LATVIA beat Turkey 22-21 to make it two wins out of three in the Women’s Four Nation International Handball Tournament here in Sheffield.
Nine goals from influential captain Ivita Asare helped them to victory, but it was their tightest match so far and they weren’t sure of their win until the last seconds of this enthralling encounter.
Turkey Under 21s went into the match looking to make amends for two straight defeats, and their whole squad showed a passion right from the warm-up - something that had been missing from their previous two games.
Digdem Hosgor opened the scoring for Turkey with 25 seconds on the clock as the opening moments saw scores traded.
Turkey’s initial positivity was soon dampened though as Julija Stanovova, Jolante Bicka and Ivita Asare with two stamped Latvia’s authority on the match to make it 6-2 midway through the half.
The young Turkish team were finding it impossible to breach the physically superior Latvians and were restricted to taking pot-shots on the goal from distance as they simply couldn’t get close enough to the goal as their frustration was compounded by a series of missed opportunities in front of the Latvian goal.
This frustration was relieved somewhat as Fatma Akgun scored Turkey’s first goal since in 13 minutes as her strike made it 6-3 to Latvia in the 20th minute, but this was quickly followed by a mistake from Hosgor, who lost possession in front of goal to Ina Gundega who scored on the fast-break to make it 7-3 to Latvia.
Turkey were buoyed on by their vocal squad support and rose to the occasion, scoring four goals in the space of two minutes to bring the scores within one as the physical Jolante Bicka and Nadezda Kalasnikova found themselves sitting out the final minutes of the half, after receiving two-minute suspensions within 30 seconds of each other.
With five seconds left on the first half clock Kezban Arslan scored for Turkey to make it 10-9 to Latvia but, but immediately following the goal they switched off for half time and allowed Asare to score an easy goal as Latvia went into the break two up at 11-9.
The second half started with a missed penalty from Latvia as they ensured that Hosgor’s threat was nullified by employing a series of players to mark her out of the game. This, however, ensured Hosgor herself could catch her breath and re-group for what was to be an evenly-matched exciting finale.
Turkey increasingly found rewards from their wingers and their regular scoring ensured that they were never more than two strikes away from the Latvians throughout the half as Latvia become increasingly physical.
But Turkey were more than a match for their opposition and rose to the challenge again as they bought the scores level through an excellent jump shot by Hatice Yildiz to make it 19-19 with eight minutes left, despite handing their opposition two guilt-edge opportunities to increase the lead as they gave away easy possession twice which the Latvians failed to capitalise on.
A frantic last minute saw Hosgor determinedly score to make it 21-21 with 40 seconds remaining, but Asare scored her ninth and final goal of the match to make it 22-21 as Turkey called a time-out to plan their final attack and intensify the occasion for the watching crowd.
With possession and nine seconds left on the clock, Turkey pushed for the equaliser, but couldn’t make their final chance count and the clock struck full time to finish the best game of the tournament for the neutral observer.
Turkey Under-21s Scorers: Kezban Arslan 6, Digdem Hosgor 5, Ceren Salur 4, Fatma Akgun 2, Neriman Sevgilican 2, Hatice Yildiz 1, Kubra Sen 1.
Latvia Scorers: Ivita Asare 9, Elita Ekkerte 5, Jolante Bicka 2, Julija Stanovova 2, Darja Guseva 1, Silvija Klavina 1, Ina Gundega 1, Agne Skabarde 1.
