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Partille Cup: How can USA Team Handball best maximize this opportunity?

Filed under John Ryan blog, USATH News by John Ryan on July 17, 2011 at 18:43 {no comments}

USA Girls in action at the Partille Cup

The USA sent two youth teams recently to participate in International Handball Federation (IHF) Olympic Solidarity Program and the Partille Cup in Sweden. The Olympic Solidarity Program is an IHF funded program held to support developing handball nations and the Partille Cup is a massive youth tournament with club teams from all over Europe and the world participating. While I think it’s great that a handful of young American players are getting this exposure to Handball, some of the ugly score lines from the tournament got me contemplating whether the USA is maximizing this opportunity.

Boys Team Results from Partille Cup

Olympic Solidarity Camp Friendly Games
USA National Team 26-22 China
USA National Team 44-29 Singapore

Pool Play (16 and Under)
USA National Team 7-32 OV Helsingborg
USA National Team 9-22 Kärra HF
USA National Team 16-14 BK Ydun
USA National Team 17-22 TV Birsfelden
USA National Team 9-19 HC Eynatten-Raeren

Knock Out Tournament
USA National Team 8-21 Elverum IL

Girls Team Results from Partille Cup

Olympic Solidarity Camp Friendly Games
USA National Team 10-18 Scotland
USA National Team 12-23 Scotland

Pool Play (15 and Under)
USA National Team 3-22 Vorup FB
USA National Team 4-28 Kungsängens SK
USA National Team 4-27 Skövde HF
USA National Team 1-27 Klaebu IL
USA National Team 4-30 Skedsmo HK 1

Knock Out Tournament
USA National Team 5-14 Röyken og Hurum Graabein

Results Overview

A quick assessment of the score lines show that the boy’s team had some measure of respectability. They won their two friendly games against China and Singapore at the Olympic Solidarity Camp and compiled a 1-5 record in their Partille Cup games, with an average score line of 10-19. The girl’s team results were more lopsided. They lost both of their solidarity camp games to Scotland and were totally overwhelmed in every Partille Cup match losing their 6 games with an average score line of 4-25. (Note: These matches were 2X15 minutes, so to get a true picture you might want to multiply the scores by 2)

Top Prospect or Any Prospect?

While these score lines were ugly we shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking this was a wasted trip. I’ve written before about lopsided scores and the benefits the learning experience provides to the losing team. And in that commentary I was talking about much older teams. The two teams sent to Sweden were far younger and coupled with the training at the Olympic Solidarity Program this event was surely worthwhile for every athlete that attended. All that being said, however, I think USATH needs to be more low key as to the composition of this “national team”. This was clearly a developmental team and I would classify the participants as more any prospect then top prospect.

The play on words refers to the current youth focused effort established by the USA Federation: the Top Prospects program. There are a lot of positive things about this program as it’s providing funding, curriculum and structure to different regions of the country. There’s a clear application process and it may be presumptuous on my part, but I think if someone is motivated and takes the time to fill out an application they probably stand a good chance of getting some support to develop a local program. In short, the Federation is providing much needed support and incentive to start new pockets of development throughout the U.S.

But, while what I’ve just described is all well and good it appears that the program is probably falling well short of its stated mission of identifying “talented” future Olympic Players. I say this based partly on the ugly looking score lines from the recent Partille Cup. While those poor results can be partially chalked up to the vastly more experienced European clubs I think a team of future Olympic athletes could use that superior athletic ability to keep the game a little more respectable. This is especially true when you factor in that most of the clubs participating at the Partille cup are only drawing athletes from one small dot on the map, not an entire county or 300 million people.

But, then again the current reality is that the U.S. is probably working with a youth talent pool smaller than what many of those clubs are working with. In fact, based on Federation articles written promoting the trip and tryouts a cynic might even assess that just about anyone willing to pay for airfare probably could have put on a USA jersey.

The challenges of identifying top young talent

But, even if USA Team Handball had thousands and thousands in the talent pool vying for Partille Cup spots, identifying the future Olympian at ages 15 and 16 is probably a futile mission. Out of curiosity I checked out the USA Basketball website to see what kind of Under 19 and Under 18 rosters they’ve sent to assorted FIBA tournaments in the past 15 years. I didn’t do an in-depth review, but the typical roster only had 1 or 2 players whose names I recognized and with a few notable exceptions (Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh) I didn’t see a whole lot of Olympians. And this is for a U19 roster for a major sport where colleges spend hundreds of thousands of dollars recruiting and assessing potential high school prospects. So, with all those resources being applied they are either missing some talented players or more likely those talented players are still developing as athletes. And this is at ages 18 and 19! If you look at ages 15 and 16 players like Michael Jordan (he got cut from his HS Varsity team as a sophomore) would never ever get selected.

