duties. Hungary won against South Korea 35:27 (21:11) and thus took the first two points in the strong Group D, which also includes Iceland and Portugal. Slovenia scored a mandatory win against Saudi Arabia, the 2017 World Cup third-placed team won 33:19 (16:8) and, like record world champions France, has the first two points in Group B. France defeated co-hosts Poland 26-24 in the opening game on Wednesday. In addition, Iran defeated Chile in Group A by 25:24.