Saturday’s, EHF Cup 2nd leg match between Goppingen and Creteil, ended in controversy during the waning seconds of the match. Creteil had won the first match in France by 4 goals 30-26. With 30 seconds remaining and trailing 23-19, Creteil needed to score one more goal to cut the lead to 3 and win by aggregate. (Note: Goppingen would advance on a 4 goal victory due to the away goals rule).

Creteil’s last offensive series was somewhat unorganized and Goppingen was able to disrupt it on 3 occasions with contact fouls. With 2 seconds remaining the last foul was called. Creteil player, Pierre-Yves Rigault, realizing that time was winding down quickly executed a direct 9 meter throw that surprised the goalie and hit the back of the net. One ref signaled a goal and Creteil started to celebrate. The other ref, however, said no and a 5-10 minute discussion which included table officials resulted in the goal not being allowed and Creteil being given 2 seconds back on the clock. With no element of surprise and a set defense in place the end result (no goal) was predictable.

Now, in defense of the officials, replays clearly showed that one Creteil player had not fully moved beyond the 9 meter line and several German players were clearly closer than 3 meters to the throw off. Still, as I think about it, it seems to me that these sorts of situations happen all too often and one simple rule changes could fix these end of match problems.

That rule change would be to simply adopt a basketball style stoppage of time for the last minute of every half. That would mean, if a whistle blows, the clock stops– immediately. The current system, by which officials decide to blow the whistle 3 times and stop the clock, is too wide open to interpretation. After a goal is made, the official has to make a decision as to whether the team is moving fast enough to half court to start play. After a foul, the official has to decide whether the offense is moving outside of the 9 meter line and the defense is moving 3 meters away from the ball fast enough. If we simply take this decision out of the hands of the ref, these controversial judgment calls won’t have to be made.

Not only would this eliminate these stall tactics, it would also eliminate the all too common ploy to simply foul the other team as the clock winds down, as the worst thing that can happen is a 2 minute penalty (assuming it’s not foolishly done in the act of shooting). The IHF now regards flagrant instances as “serious unsportsmanlike conducts,” but the remedy of not allowing a player to play in his next match is not very satisfying to the team that’s eliminated. (Nor is it working- every other EHF press release seems to be a disiplinary notice on this very subject.) And even if it’s not flagrant, do we really want to see a succession of 9 meter throw after 9 meter throw as the defense tries to run out the clock?

Will this change the game? Yes, the stoppage of the game clock will extend the last minute of a game slightly. I would estimate that it would add perhaps another minute in real time for close games. Teams also would no longer foul quite as much at the end of the game as the reward of taking another 5-10 seconds off the game clock would be gone. There still will be fouls, of course, but the defense’s only reward would be the opportunity to set back up on defense. And this reward will be offset by the offense getting an opportunity to run a set 9 meter play.

While, I suppose it could be argued that the current rules are fine the way they are. I just don’t see what’s so exciting and compelling about waiting to see if the ref thinks one team’s stalling has gone too far and deserves a stoppage of the clock. If this simple rule for clock stoppage was added, the ending seconds of a game would hinge more on the skill of the players, and less on the judgment of the referee.

The back and forth arguments regarding seeding for the SETHC playoffs resulted in the unfortunate dismissal of the ATH from the SETHC. The questions regarding seeding were raised by ATH Coach, Chris “Cap” Cappelmann and centered around Benedict College receiving the number one seed despite having won fewer games in the conference. For those unfamiliar with traditional Handball (or Euro format) standings, the ranking of teams is done strictly by the points awarded for wins and ties. Winning percentage is not used, so by Cap’s logic (and traditional Handball circles), ATH with an 8-2 record should have received the #1 seed over Benedict’s 7-1 record.

For whatever reason, however, the SETHC and its commissioner, Andrew Washington chose to use the winning percentage method and awarded Benedict the top seed. This decision and example scenarios concerning seeding was then sent out via email in January to the SETHC. The time for complaining (justified complaining, in my opinion) would have been shortly after that email and prior to the matches played in February. Waiting until after those matches and shortly before the play-offs is simply the wrong time to make your case.