Recommendations: Focus on maximizing exposure

So, if you take into account that a sport like basketball can’t do a great job of identifying Olympic talent at young ages, it’s very unlikely that we’re going to do the same for Team Handball. And if you couple that fact with the other challenges our sport faces competing against other more established sports, we need to make sure were maximizing the potential benefits of Partille Cup participation. And in my opinion, maximum benefit equals maximum participation. With that in mind I have the following recommendations.

1) Maximize nationwide participation: The rosters for the Partille Cup had fairly heavy representation from only a few Top Prospect programs. Notably, the girl’s team was mostly from New Jersey while the boy’s team was spread out a little better with 3 players each from Salt Lake City and Chicago. I would argue that it would be better to further spread out that representation, so that only 1 or 2 players be allowed to participate from a local youth program. Such a quota would give more players from clubs and Top Prospect programs exposure to the Partille Cup experience.

2) Limit participation to “one and done”: Attending an event like the Partille Cup can be life changing for a young athlete. It is a totally unique opportunity and has the distinct possible outcome of creating new Handball fans for life. Attending the same event in subsequent years, however, will not have a significant multiplying effect. Therefore, it would be far better to maximize the numbers of kids who get that opportunity. Hence, my one and done proposal to ensure that as many kids as possible get that experience. Undoubtedly, this will mean the official USA teams that are sent won’t be as strong, but results are really secondary at these ages. (A short side note here: There’s nothing to prevent anyone participating or creating their own team to play in this event. I’m simply talking about the teams that are getting resources from USA Team Handball.)

3) Come up with a new name for the team: Since the criteria above will keep us from sending our best team forward the USA team should be given a name like “USA Select” or “USA Development Team”. This is semantic, but in terms of promotion to the rest of the world it will help to at least partially explain ugly score lines.

4) Continue to promote the event: My compliments to Kyle Hanson and the USATH staff for their regular reporting on this event. This isn’t the first time a team from the USA has attended, but it’s the first time it’s gotten the exposure it deserves. Future prospects will read those reports and target this as an event they want to play in. Promotion is key to getting the word out and expanding the talent pool.

USATH: Top Prospects Program Overview: http://assets.teamusa.org/assets/documents/attached_file/filename/37770/Top_Prospects.pdf

USATH (18 Feb 11): 20 Athletes Converge on Colorado Springs for Youth National Team Selection Camp: http://usateamhandball.org/news/article/41031

USATH (10 Jun 11): USA Team Handball youth taking on the 2011 Olympic Solidarity Program and Partille Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden: http://usateamhandball.org/news/article/42763

USATH (15 Jun 11): U16 Boys and Girls Rosters Named for Partille Cup: http://usateamhandball.org/news/article/42855

USATH (28 Jun 11): U16 Girls Training Camp in August at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center: http://usateamhandball.org/news/article/43135

USATH (13 Jul 11): Youngsters shine at Partille Cup: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/07/13/youngsters-shine-at-partille-cup/43521

Partille Cup VIDEO: Olympic Solidarity Overview: http://partillecup.com/eng/index.php/home/webb-tv/?film=4407

USA Basketball (Under 19 History): http://www.usabasketball.com/mens/u19/history.html

Brazil Women win gold with dominating performance

Filed under Uncategorized by John Ryan on July 3, 2011 at 15:43 {no comments}

Brazilian women celebrate after easy win vs Argentina

Brazil easily defeated rival Argentina 35-16 on Saturday to win the Gold Medal at the Women’s Pan American Championships. The contest was never in doubt as Brazil held Argentina scoreless for the first 13 minutes on the way to a 22-5 halftime lead. Throughout the tournament, Brazil was clearly the best team with an average margin of victory of 19.2 goals. The closest any team came was 15 goals by Cuba and Mexico in Group Play.

Looking ahead, the Brazilian women will be overwhelming favorites to win the Gold medal and Pan American Olympic spot at the PANAM Games in Guadalajara this October. On top of that they also appear to be in good position for a breakthrough performance when they host the World Championships in December. In 2009 they beat runner-up France in pool play, but then placed a disappointing 15^thplace after failing to qualify for the Main Round. They’ve shown they can play with Europe’s best and with most of their roster now with several years of experience playing on top European clubs they know they have the talent. Add the benefit of hosting the event a run to the semifinals is a distinct possibility.

