Following the rearrangement of a number of games at the 2018 World Championships on the opening day in Hamburg Germany.
It was the Netherlands women, one of the tournament favourites, who got the first win of the Worlds, against Spain women, 86 - 24. A strong performance, assisted by Mariska Beijer’s 37 points, ensured they issued a warning statement to all the other teams in the competition.
Netherlands Head Coach, Gertjan van der Linden, commented after the game, “It was the first game, so the players were very nervous and had to settle into the tournament first. The second half was much better than the first one by a long way and in two days we will play against Australia and then we will see. "
It was lack of clinical finishing that proved to be one of Spain’s shortcomings in this game, shooting at only 22% from the field meaning they never threatened the Netherlands in any way.
Spain’s Head Coach, Abraham Carrion, said, ”The first game was very tough for us as the Netherlands are a very good team and we are now trying to forget the result and focus on the things we can do better in two days we'll be a stronger team in the game against Canada and hopefully show more fighting spirit.”
The second game of the day saw debutantes Argentina women, take on experienced China women. The experience proving to be the deciding factor in the games as China, as they pushed out to a 32-8 halftime lead. With a healthy margin China’s coaching team rotated their bench, however, Argentina continued to fight throughout the second half and managed the winning score, 30-28, but the damage had already been done and the deficit was too much to claw back, the game ending 60-38.
A short break in play was then taken, to enjoy the spectacular Opening Ceremony, where the teams, officials, sponsors and fans were all welcomed as the event officially opened.
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After the Opening Ceremony, the German men played in front of a packed home crowd against Morocco men. A noisy fan pushed them into an earlier lead 22-6 and following this quarter they were in control of the game, finishing with quarter scores of 15-4, 20-11 and 21-13, to end with an 84-40 victory to the Germans.
Germany’s, Christopher Huber, said: "I think we can be happy after such an opening game. We will definitely take the good mood that prevails here into the hall into the next game against Iran. We are now focusing on the next game against Iran and will the game against Morocco was excellent preparation for this. Hopefully we'll drive home for the next victory."
Morocco’s Adelhak El Hadaoui, said, "It was a very difficult game against a strong team whose level we could not maintain. We tried to give our best possible and have at least managed to score 40 points against the strong and young German team. We will try to improve in the next games. "
Next up were the German women against Algeria women, again it was a one-sided affair as Germany stormed to victory, 87-24. Germany’s Marina Mohnen hit a game high of 16 points, followed closely by Djamila Khemgani with 15 points
Photo courtesy & Quotes of Rollstuhlbasketball WM 2018 Hamburg - Uli (www.uliphoto.de)
