Serb&Mont - South Korea 35-33

Zagreb, CROATIA, December 10, 2003 (www.wwhc2003.hr) - The most interesting game of the day, even before its own start, was the match between Serbia & Montenegro and South Korea. Members of the Serbia and Montenegro team opened the game in the better way, and with a high placed defense made lots of problem to Koreans. in the first eight minutes Serbia and Montenegro had a 5:1 advantage.

After S&M's 7:2 lead, the Koreans started to play defence more aggressively, with a ten meters pressure, and that gave good results. In the 14th minute the S&M lead was reduced to only one goal, 7:6. Most credits for that had Woo Sun-Hee who, in the 4:0 series for Korea, scored three goals. Serbia and Montenegro's team had a great deal of problems with the Korean defense, but they managed to score in attack. On the other side, Korea played very attractive, but couldn't equalize the result until the 20th minute, when Woo Sun-Hee leveled the score from counter-attack. The score was 11:11. After two Korean mistakes, S&M with goals from Dokic and Budimir had two goals advantage again. Koreans paid for their aggressive defense with many exclusions, but despite that, thanks to disposed Choi Im-Jong kept the game in suspense, and in the 29th minute equaled the score again, 17:17. Until the end of the first half Koreans enlarged their lead to 19:17, and S&M team was left without Ana Batinic, who got excluded for a very tough foul.

The beginning of the second half did not bring any essential changes. Korea was still in good rhythm and very fast went to plus four. Serbia and Montenegro's team was trying to reduce their lead and they accomplished that in the 41st minute, when after few Korean mistakes, plus doubtful refereeing decisions, they leveled the score at 24:24. After that Korea took the game in its own hands and soon after that extended its lead to two goals. Zoran Ivic's selection were waiting for the next tie up to the 50th minute, when they equaled the score at 29:29, and in the next attack Dokic scored for 30:29 for Serbia and Montenegro. With two very fast counter-attacks, Korea was leading again, 31:30, but with two mistakes in the row S&M had the chance to get to the final phase of the game with the lead. Bojana Petrovic and Andrijana Budimir took that chance in the 56th minute, and S&M was leading 33:31. The Korean game looked chaotic, and Serbia and Montenegro, from two easy counter-attacks, extended its lead to 35:31, three minutes before the end of the game. There were no changes until the end, and S&M won 35:33.

The best players in the winning team were Budimir and Petrovic with eight goals, and the best Koreans were Choi Im-Jeong with eight and Oh Seong-Ok with seven goals.

Zoran Ivic (coach of team Serbia and Montenegro): We were preparing carefully for a tough game that awaited us today. Based on what we knew we realized we had a chance against very good Koreans, who are used to excellent starts in games. This time we began better, but players forgot what we decided we should play and Korea went to half-time with a lead. In the locker-room I repeated what was our plan before the game began and in the second half my team reacted very well. We knew that the Koreans usually don't keep up their pace in the last ten minutes and wanted to capitalize on that. We raised our rhythm and deserved the win.

Bojana Petrovic (Serbia and Montenegro player): Although we played without Tomanovic and, later on, Batinic, we didn't really feel that they're missing, Tanja Milanovic replaced them very well. I think this game was decided by our defence in the final phase. We had a couple of steals and got to positions where it's easy to score from. It was extremely hard to attack against the quick Koreans. It's not easy to string a couple of passes in front of such defence because they're instantly right in your face and you don't have enough freedom.

          G   W   D   L    F-A   Pts
France    4   3   0   1  108-102  6
Spain     4   2   1   1  110-106  5
Russia    4   2   1   1  110-108  5
Korea     4   2   0   2  126-122  4
Serb&Mont 4   2   0   2  118-120  4
Austria   4   0   0   4  111-124  0

          G   W   D   L    F-A   Pts
Ukraine   4   3   1   0  109-105  7
Hungary   4   2   1   1  119-108  5
Norway    4   2   1   1  114-106  5
Slovenia  4   2   0   2  109-120  4
Germany   4   1   0   3  111-112  2
Romania   4   0   1   3  104-117  1