With Brazil separating themselves from the rest of the pack it appears that the PATHF women’s team can currently be grouped as follows:

Tier 1: Brazil
Tier 2: Argentina, Cuba
Tier 3: Uruguay, Chile, Dominican Republic
Tier 4: Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, USA, Canada

While it may be all but a foregone conclusion that Brazil will win Gold at the PANAM Games, the tournament does present an opportunity for teams to compete and show improvement against upper tier teams. With Cuba not participating in the PANAM Games due to their decision not to play in the Central American and Caribbean there should be an interesting battle between the tier 3 (Uruguay, Chile and Dominican Republic) and tier 4 teams (Mexico, Puerto Rico and USA) for semifinal spots. Beating Brazil and Argentina is not likely for those teams, but a bronze medal opportunity is certainly a possibility.

Women’s PATHF Championship Update: Iron Women Cubans demolish Chile with just 7 players

Filed under Cuba, PanAm Handball by John Ryan on June 29, 2011 at 13:44 {no comments}

7 Iron Women from Cuba played all 60 minutes vs Chile

The 2011 Elite Women’s Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) Championships are underway in Brazil with the expected favorites having little trouble in the first round of matches. Of particular note, though, was Cuba’s 40-21 thrashing of Chile with only 7 players. It’s not clear as to why the Cubans decided to have their team travel in two separate groups, but it’s clear they sent the right 7 players first. The “Iron Women 7″ arrived in Brazil on Tuesday and apparently didn’t take long to find their rhythm as the game was never in doubt. Argentina, Brazil and the Dominican Republic also had relatively easy wins.

The top 3 teams (not counting Brazil- already qualified) will qualify for the World Championships to held later this December in Brazil.

Mundo Handball: Cuba will play the first match of Pan American Championships with only 7 players: http://www.mundohandball.com/articulos/cuba-jugara-el-primer-partido-del-panam-solo-con-7-jugadoras

PATHF Twitter Feed: https://twitter.com/#!/panamhandball (includes a live and taped video feed- Not the highest quality, but our compliments to PATHF for their efforts to provide fans with this option.)

PATHF Competition Page: http://www.panamhandball.org/index.php?option=com_joomleague&func=showResultsRank&layout=bydiv&p=28&Itemid=65

Qualification Update

Filed under Uncategorized by John Ryan on June 14, 2011 at 14:13 {no comments}

All but 3 teams have now qualified for the Women's World Championship in Brazil this December

The last two weeks included several qualification matches for the Women’s 2011 World Championship and the Men’s 2012 European Championship. Both events will play a part in the eventual qualification for the 2012 Olympics. To see which teams have moved closer towards a slot in London check our updated “Qualification Pages” on the right hand side of the page.

NBC buys Olympic Team Handball through 2020: Will they capitalize on that purchase?

Filed under Uncategorized by John Ryan on June 12, 2011 at 15:28 {8 comments}

A re-imagined home page for www.universalsports.com

On Tuesday, NBC outbid ESPN and Fox for the U.S. TV rights for the 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020 Olympics for $4.38 billion dollars. That’s $4,380,000,000, or as I like to say a lot of “zeroes”. And part of that purchase is the right to broadcast the Team Handball competition at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics. It’s highly doubtful that Team Handball factored into NBC’s winning bid, but that point is moot. Regardless, they own Team Handball’s most prominent showcase in the U.S. Which leads to a couple of questions:

Will NBC broadcast more Team Handball in the upcoming Olympics?

To NBC’s credit they pretty much web streamed every men’s and women’s match in 2008. Broadcast TV options, however, were somewhat limited. While more Team Handball was shown than ever before most of it was broadcast on the Life and Bravo networks. True devotees could find it, but the “stumble upon” opportunity for new fans was pretty small. With the recent merger of NBC and Comcast, however, NBC will have more channels to broadcast events like Team Handball and it wouldn’t surprise me if the packaging of sports like Team Handball, Field Hockey, sailing, etc is more consistent. So, yes, I think we’ll get more coverage in London, Rio and 2020.

Will NBC broadcast Team Handball outside of the Olympics?

