Muscat: The Oman national beach handball team concluded their participation in the World Cup, which was held in the Chinese city of Pingtan, by securing 15th place after defeating the Puerto Rican team with a score of 2-0 in play-off match.
From the first minute, Oman national team took control of game and imposed its style on its opponent. Our players played with high morale and cooperated perfectly, benefiting from the experience of previous matches and the experience of prominent players Mahmood al Tharafi, Abdulhakeem al Siyaabi and Said al Hasani.
Yasser al Harthy and Mahmoud al Wahaibi shone remarkably and scored wonderful goals that shook the Puerto Rican net. The two Omani players managed to take a 14-8 lead in the middle of the first half.
The Puerto Rican team tried to resist, but they were unable to keep up with the speed and accuracy of the Oman national players. The Omani players continued their dominance until the last minutes, ending the first half with a 26-10 lead.
Oman national team entered the second half with the same determination, as the players continued to shine and the attackers' outstanding performance was evident, as they were able to convert all scoring opportunities into goals thanks to the high focus and individual skills of the players in the offensive half. The national team took all game control, while the performance of the Puerto Rican players improved and they succeeded in reducing the difference more than once, but the lead remained by a score of 20-14.
Oman player's dominance continued in both the defensive and offensive, with the performance of the Puerto Rican players declining, to end the half with Oman winning by a score of 25-16. With this superiority, the national team achieved a victory in two rounds without a response against the Puerto Rican team.
Oman played 9 matches during the tournament, winning two and losing seven. They faced difficulties in the group stage such as Hungary and Denmark, but they managed to defeat Australia to advance to the second round. They faced other challenges in the second round against experienced teams such as Brazil, Tunisia, and Spain, and lost all of them. They lost to the Uruguayan team in an exciting match to determine the places from 9 to 16, drawing in the two halves of the match and Uruguay won it on penalties. Then they lost to the United States on penalties in the match to determine places from 13 to 16, before achieving their last victory over Puerto Rico.
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