The resulting email dialogue which grew increasingly personal led to the commissioner’s decision to remove ATH from the league. Cap, in my opinion, had a valid point, but made the point at the wrong time and in frustration, also crossed the line in his dialogue with Andrew. And regardless of how much you feel your team has been wronged, it’s important to keep perspective on just how important that seeding was in relation to the opportunity to have competition.

Andrew, in my opinion, could have been a little bit less dismissive in responding to some of the email traffic. I also think that if the earlier email containing the scenarios was resent that might have resolved the issue earlier. And finally, perhaps the punishment should have been simply on the coach, instead of the entire team. (e.g. suspension for the first day of the tournament)

But enough! I think everyone should move on from this and learn from it. Having two good teams in the same town is quite a luxury to have. I’m sure clubs like Utah, Cleveland and other locales are scratching their heads. Some of the commentary I’ve seen also suggests that ATH and Atlanta Metro need to better share the workload logistics for making a league work. That sounds like a good plan. Let’s also hope that next season the league adopts 100% clear parameters at the start of the season and that these rivalries are settled on the court, instead of the court of public opinion. But maybe this will be settled on the court sooner than that. Hmmm, I wonder who’s setting the brackets for the USOC Championship next month.

If Championship Boxing can have multiple titles for multiple fighters than why not Handball?

As reported earlier, the current or former (take your pick) President of the USATH, Mike Hurdle, has already announced a National Championship in Georgia to take place in May over Memorial Day weekend. The USOC has now announced that they will be hosting an Open Championship in Houston at the end of April. So this begs the question, which one is the real championship? But perhaps, the better question is, does it really matter?

After Mike Hurdle informed us of the USATH Championships, I started a running email dialogue on the topic with him. In particular, I questioned the format of the tournament (over 5 days), the timing (Memorial Day Weekend) and the location (Georgia). Basically, my points were that this was too significant of a time commitment over a major holiday and that the announcement’s flavour was a little too parochial in my book.

Mike’s response was that the intent was to move beyond the “Beer Hall Nationals” mentality and to have a higher quality, elite level tournament in which the teams will have an opportunity to rest. Additionally, he emphasized that the focus is on the Junior Divisions and he anticipates a lot of youth participation from the local area- hence the Georgian flavour of the announcement. Mike also pointed out that the Condors would probably even send a team to the “Beer Hall Nationals” that the USOC is subsidizing.

Well, my own personal perspective, is that it sounds like Mike Hurdle is setting up a nice tournament in Georgia and he should be strongly commended for the Junior Division focus. I also like the format over what has been traditionally done at US Nationals in the past. I would be hard pressed to make that kind of time commitment now, but if I was a younger, more dedicated athlete that’s the tournament I would go to if I thought it was going to be well attended. Which is the crux of the matter. The US, unfortunately, is probably not quite ready for a format like this. Maybe next year, but not this year as tumultuous as it has been. I expect that this USATH Tournament will be “National” in name only. Teams will have a choice on what to do. Some might even go to both, but I’d expect that most teams will vote for the smaller time commitment, smaller dollar expenditure and the traditional format.

So to answer my rhetorical questions… The real National Championship will be the one with the best National representation. And does it matter? No, not really.

Well, normally when I talk about March Madness it’s related to the USA’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. It’s always been my favourite sports time of year and there’s nothing quite like the magic of several games taking place at the same time with the inevitable buzzer beaters and upsets. Last Saturday, however, courtesy of the EHF, it was March Madness: Team Handball style.

