Hanging in the balance

By Inas Mazhar
As runners-up in its group, Egypt made it past the first round of the world handball championship in France in what has been a fairly easy ride despite a loss to Sweden.
A fired-up Swedish squad set the record straight against Egypt, winning 29-23. In their last four meetings, Egypt had beaten the defending world champions twice. Armed with video games of the encounters, Swedish head coach Bengt Johansson mapped out a game plan to restore some semblance of order to world handball.
"We'll have to shoot a lot more," Johansson said before the game, adding that Christer Ericsson would be Sweden's go-to guy. Ericsson took charge indeed, scoring three out of Sweden's first five goals. The left-hander had been troubled with a neck injury since the opening game against Iceland and was forced to sit out his country's next three games. But against Egypt he showed no signs of rust.
The first half brought out the best in Sweden thus far in the tournament. Its defensive wall stopped the Egyptians dead in their tracks. When the Egyptians did manage to penetrate, 32-year-old goalkeeper Thomas Svensson repeatedly stymied them, showing an agility that belies his age. Svensson was playing in his 201st international, and his experience paid off as he saved four penalty shots.
Second-half action was blunted by the many minutes of penalties meted out by the referees, moving Johansson to describe the officiating as "horrible."
In the second half Egypt clawed its way back from a seven-goal deficit. Riding on the huge shoulders of Ashraf Awwad, Egypt reduced Sweden's edge to 22-20. But that's as close as Egypt would get. Sweden re-grouped and muscled its way back to the forefront. Winger Jonas Ernelind scored 10 goals, many coming in those crucial last minutes. Martin Frandsj� made the pair too hot to handle down the stretch.
Egypt, which lost 27-23 to Sweden in the quarter-finals of the Sydney Olympics, still hopes to become the first non-European country to climb atop a world championship podium. The defending African champions had gotten off to a flying start in France with a 28-19 victory over Morocco. Employing most of its players who won the 1993 junior world championship, Egypt built a 14-6 half-time lead and coasted thereafter against a Morocco squad which ended up fourth in the African championship.
Egypt then staged a dramatic comeback in the closing seconds against the Czech Republic to draw 26-26. After being down by no less than two goals almost the entire 60 minutes, the Egyptians went on a scoring spree, netting nine goals and allowing only one in that stretch. The offensive burst gave Egypt a one-goal lead but it was short-lived as Jan Filip tied it from the free throw line after being fouled.
Against Portugal in game three, Egypt took the game by four goals. Portugal led 7-5 after 20 minutes and 10-8 five minutes later. Twenty minutes into the second half, the teams were level at 15-15. From there on, the North Africans took control.
Iceland should have proven no match for Egypt but the 24-22 score said otherwise. Iceland jumped out from the start, but lost the lead after nine minutes. Taking a solid 12-7 lead at the half the Egyptians managed to let a 17-9 lead in the second half dwindle as Robert Julian Duranona and Olafur Stefansson rallied to put their country just one back. Egypt then hung on for dear life to win the nail biter.
Awwad had seven goals against Iceland to lead his team while Olafur Stefansson and Duranona both had six.
Following 68 matches in the first round, the dead wood is gone and the hard part starts. Any team losing from now on packs up early. Sweden is scheduled to meet Argentina, host France goes up against Portugal while Germany takes on Tunisia.
Croatia will meet the Ukraine, Spain will battle it out against the on-again off-again Norwegians and Iceland tackles Yugoslavia.
Olympic champion Russia has a rendezvous with the speedy South Koreans. Algeria goes up against Egypt in a rematch of last year's African final.
The matches, scheduled for Wednesday night, are being played in four new arenas in four venues: Marseille, Toulouse, Amneville and Albertville.
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