WE’RE FINALLY THERE. The wait, 365 days long, is coming to an end to know the successor of the French rugby team, winner of the FFL d’Or 2023. And who other than their handball counterparts to carry the torch during the Next 365 days?
1ᵉʳ – French men’s handball team
If there is one French men’s team that we did not suspect of one day prancing at the top of the FFL d’Or, it is that of handball. We are still talking about a team that has been triple Olympic champions over the last four editions, with a silver medal as their worst result since 2008. No really, nothing prepared us for this. And it is not his coronation at the Euro in January, the fourth in its history, which could have contradicted us. But water has passed under the bridge, and seven months later, a 180° turn was taken by the Blues. If the start to the Olympic Games was admirably sluggish, with zero victories in the first three matches, the French still managed to get out of the groups and qualify for the quarter-finals.
These take place on Wednesday August 7 at 1:30 p.m., at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy. While the whole of France is having a peaceful lunch, it will suffer a violent misdirection at 3:10 p.m. However, before this turnaround, everything was going wrong. And Vincent Gérard’s twelve saves absolutely did not help our cause. With a sickening save percentage in the first period (46%), the French goalkeeper allowed the Blues to lead 17-14 at the break, then 20-14 after the locker room. The stampede.
But in 15 minutes, France scored a brilliant 12-5. The Germans are back in front, and they themselves don’t understand how. Then comes THE fail of the year, the one who alone assures him the throne of the FFL d’Or. There are 6 seconds left on the clock, and France leads 29-28 WITH possession. Sending the ball to the other end of the field would have allowed the Blues to run out the clock, but they are possessed of unprecedented panache. Instead of playing trickster, the French want to win with honor, and seek to restart cleanly. A little too much even. Dika Mem finds a hand, but it is German. Two seconds were enough for Renars Uscins, who lives up to his first name, to shake Vincent Gérard’s net. 29-29. You have to pinch yourself to believe it.
“Sometimes you need a little luck, we had it” Renars Uscins
Some call it luck. Others, like us, genius. The whole of France is in shock at this choke. The biggest sabotage in the history of French handball has just taken place before our eyes. Our pupils were not prepared for such a tsunami, it will take many weeks to digest this happy news. And as good news never comes alone, the French team struggles to lose the match in overtime (35-34), and take the door in its own Olympic Games. Absolutely unreal.
This elimination also sounds the death knell for Nikola Karabatic and Vincent Gérard, both victims of early retirement. But given their painful exploits in the jersey of the France team, we will not miss them. The French handball players did not bring any Olympic medal to France for the first time in two decades (!). A page of history has just been written before our eyes.