First up was Kiel-Flensburg. Some prognosticators had predicted a dull game with the likelihood of Kiel beating Flensburg in Flensburg by 5 goals as highly unlikely. Those prognosticators were dead wrong, as the aggregate winner was in doubt until the very final seconds as Kiel almost pulled out a miracle. Due to a higher number of away goals, Kiel only required to win by 4 and with less than a minute to go they had closed the gap to 3. Some tough defense and a disoriented final attack/controversial non called foul sealed the deal for Flensburg and a trip to the semifinals. Flensburg fans, perhaps having feared a repeat of last year’s nightmare against Montpellier http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_teamhandball_archive.html, can now breathe a sigh of relief.

The second match between Spanish rivals Barcelona and Portland San Antonio also was a see-saw affair with Portland-San Antonio and Ivan Balic holding on to win on aggregate. Living in France, I also had the opportunity to see my favourite team http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/2005/10/top-10-reasons-why-i-love-to-hate.html , Montpellier fall to Veszprem (Hungary). (Yes, I was watching 2 matches at the same time, just like a sports bar back home!) Montpellier kept it interesting until the final minutes, but the 2 goal aggregate lead simply wasn’t enough. Tunisian National Team player Wissem Hmam certainly has a gun of an arm, but he is perplexingly inconsistent. Montpellier clearly misses having Karabatic in the backcourt.

Side note: The good news about Montpellier losing is that it probably means the EHF will be able to show both semifinal matches live on the internet. Just a guess, but I would bet that Sports Plus would not allow games to be broadcast over the internet. When France played in the semifinals and finals at the European Championship Sports Plus offered to sell the broadcast rights to the over air French stations for 400,000 Euros. The over air stations balked at the price resulting in outrage from Handball fans that an Ireland-Wales rugby match was broadcast instead. Adding even more salt on the wounds was the first ever live over air broadcast of the American Football Super Bowl early the next morning. With 2 Spanish clubs, a German club, and a Hungarian Club internet broadcast is more likely. The first leg of the semifinals is 25-26 March and the second leg is 1-2 April, which is the same weekend as the final four NCAA tourney. Nothing like a double shot of March Madness!

You can read more about the matches at the EHF Champions League website:

http://championsleague.eurohandball.com/index.asp

Major kudos to the EHF for providing this free live broadcast last night. That’s the type of promotion this sport needs more of. Here's some of my thoughts on watching Handball live on the web for the first time:

Viewing Experience

Well on a 1-10 scale, with a 1 being a 1970ish over air reception on a small Black and White TV and a 10 being an HDTV transmission on a big screen plasma set, I would give last night’s viewing experience a 3. The low score is simply the result of having to watch either a slightly blurred full screen or a smaller, eye straining picture. The problem is simply the fast paced action of a handball match- there’s just not quite enough bits being passed through to give a clear, crisp picture. During the pre-game interviews, close-ups, or slow motion replays the viewing experience was much better. The audio was pretty good, but not knowing any German the commentary didn’t mean anything to me. Still, you could certainly tell that it was a great atmosphere with 10,000+ spectators.

Improving the Viewing Experience

The simple way to improve the picture quality is to get more data bits into the picture. For live video that means increasing the bandwidth being provided and I would guess this has some practical limitations. An alternative solution, however, would also be to provide the match as a download for later viewing. It wouldn’t be live, but more bits/second could be crammed into the picture, so that the picture would be more sharp. Of course, English language commentary would be nice too, but let’s take one thing at a time.

The Match Itself (Flensburg 32 – Kiel 28)

Flensburg winning at Kiel was certainly a huge upset as they were 4.5 goal underdogs and Kiel had not lost at home all season. The first half was a back and forth defensive affair with Kiel holding on for a narrow 13-12 half-time lead. Flensburg, however, controlled the second half, converted several fast break opportunities and outscored Kiel 20-15 in the second half. With a +4 aggregate lead this now puts them into a commanding position to advance to the semi-finals.

