IHF Men’s U17 World Championship:
Iran defeats Puerto Rico to finish ninth
Iranian handball boys managed to win their second match in a row at the IHF Men’s Under-17 World Championship, defeating Puerto Rico 42-30, as the Asian champions finished ninth at the inaugural event in Morocco.
Player of the match Amirhossein Samarbakhsh and Farshad Nowruzpour each contributed with a game-high nine goals for Iran, with Ali Ghayour scoring seven.
Fresh off an impressive win against the host in their previous game, the Puerto Ricans started right on the front foot, building on an unanswered four-goal run to take a 7-4 lead and prompt the first team timeout from Iran.
Dylan Andreu and Antwan Garcia were the players to watch from Puerto Rico, before Iran began to turn up the pressure, with the biggest difference between the two teams in the first half being the shooting efficiency.
While Iran boasted a 74% efficiency, Puerto Rico hovered around 50% – largely thanks to Iranian goalkeeper Mehrshad Mansouri, who stood tall with 11 saves and a 44% saving efficiency in the first half.
Iranian boys took control as the first half wore on, as a 7-0 unanswered run turned the game on its head and helped the Asian side build a four-goal lead, 11-7, which it maintained to lead 19-15 at halftime.
The two sides had already met in the preliminary round, with Iran winning 38-33, but this time around, with Puerto Rico shuffling their cards in the second half, there was no question about the winner.
The Asian side, which dominated throughout the whole match, opened its first 10-goal lead (33-23) after 44 minutes, part of a four-goal unanswered run.
Eventually, Iran clinched a 42-30 win, finishing on the ninth place with two wins in five matches.
Iran began its campaign with a 45-20 loss to Germany, which went on to secure a place in the final, and then suffered a 38-29 defeat against Argentina in Group C.
The preliminary win against Puerto Ricco was followed by a 30-21 triumph over South Korea in the 9-12 place semifinals – a rematch of the final showpiece in September’s Asian U17 Championship, which Iran had won 28-25.