18.02.2008, 10:15
Portland in CL form

The Spanish side won with a superb defence and the best performance in the season.

Portland in CL form

Portland San Antonio defeated Flensburg 30-22 with the best performance of the Spanish side this season. The Cabanas team had ups and downs during the whole CL season, but they have shown their best face on Saturday and took two valuable points. Svensson and the Spanish defence played a perfect match and gave a hard time for Flensburg.

Tomas Svensson celebrated his 40th happy birthday last week and gave a nice present for the Portland fans. He was a nightmare for Lackovic, Vranjes, Lijewski or Knudsen. The Swedish got a great help from his defence. Juancho Perez, Lars Jorgensen and Davor Dominikovic formed a great wall in front of the Flensburg stars. Portland reminded the fans of their best times in European handball.

Cabanas picked the players in best form for this important match. Kjelling and Vugrinec were mostly sitting on the bench, while Ruesga, Malmagro and Balic were determining in attack. The Spanish played the ball very fast and found the spaces in the German defence. Nikolic was important too. The Serbian line player found gaps in the wall and created good scoring opportunities for the backcourt.

Kent Harry Anderson did not find good solutions. The Spanish side took a quick lead and Flensburg were not able to come closer. Anderson tried to change all the players but Portland were better this time.

Only Swedish goalkeeper, Dan Beutler, was remarkable. His performance, however, was not enough to win the game.

The result only confirms that this is a real “death group”, a very equal one that will carry great emotions. The team that will be able to win away will have the biggest chance to take the first position of the group and advance to the CL semi-finals.

TEXT: Fernando Urra Goñi