The Spanish handball team won the Spanish International Tournament (TIE) held in Benidorm, beating Argentina (31-20), demonstrating a new offensive and defensive strength that only survived the first 25 minutes.

In this way, Jordi Ribera’s team closed the World Cup friendlies in Poland and Sweden with a full winning record and very good feelings especially in defense, while Argentina lost two of the three games.

The Albiceleste team put Spain in serious trouble in the first 15 minutes of the game. Milan’s team handles itself emotionally like few others and took to the track to clean up their image after the defeat against Romania.

Shots from Parker, a former Benidorm player, and penetrations from Vainstein, a player from Alicante, have done a lot of damage to an unstable and confused Spain in Ribera’s set seven-on-six game.

Despite Pérez de Vargas’ good level (6-8, 16 minutes), Argentina took control of the scoreboard, forcing Spain to change their defense system and fill their defenses with kilos and centimeters.

Improved defense against Parker and Pablo Simonet turned Argentina off the offensive stream and Spain managed to feel comfortable under the bat of Álex Dujshebaev, who had blown away teammates as well as scoring goals.

After the first Argentina timeout, ten minutes before the timeout, Spain withdrew into the locker room with a 7-1 run, with a comfortable six-goal lead (16-10).

Spain were again stuck at the beginning of the second act due to the poor performance of their center, who hadn’t had much success in front of the Argentine goal. The American team evaluated this situation well and reduced the gap to three goals (16-13).

After more than six minutes of offensive drought, Casado woke Spain up with the first goal, and improved defense against Simonet and Corrales’ saves quelled Argentina’s threat of a comeback.

Parker continued to shoot at nine yards, albeit with less and less precision. Spain finally felt comfortable playing to the rhythm of the Dujshebaev brothers and goals from the late Daniel Fernández and Odriozola.


Dujshebaev tries to score with a shot. MORELL/EFE


In the middle of the second half, Milan tried to stop the Spanish avalanche by taking a break (23-15), but by then Spain was already on their way to victory.

As the match became clear, the Argentine coach gave minutes to his less accustomed players, while Spain, who was insatiable in his second team, never took his foot off the gas pedal, increasing the gap to over ten goals.

Data sheet

31 – Spain (16+15): Perez de Vargas; Peciña, Ángel Fernández (1), Figueras, Solé (5, 3p), Garciandia (2) and Terrafeta (1) – starting with seven – Maqueda (3), Álex Dujshebaev (4), Corrales (ps), Serdio (1) , Casado (4), Guardiola, Sánchez-Migallón, Dani Dujshebaev (5), Odriozola (3, 1p) and Daniel Fernández (2).

20 – Argentina (10+10): Leo Maciel (1); Vainstein (1), Nacho Pizarro (3), Moscariello, Pedro Martínez (3), Parker (5) and Ramiro Martínez – starting with seven – Fede Pizarro, Pablo Simonet (2, 2p), Gavidia, Lombardi (2), Carró ( 1), Aizen, Cangiani, Barceló, Casanova (2), Bonnano, Bar (ps) and Wermbter (ps).

Score every five minutes: 2-1, 4-3, 6-7, 8-9, 12-9, 16-10 -rest-; 16-13, 19-14, 22-15, 25-16, 27-18 and 31-20.

Referees: Vladimir Yovandic and Marko Sekulic (Serbia). They excluded Ramiro Martínez and Gavidia from Argentina for two minutes; and for Peciña, Spain.

Events: The second match of the third day of the forty-seventh of the Domingo Bárcenas Memorial International Tournament in Spain (TIE) was played in front of approximately 2,200 spectators at the Palau d’Esports L’Illa in Benidorm.