Just in Case You Were Wondering

- The match was not an intra-squad match for Club Provinzial. Provinzial, in fact, is an insurance company and apparently the main sponsor for both teams. In principal, European sports have a totally different philosophy when it comes to advertising. Because sports like Handball and Soccer have fewer breaks and opportunities for commercials, advertising on the uniforms is more prominent. More prominent to the point, where you will usually have difficulty finding anything on the uniform which highlights what club they actually are. The only comparison to this in the US market, I think, is NASCAR. But, if the choice is silly looking uniforms or more commercials, I guess I’ll take the silly uniforms.
- Even, though the final outcome of the match wasn’t in doubt, every minute was contested to the end due to the importance of the overall aggregate score. The same two teams will meet in Flensburg on Saturday and the total combined score of the two matches will determine who advances to the semi-finals. At this level, the teams usually take turns winning at home with the team winning by the most overall goals advancing. Kiel has a big mountain to climb if they are going to win at Flensburg and win by 5 goals. It’s pretty rare that two teams split with both victories being taken by the away teams.
- Flensburg-Handewitt is located right on the Germany-Denmark border and for all practical purposes is the Bundesliga’s equivalent of Major League Baseball’s Toronto Bluejays. The roster is more Danish than German and their website is featured in both languages.

http://www.sg-flensburg-handewitt.de/home.html

- To a slightly lesser extent Kiel can be considered the Swedish entrant as they have a long tradition of the top Swedish players playing for them. http://www.thw-provinzial.de/thw/ethw.htm

The Swedish Womens Ice Hockey team’s 3-2 penalt shoot-out victory over the United States is surely one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history. Team USA had never lost a match to another country besides Canada in over 70 matches. Could Team Handball see the reverse happen? A bunch of teary eyed Europeans with perplexed looks of disbelief as an American, Canadian, Australian, or British team shakes up the current status quo?

Of course it “could” happen. Anything is possible. That’s why they play the game on the court instead of on paper based on each team’s reputation. However, the likelihood of any of the aforementioned teams (men’s or women’s) actually accomplishing a victory over a European team in a major international tournament is extremely unlikely, at least in the near future.

First, the sport of Team Handball, is simply not conducive to the great upset. It can happen, but the nature of the game makes it less likely. With a low scoring game like hockey, a small number of mistakes can have a disproportionate effect on the outcome of the game. One bad pass can lead to a lucky break away. An inspired defensive performance can then allow an outgunned team to secure a major upset. This formula has been used even more often in my favorite sport soccer. National cups are rife with stories of small amateur club teams putting together a string of victories against professional club teams. The same can not, however, be said with Team Handball. A few mistakes will lead to a few scores by a totally outclassed team, but they won’t add up enough for a victory. In order for the upset to be feasible the talent gap between the two teams can only be so great.

And right now, the talent gap between the have’s and the have not’s in Team Handball is simply too great. USA Hockey Coach, Herb Brooks, the architect of the original miracle on ice in 1980 has been quoted as saying that the Soviets would have beaten the USA 9 times out of 10, and that it was his job to make sure that his team was ready to win that 1 out of 10 opportunity. In all honesty, I think that it would be really reaching to think that the US or one of the other minor teams are in the 1 in 10, or for that matter the 1 in 1000 ballpark. I think for instance, right now, for the US Men’s team to beat France it would take a bizarre combination of injuries and red cards resulting in one of the French court players having to play goalie. And even then the US would have to play the game of their lives.

But if the minor teams can close the talent gap, the great upset could happen and the formula for victory is familiar. Sloppy play and poor shooting by the favorite resulting in several fast break opportunities combined with inspired play on defense and a game of their life performance by the goalie. We can dream, can’t we?