While it’s nice to get the Olympic stage every four years in the U.S., the bigger question is what will happen in between Olympics. As anyone who follows Team Handball in the U.S. knows the sport receives very little exposure on TV. Baby steps have been made like the Comcast broadcast of the Germany-Poland match in 2010, German Bundesliga matches on the My Sports Germany channel and the Mhz network’s broadcast of the EHF Game of the Week this past season. All well and good, but again these options have limited market penetration and are more for the true devotees than potential new fans. To really spur the sports growth in the U.S. a committed patron willing to showcase the sport on a major network is needed. Will NBC be that network?

There’s at least a chance they will be. Buried in the reporting of the NBC victory, was a small snippet (only reported in a few media outlets) that the contract allows for the creation of an Olympic Channel if NBC, the USOC, and IOC can come to an agreement. You might recall that back in 2009 the USOC trumpeted the creation of an Olympic Channel agreement with Comcast (which was then a separate entity from NBC). Less than a year later, however, the USOC sheepishly shelved the project due primarily to NBC and the IOC both expressing displeasure with the USOC going at it alone.

A year later the landscape has changed dramatically. NBC and Comcast are now a merged company and that merged company has bought the Olympics through 2020. The USOC is playing nice with the IOC and is planning to renegotiate the USOC’s financial share of U.S. Olympic TV rights.

Moreover, NBC has shown just how well they can promote a low profile sport if they put their mind to it. Back in February, I wrote an article profiling what they are doing for Rugby 7s with their annual World Series event in Las Vegas. Just this past weekend they showed several hours of a collegiate rugby 7s tournament in Philadelphia on NBC, the Versus network, and the Universal Sports channel, which has a web streaming and
broadcast presence. In fact, I would venture to guess that this Universal Sports channel will soon be rebranded the Olympic Channel.

And it doesn’t take much to imagine Team Handball getting a presence on this web page. Hence, my doctored photo of their homepage. While it might have been expensive for NBC to travel to Guatemala for a Team Handball qualifier there’s plenty of content available which would have minimum production cost. The EHF Champions League, the German Bundesliga, the World and European Championships, next spring’s Olympic qualifying tournaments. Throw in a few events where the U.S. is participating and you have a nice channel to complement the rugby, cycling, and swimming options.

I know you’ve heard this before so many times. But, Team Handball will sooner or later have a place in the American sporting consciousness. It won’t take up as much space as our major sports, but if there’s room for Rugby 7s, lacrosse, etc., there’s room for Team Handball. Here’s hoping that NBC will see the light.

Broadcasting and Cable (7 Jun 11) Confirmed: NBC Universal Wins Bidding for Olympic Games: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/469360-Confirmed_NBCUniversal_Wins_Bidding_for_Olympic_Games.php

THN (9 Jul): Olympic TV channel set to launch after 2010 Olympics: http://teamhandballnews.com/2009/07/olympic-tv-channel-set-to-launch-after-2010-olympics/

THN (1 May 10): U.S. Olympic Channel venture officially over: http://teamhandballnews.com/2010/05/u-s-olympic-channel-venture-officially-over/

THN (28 Feb 11): Promoting Team Handball in the U.S. (Part 1): Las Vegas Rugby 7s Tournament: Undoubtedly, a model to follow: http://teamhandballnews.com/2011/02/promoting-team-handball-in-the-u-s-part-1-las-vegas-rugby-7s-tournament-undoubtedly-a-model-to-follow/

THN (12 Mar 11): Promoting Team Handball in the U.S. (Part 2): How is Rugby getting promotion done right?: http://teamhandballnews.com/2011/03/promoting-team-handball-in-the-u-s-part-2-how-is-rugby-getting-promotion-done-right/

Fatsis requests more Team Handball, ehfTV delivers!

Filed under EHF News, Handball Webstreaming by John Ryan on June 8, 2011 at 02:39 {no comments}

Will German Coach Heiner Brand go out a winner?

