Men's National Team Falls to Portugal in World Championship Opener

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by Matt Collins

The U.S. Men's National Team dropped a 30:21 contest to Portugal, in their first match of the 2025 IHF Men’s Handball World Championship.

Portugal, who qualified for the tournament by finishing 7th at the 2024 EHF European Men’s Handball Championship, proved to be a strong opponent for the American side.

The United States was able to open the scoring after 90 seconds with a successful 7m penalty from Alex Chan Blanco. However, it was nearly eight minutes before the U.S. again found the back of the net, as Abou Fofana was able to score from the 9m line, after having his prior three attempts from that range blocked by a sound Portugal defense. 

As the lead for Portugal started to grow, a 3:1 run in the final three minutes of the first half for the U.S., including a Drew a Donlin goal at the buzzer, saw the first-half damage limited to only a five-goal deficit for Robert Hedin’s side, 15:10

Coming out of the break, Portugal was able to go on a 4:1 run to extend their lead to eight, as the teams crossed the 37-minute mark.

In what turned out to be arguably the goal of the day for the entire tournament, Sean Corning’s goal in the 50th minute turned some heads. After a Joey Stromberg pass out to the right wing saw Corning cut down his shooting angle, his leg caught the defender and while facing away from the goal, flung the no-look shot behind him, hitting the back of the net. 

Fofana got his third goal of the night with 30 seconds to go to keep the Portuguese victory in the single digits.

(Photo by IHF/Kolektiff)

Sam Hoddersen led the Americans with six goals, with five coming from 7m penalty shots.

Goalkeeper Pal Merkovszki made 10 saves during the match, finishing with a 32% saving efficiency.

A less than ideal shooting efficiency, which hovered at 50% for most of the match, combined with 17 turnovers, are certainly areas where the American squad will have to improve heading into their next match.

The U.S. will take on the hosts, Norway, (Friday, Jan. 17 | 2:30pm EST| ESPN3) who surprisingly were upset by Brazil in their opener. The South American side became only the fourth non-European team ever to defeat a European host at the World Championship, with Argentina defeating Sweden in 2011 being the last occurrence.

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