THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 25, 1996 TAG: 9607250624
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: The Hamton Roads Report
SERIES: Olympics '96: from Atlanta
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 51 lines
Eleven minutes remained in the United States' opening team handball game against Sweden on Wednesday night when Suffolk's Mike Thornberry made the staggering upset actually seem possible.
Thornberry rifled the ball, about the size of a large cantaloupe, past Swedish goalkeeper Thomas Svensson for a score that drew the anonymous U.S. handballers even with an Olympic gold-medal contender.
Two goals the rest of the way, however, doomed the Americans to only feel-good points as the Swedes escaped the Georgia World Congress Center with a 23-19 victory.
``Nobody expects us to play anybody within four goals,'' said Thornberry, a 24-year-old who scored on two of his four shots in the rough, fast-moving contest.
``They expect us to pretty much lay down and die, but we haven't been training two years to do that. People are going to see how good we really are and it's going to catch them off-guard.''
Maybe not any more. The Swedes never led by more than five goals, held only an 11-9 edge after the first 30-minute half and appeared in trouble when Thornberry, a 6-foot-6, 230-pounder, tied it up.
Sweden scored the next two goals, though, then reversed a two-minute rough-play penalty with 3:36 left by scoring twice while playing down six men to seven.
``That was the break right there that we could've made,'' said Thornberry, who came off the bench in the first half at the circle runner position, then played the whole second half at right wing in place of an injured teammate.
``I was very proud of what I did and what I was asked to do,'' Thornberry said. ``I did exactly what I wanted on defense. Maybe offensively I'll come around and I'll make four of four shots instead of two of four.''
The Americans, who have never finished higher than ninth at the Olympics and did not qualify in 1992, will play five more games. If they reach the medal round Aug. 4, the last day of the Olympics, it would shock handball watchers everywhere - and you know who you are. But Swedish goalkeeper Mats Olsson, who played the first half, can't say he'd rule it out.
``They have a good game. To play against them in the first game I think is the most difficult you can do,'' Olsson said. ``I think now a lot of teams will see the USA is a good team and have respect for them.''
Thornberry will take that, at the very least.
``I'm sure they respect our hustle and effort and our heart,'' he said, ``but I think more people are going to start respecting our skills and our technique now that we're starting to get better.''
KEYWORDS: OLYMPICS by CNB