There’s little doubt that NPR’s Stefan Fatsis, is America’s #1 mainstream media reporter Team Handball fan. Just this past Monday, Fatsis gave a shout out (starts at 58:15) to the USA Men’s National Team for their qualification for the PANAM Games and at the same time put out a plea for more Team Handball viewing opportunities. Well what Fatsis requests, the European Handball Federation (EHF) delivers. And in a big way starting on Wednesday with 2 critical European Championship Qualification matches webstreamed for free at ehfTV.com

European Qualification for Team Handball can often be a humdrum affair with top teams quickly distancing themselves from weaker teams in their group leading to inconsequential games in the final rounds. Not so in Group 5 this year as Austria, Germany and Iceland are locked in a 3 way battle for two spots. All three sides control their own destiny and the first pivotal match will be Austria hosting German Wednesday night. Austria leads the group with 7 points and Germany is in 2nd place with 5 points. An Austria win would qualify Austria and put Germany in a dire straight as Iceland, currently in 3rd place with 4 points will likely knock off winless Latvia to move into in 2nd place with 6 points. Germany, in all likelihood will pick up 2 points from Latvia on Sunday as well, but then they will need an already qualified Austria to knock off Iceland in Iceland. So, translation: This is must not lose situation for Germany. (Also, based on goal differential for a three way tie, Germany would be in good shape with a draw)

But it’s also a key match for Austria, because they surely know that beating Germany in Innsbruck is going to be a whole lot easier then beating Iceland in Reykjavik. Should Austria lose to Germany the Iceland-Austria on Sunday will become a true elimination game with the winner punching a ticket to the EURO 2012 and the loser staying home.

The 3rd match has Lithuania hosting Spain. At first glance, this looks to be a showdown between two sides fighting for one remaining spot. And indeed both sides are level on 4 points. Only problem is that Spain is clearly a better side (they won the first head to head match in Spain 33-17) and Lithuania has to travel to Croatia on Sunday. So, even if Lithuania pulls off the upset, they’ll likely need Spain to lose again to Romania.

Handicap point spread in parenthesis

Wednesday, 8 June, 2011, 2015 CET (1415 US East Coast)
Germany (-1.5) at Austria
ehfTV On Demand: http://www.ehftv.com/ech/adults/men/2012/video/001751

AUDIO Commentary popup is below (Synch with the ehfTV video webstream)

Thursday, 9 June, 2011, 1845 CET (1245 US East Coast)
Spain (-6.5) at Lithuania
ehfTV Live Link: http://www.ehftv.com/ech/adults/men/2012/live/high/001750
ehfTV On Demand: http://www.ehftv.com/ech/adults/men/2012/video/001750

Sunday, 12 June, 2011, 1630 (Iceland Time) (1230 US East Coast)
Austria at Iceland
ehfTV Live Link: http://www.ehftv.com/ech/adults/men/2012/live/high/001752
ehfTV On Demand:http://www.ehftv.com/ech/adults/men/2012/video/001752

Subject to the on demand streams being posted in timely manner and the demands of the Ryan family household I will do an audio commentary of the Austria matches.

Stefan Fatsis article in NY Times (11 May 2009) Team Handball Has It All…: http://www.stefanfatsis.com/2009/05/11/team-handball-has-it-all/

Austria vs Germany (1st Half) ehfTV clock 9:15 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1574)

Austria vs Germany (2nd Half) ehfTV clock 52:27 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4755)

PATHF Second Chance Tourney: USA defeats Guatemala 38-24 to qualify for the PANAM Games

Filed under Uncategorized by John Ryan on June 6, 2011 at 04:50 {no comments}

Team USA poses for a celebration photo after their 14 goal victory over Guatemala

Team USA easily defeated Guatemala 38-24 in the third and final match of the 2nd Chance tournament in Guatemala City, Sunday night. Due to the USA-Uruguay, 23-23 draw the night before the USA needed to win by at least 8 goals to pull ahead of Uruguay on goal differential and first place in the tournament.

The win now means that the USA has qualified for the PANAM Games this October in Guadalajara, Mexico. Eight nations (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, Canada and USA) will vie for the 1 Pan American Olympic qualification spot for the 2012 Olympics in London. Argentina and Brazil are the prohibitive favorites, but Team USA should compete for a semifinal spot as the 6 teams below those two sides are more evenly matched.

Final Standings
1) USA 1-1-0 3 Pts 61 47 +14
2) Uruguay 1-1-0 3 Pts 43 35 +8
3) Guatemala 0-0-2 0 Pts 36 58 -22

USA Federation write-up: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/06/06/usa-men-qualify-for-pan-american-games-for-first-time-since-2003/42652

PATHF Second Chance Tourney: USA – Uruguay draw 23-23

Filed under PanAm Handball, USATH News by John Ryan on June 5, 2011 at 15:26 {no comments}

23-23: A draw vs Uruguay means goal differential will be key for the U.S. tonight against Guatemala

Game 2 of the Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) 2nd chance tournament ended in a dramatic 23-23 draw. According to a recap provided by USA Team Leader, Jim Thome, the match was a see-saw affair throughout with the largest lead being a 3 goal lead for the U.S. The match was a physical affair with 15 two minute penalties being assessed (8 for Uruguay and 7 for the U.S.)

