Three victories for the Netherlands
The hosts of the EHF EURO 2012, the Netherlands, welcomed Tunisia last weekend for a series of test matches.
The Netherlands won all three matches. After a clear victory on Friday (30:21), the "oranjes" struggled a bit on Saturday (29:27), but then outclassed their opponents on Sunday (36:24).
National Team coach Henk Groener shuffled his cards for each game, giving playing time to several new players in his squad. On Saturday Yvette Broch, Nycke Groot and Pearl van der Wissel were all rested.
With the three victories and a successful and informative training period during the week, the Netherlands look forward to the Olympic Qualification Tournament, where the Dutch players will compete against hosts Spain and strong Croatia.
Groener analyzed: "We have trained hard for a week and the new players have done extremely well. This makes the choices very hard, but it also indicates that in the selection, we have for certain positions excellent alternatives."
He continued: "The advantage of these three games was that we could directly learn the things that need to be better. On Saturday we have shown by struggling on that we can have a bad game and yet still win with team spirit. On Sunday we played sharp and we were well on track. In mid-April, a month before we travel to Spain, we will announce the squad for the Olympic Qualification Tournament."
Results summary:
23 March 2012: The Netherlands - Tunisia 31:20
24 March 2012: The Netherlands - Tunisia 29:27
25 March 2012: The Netherlands - Tunisia 36:24
TEXT: Márk Hegedüs
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