The Cuban men’s team was left this Monday without options to be among the 24 best in the World Championship. handballconceding their third defeat in the elimination round.
The Cubans fell 38-28 against the Cape Verde team in the group stage of the tournament being held in Croatia, Norway and Denmark.
The island’s team came into the duel needing a victory to avoid the consolation round, but that aspiration was diluted by the display of the Africans, who sealed the victory with a comfortable margin of ten goals.
It’s 20 January and we report the end of the preliminary round at the 29th IHF Men’s World Championship Final rankings for Groups F and G ⬇️#CRODENNOR2025 #inspiredbyhandball
Match reviews https://t.co/sPrduTMdpB pic.twitter.com/qMXCEdQDIi
— International Handball Federation (@ihfhandball) January 20, 2025
In their last presentation at the Zagreb Arena, those led by Jover Hernández allowed fewer scores than in their two initial presentations, but that was not enough for them to finish in the last position of the G key.
According to the Cuban News Agency (ACN), “the difference in quality was evident from the beginning,” something that did not change before halftime, when the winners showed a 20-14 advantage.
In that first half, the performance of African goalkeeper Élcio Fernandes stood out, who in that period made 11 stops against the Cuban offense, which once again fell short of its potential.
Six key questions about Cuban participation in the handball World Cups
The most outstanding player in the attack for the island team was left back Frank Cordiés, author of seven goals and three assists. The same number of drills was signed by winger Maiko Antonio Vázquez, although he failed a similar number of attempts, the media reports.
In global statistics, the Cubans once again showed little effectiveness against the rival goal, with just 45%, a figure that contrasts with the notable success of the Cape Verdeans, capable of completing 38 of their 54 attempts.
After the most recent setback, the Cubans closed the preliminary stage with a score of 0-3, as they had previously been beaten by the representatives of Slovenia (19-41) and Iceland (19-40), in that order.
Cuba falls by a landslide during its debut in the Handball World Cup
The representative of the island, which came to the tournament with the guarantee of winning the title in the last World Cup for Emerging Nations, will begin this Wednesday its foray into the consolation round facing the Bahrain team, occupying the last place in section H .
The presence of Cuba in the present universal tournament had raised the expectations of the followers of this sport in the country, also sustained by the quality of the young figures, many of them inserted in strong foreign leagues.
Given what happened, the level exhibited is far from achieving the long-awaited return to the elite and trying to get closer to the eighth place achieved in the 1999 Egypt edition, which will continue as the best historical result in this field.