A further account of the match including the last minute is at the USA Federation site: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/06/04/usa-ties-uruguay-in-second-chance-tournament/42643

Qualification for the PANAM games will now come down to goal differential in the final match between USA and Guatemala later today. On Friday, Uruguay beat Guatemala, 20-12, so a 9 goal or more USA victory would put the USA at the top of the table. A 7 goal or fewer win would see Uruguay qualify. An 8 goal victory would revert to the next tie breaker, total goals scored, so the U.S. will be looking to score 21 or more goals in the match.

Guatemala cannot win the title, but as host, can play the spoiler. For a young team playing in front of a home crowd against the big country to the North this will surely be a challenge they will relish.

Note: I now plan to interview Mark Ortega after Sunday’s match. Throw off is at 6:00 PM local (8:00 PM East Coast Time). I will try to post the interview by 11:00 PM East Coast time.

PATHF Second Chance Tourney: Uruguay opens with 20-12 win over Guatemala

Filed under Uncategorized by John Ryan on June 4, 2011 at 06:00 {no comments}

Team USA poses prior to opening ceremonies Friday night in Guatemala

Uruguay and Guatemala opened the Second Chance Tournament in Guatemala City, Guatemala Friday night with a 20-12 victory over Guatemala. The U.S. and Uruguay will play the 2nd game of the tournament on Saturday night at 8:00 PM (10:00 PM U.S. East Coast). If Uruguay wins they will secure first place and qualification for the PANAM Games later this year. A U.S. win will put the U.S. in good shape to qualify, but they would still need to defeat Guatemala on Sunday night.

U.S. National Team Captain Mark Ortega chats with John Ryan and about Friday’s match and Saturday’s showdown vs. Uruguay. (Running time is 9 minutes)

Interview with Mark Ortega (3 June 2011 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2924)

Podcast: EHF Champions League Final Four Discussion

Filed under Uncategorized by John Ryan on May 30, 2011 at 01:28 {no comments}

John Ryan and Christer Ahl discuss the EHF Champions League Final Four matches that took place on Saturday and Sunday, as well as the event’s format, schedule and promotion. Running time: 37 minutes

Note: Be forewarned, the quality of the audio is sometimes spotty and on a few occasions there’s some feedback that could be ear-piercing if you have the volume set too high. And, if anyone out there is a wizard at skype audio recording and has a few tips that could help us improve the sound quality please drop me a line at john.ryan@teamhandballnews.com

Standard Podcast Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2931)

EHF Final Four (Best Weekend of the Year for Handball Webstreaming Fans)

Filed under EHF News, Handball Webstreaming by John Ryan on May 27, 2011 at 14:17 {no comments}

Four teams will battle for the Champions League Trophy this weekend and you can see it all at ehfTV.com

No complaints from this Handball fan in regards to this weekend’s matchups. The semifinals on Saturday should be interesting to say the least with the Liga Asobal and the Handball Bundesliga going head to head in both matches. Rhein-Neckar is a 2.5 goal underdog to Spanish champions Barcelona. Rhein-Neckar will have the home country court advantage while Barcelona will be going for a rare 2 sport “double” with their sister team going for the Champions League soccer title later in the evening. The second match pits German champion Hamburg vs. Spanish runner up Ciudad Real. The oddsmakers couldn’t pick a favorite between these two titan, so don’t be surprised if it goes down to the end.

On Sunday, there will be two more matches with the semifinal losers squaring off for 3^rd place, before the final match. ehfTV will be broadcasting all four matches live and will have English commentary with Tom O’Brannagain on hand for pre and post game commentary as well.

