Defending champions Denmark are in danger of missing the men's goalball quarterfinals of Beijing Paralympics after going down to Slovenia 2-4 on Monday at BIT Gymnasium.
After a surprise draw with Spain in Sunday's opening round, Denmark were desperate for a win. However, they did even worse and lost the game.
"I didn't expect that we would lose the game against Slovenia. Our attacking is good, but the defence didn't last. Anyway, losing was not a shame," said Peter Weichel who scored one goal for Denmark.
However, Denmark did not lose their confidence. "Our first step is to enter the quarterfinals. We'll wait and see. Although we failed today, we still have lots of chances to make that," said Weichel.
As unfortunate as Denmark, Canada, defending champions in women's goalball, lost 6-5 to Brazil, who were upset by China 5-3 on Sunday.
"Canada is a fairly strong team. We trained pretty hard on defence and did a lot mental adjustment yesterday. We also trained our techniques and skills. Our physical and mental training made me not nervous at all today," said the Brazilian Simone Silva, the only one who played the whole 20 minutes.
With one 3-3 draw with Sweden and one loss to Brazil in the first two rounds, the defending titlists would try much harder to get the tickets for the quarterfinals.
Hosts China clinched two wins again in both men's and women's goalball.
Crashing the Athens bronze medallists the United States 13-3 on Sunday, the Chinese men showed once again their power by trouncing Sweden, the Athens silver medallists 13-8.
China's key player Chen Liangliang, contributing seven goals to the match, has collected 12 goals so far.
The Chinese women kept their halftime 3-0 lead until the very end, conceding no goal to Germany.
"It's the preliminaries, so it's no need for us to play all out. We shall reserve our strength for the more difficult games later," said head coach Shao Baolin.
"At this stage, we try to play as steadily as we can. A win is enough, even just one score," he added.
In men's Pool A preliminaries, hot favorites Lithuania, beating Belgium 9-5 on Sunday, consolidated their foundation by powering past Finland 15-5. Belgium outplayed Spain 12-6.
In men's Pool B, Canada got revenge for losing to the United States in the bronze medal match in Athens with a 8-2 win. Iran, who made debut at Paralympics in 20 years, routed Brazil 8-5.
In women's court, America, the Athens silver medallists, kept their hopes of a gold medal on track today with a steady 2-0 win over Denmark. Japan, the Athens bronze medallists, suffered 4-1 defeat to Sweden.
The Chinese men's team next confront Canada and the women's take on the United States on Tuesday.
(Xinhua News Agency September 8. 2008)