Match Schedule (Handicap point spread in parentheses)

Saturday, 28 May

Rhein-Neckar vs. Barcelona (-2.5) (ehfTV: 3:15 PM CET, 09:15AM (U.S. East Coast)
On Demand Broadcast: http://www.ehftv.com/final4/ec/cl/men/2010-11/video/001671

Ciudad Real vs. Hamburg (Pick em) (ehfTV: 6:00 PM CET, 12:00 PM (U.S. East Coast)
On Demand Broadcast link: http://www.ehftv.com/final4/ec/cl/men/2010-11/video/001672

Sunday, 29 May

3rd Place Game: 3:15 PM CET, 09:15AM (U.S. East Coast)

On Demand broadcast at ehfTV: http://www.ehftv.com/final4/ec/cl/men/2010-11/video/001711

Final: 6:00 PM CET, 12:00 PM (U.S. East Coast)

On Demand broadcast at ehfTV: http://www.ehftv.com/final4/ec/cl/men/2010-11/video/001712

U.S. TV Broadcast

There is also a televised tape delayed broadcast of the Final on the MHz Network in the U.S. at 4:00 PM (U.S. East Coast) on Sunday, 29 May. For information on how you can watch MHZ see this link: http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhzworldview/carriage/

Side note: For those of you who can’t watch the matches live, be advised that you may want to strategically use a sheet of paper to avoid seeing the still photos used for the on demand video link. I’ve pleaded with the EHF to not use a trophy hoisting celebration photo (for those who don’t want to know the outcome), but I haven’t got any response as to whether they will meet this reasonable demand. UPDATE: If you use the links above you can watch the games without knowing the outcome. However, if you go to ehfTV.com directly be advised- you’ll immediately know the outcome.

ehfTV Preview of Final Four: http://www.ehftv.com/ehfCL-show

Time for a True European Super League (Part 3): Why playoffs are overwhelming superior to season long championship

Filed under EHF News, John Ryan blog by John Ryan on May 22, 2011 at 14:24 {no comments}

For the past few weeks, America's #1 Handball fan has been watching this German athlete more than the German Bundesliga. Why?

In Part 1, I highlighted how Europeans might want to consider making their sports leagues more like their Governments. In Part 2, I provided an overall framework for a European Super League In Part 3 of this series I take on the totally absurd notion that NBA/NHL style playoffs won’t work for European Professional Handball.

First, let’s establish that I’m a big fan of the sport of Handball. Heck, I’ll go out on a limb and state that I am the #1 fan of the sport in the U.S. Certainly, I doubt that any of my 308,000,000 compatriots watch more Handball on TV or the internet on a yearly basis. (If you think you’re a bigger fan, please drop me a line at john.ryan@teamhandballnews.com and will compare notes.) So, it should be clear, I’m not here to bash the sport. In fact, you’ll be hard pressed to find a bigger promoter of it.

Secondly, I’m not some clueless American who doesn’t understand European sports traditions. On the contrary, I lived five years in France and became totally immersed in the club sport culture. I played one season of lower division Handball and four years of over age 35 basketball in Levallois, a suburb of Paris. Ask me what I enjoyed the most about living in France and I will say without hesitation it was playing club sports. Oh, how I wish the U.S. had clubs where individuals of every level can play from the age of 5 years to 70. (Yes, incredibly there was a 70 year old player on our basketball team. I’ll never forget figuring out just how old he was after he told me about the Americans throwing him candy from the tanks back in 1945.)

Third, I think I’ve got a pretty good understanding of European professional club handball. Living in France, I became a pretty big of the French League and this year, I’ve enjoyed watching around 70 German Bundesliga matches. It’s truly been great to immerse myself in what is clearly the top professional Handball league in the world.

So, sorry for the diatribe, but I think I’ve got some pretty strong credentials to take on this topic. And while there are many aspects of the American sports model, I’d like to see Europeans adopt, the most needed reform is clearly the addition of playoffs. I’ve always thought this, but the TV viewing choices I have made the last few weeks have brought even greater clarity to the validity of this position. To further explain, let’s just say that there are only so many hours in a day available to watch sports. And earlier this year, for the first time in my life, I could choose to watch traditional American sports or Handball. And while I didn’t go cold turkey on the sports I grew up with, Handball took priority. Even more remarkably, basketball, my first sport passsion, became an afterthought.

But as Hamburg’s run to an HBL title became all but apparent my interest started to wane and since the NBA playoffs started in mid April my DVR queue has started to pile up with HBL matches. Why would
America’s self-proclaimed #1 Handball fan suddenly prefer to watch basketball over handball? Do I really have to explain this? OK, the answer is:

In terms of entertainment value, meaningless games with no bearing whatsoever on a championship cannot even begin to compete with the compelling “do or die” nature of a playoff format.

I’d like to maintain that even defenders of the championship format won’t argue this point. They might argue about the logistics and the fairness of playoffs, but nobody in their right mind should argue about the entertainment value. Seriously, do you want to watch Balingen-Kiel with nothing on the line or game 5 of Kiel vs. Hamburg for the title?

However, entertainment value is not everything. Although, arguably for a professional sports league it should be the most important thing. But, since this is Europe there are other reasons to defend the Championship model. Herewith are some of those reasons and a rebuttal as to why they aren’t valid.

1) It’s not the fairest way to determine a champion. Players could be injured at the end of the season and a team that was playing poorly earlier in the year could get “hot” and win the title. Only a championship format will fairly reward a team for consistent performance.
Rebuttal: If every club knows the rules for determining the league winner before the season starts, then whatever method is used can be considered fair. Furthermore, what can be fairer than to have two teams play each other in a best of 5 or best of 7? Seriously, the likelihood that an inferior team is going to put together 4 upsets is pretty unlikely. No, if you can beat the other team 4 times, then clearly you are the better team.

2) Europeans only care about their local teams and are not interested in watching other teams play.
Rebuttal: If you have two high quality teams going head to head in a playoff series people will watch and when they watch, if they have a pulse, they can’t help but get drawn in. In the recent NBA playoffs, I found myself becoming a fan of the Memphis Grizzlies, an 8 seed that knocked off the 1 seed, San Antonio and then battled Oklahoma City to a game 7 final in the next round. I knew absolutely nothing about that team prior to the playoffs, yet ended up making sure I saw everyone of their games. Could the same thing happen in Handball? You bet and I would probably put middle of the road HBL side like Grosswalstadt in that category. Sure, their victory over Kiel in Kiel was interesting, but other than dropping Kiel down a notch what did it mean? Now, imagine Grosswalstadt as an 8 seed that #1 seed Hamburg has to be wary of in a 5 or 7 game series. Hey, that sounds interesting. I’m going make sure I see that.

3) It’s too many games. The season is long as it is. Adding playoff games will make it even longer.
Rebuttal: If you structure the league properly it won’t be too many games. In particular, in order to properly stage playoffs, it will be necessary to shorten the regular season a couple of months.

4) Clubs that don’t make the playoffs will have fewer games and will lose revenue. With a shortened regular season clubs that don’t make the playoffs will have nothing going on for the last couple of months. What will the players do and won’t that be devastating financially to those clubs?
Rebuttal: Well, I can’t argue about the fewer games. That’s life in the big city. The financial loss will not be devastating, however, if the league has revenue sharing for their TV contract. Not all of the revenue would be shared 100% equally, so clubs and players would still have lots of incentives for winning and advancing in the playoffs. As an aside, you might find it interesting to note that NBA players (especially those with high salaries) are ridiculously underpaid during the playoffs, making only a fraction more than their base salaries. In theory, if money was their only object, many of them would be better off losing and relaxing on the
beach.

5) These playoffs would interfere with Champions League. If two clubs were going head to head and one of them was still in the Champions League it would give an unfair advantage to the team that wasn’t.
Rebuttal: No argument from me on this one. This is why, if you re-read part 2, you’ll see where I highlight that Super League teams would not participate in the Champions League or National Cups. You can’t do both and as I explained if there was a true Super League, you wouldn’t want to. Don’t get me wrong as things are currently structured the Champions League is the best thing going. Next weekend, I’m really looking forward to the semifinals and final. Those games mean something as they are “do or die” and a championship is on the line. Still, if I had my druthers, those 4 sides wouldn’t be playing 2 knockout games. No, they’d be playing two best of 5 semifinal series. And instead of watching the Bulls vs. the Heat or the Mavericks vs. the Thunder on TV every other night I’d be taking turns watching R-N L vs. Barca and Hamburg vs. Ciudad Real. I can dream, can’t I?

The IHF Super Globe is fine as an all star event, but not as a serious competition

Filed under Christer Ahl commentary, IHF news, Uncategorized by John Ryan on May 13, 2011 at 06:19 {no comments}

The IHF Super Globe is anything but "Super"

Once again the IHF is staging the Super Globe in Qatar this weekend. It purports to be a club championship of the continents, but with most of the world’s best players playing in Europe it’s more of an all star event, especially with the other continents hiring additional Euros to beef up their rosters.

Christer Ahl had a commentary last year that pretty much covers it. As not much has changed, here it is again:

http://teamhandballnews.com/2010/05/the-ihf-super-globefine-as-an-all-star-event-but-not-as-a-serious-competition/

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The IHF Super Globe is fine as an all star event, but not as a serious competition

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