The Hearing Panel Report simply states the obvious and should have explored potential remediation

The Hearing Panel focused narrowly on whether USA Team Handball was meeting the requirements for membership in the USOC and recognition as an NGB. It cited 5 areas where USA Team Handball was failing. Those 5 areas are:

1) Lack of financial resources
2) Lack of managerial capability
3) Inability to resolve member grievances
4) Lack of organizational competence
5) Incapability to promote and develop the sport

Areas 1 and 2 are, of course, are a direct result of the USOC suspending all funding to USATH. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that a bankrupt organization can not meet its financial responsibilities nor pay staff to manage itself. Areas 3 and 4 both relate to the Constitution bylaw controversy which were unfortunately not resolved by the competing factions. Area 5 is also at least partially a money related issue. Funding from the USOC has steadily declined in recent years and not surprisingly performance has also declined. Money would not solve all of USATH’s performance issues, but it’s certainly an important factor.

It shouldn’t be surprising that no one on the USATH Board contested these findings. They are all essentially true. The simple lesson here is that you don’t mess with the USOC, especially if they are your principal source of funding.

What is disappointing with the Hearing Panel’s report is its simple, narrow focus. While the Hearing Panel did not have the authority to fashion a remedial settlement there is nothing that prevented them from highlighting or suggesting potential remediation. Certainly, if you are going to take the time to research and assess what happened, you can also form an opinion on how best to proceed. Simply stating that it's up to the USOC and USATH (an organization that they also declare is incompetent) to consider potential remediation is a disappointing neglect of implied responsibility. Certainly, the Hearing Panel was able to state that they were deeply concerned about the athletes being supported. If they were truly concerned they would have tried to also to identify a potential way ahead that would address the underlying problems affecting the sport. This is not just idle chatter, as one only has to plug in “USOC”, “Taekwondo”, and “Triathlon” into Google to see some of the brinkmanship and remediation that has taken place in the past.

In this case, the USOC has decided on finality and removing USATH. In starting over it appears that Team Handball and the USOC will be heading into uncharted waters. It will be interesting to see what the next steps will be. Some questions for the coming weeks:

1) Will the USOC continue to fund the Women’s National Team Program?
2) Will the USOC provide funding for a Men’s Team be formed to participate in the PAN AM Championships in April?
3) Will the USOC provide funding for the Club National Championships and Collegiate National Championships?
4) What are the future plans for Handball Governance by the USOC?
5) Will organizations like the National Team Handball Association apply for USOC membership and NGB status?

Several news articles discussing the IOC’s recent decision in Turin to not reinstate Baseball and Softball have referenced Team Handball as an example of a sport not nearly as worthy of a spot on the Olympic program.

http://www.enidnews.com/sportslocal/local_story_042004450.html?keyword=topstory

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Columnists/Gross/2006/02/12/1438675.html

While this context is certainly American centric there is also a significant amount of truth to the argument that Team Handball is simply a European sport. On the Women’s side, outside of South Korea, and a little noise recently made by Brazil, the sport has been dominated by European teams. On the Men’s side, outside of a little noise by Egypt and more recently Tunisia, the sport is also dominated by European sides. For more discourse on the sport’s popularity check my earlier blog entry: http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/2005/07/just-how-popular-is-team-handball.html

Team Handball passed an IOC vote last summer, but at some point in the future there will be another vote taken on the sport’s Olympic future. And while the IOC may have disproportionate European membership now, this will probably not always be the case. Hopefully, the IHF is getting this message and we will soon see more aggressive steps to market the sport world-wide.

No, this lawsuit has nothing to do with the USOC (as far as I know). But, if you ever wondered whether it’s a good idea to have insurance in place prior to playing Team Handball this article might answer that question for you.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060106/METRO02/601060348/1003/METRO

I find it amusing that the lawyer is quoted as saying “the Team Handball game is a non-contact sport.”

A lot has happened since I [link=/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.6]last wrote about this topic[/link]. The new Bylaws (the Constitution) was passed by the membership by a vote of 211-23 and the Board of Directors voted to remove President Hurdle by a vote of 19-5. Of course, the legality of both of these votes have been called into question. What is not uncertain, however, is that the USOC has stopped providing funding to the USATH and has filed a formal Legal Complaint against USATH.
[link=/request.php?1]USOC complaint[/link] (2.77 mb PDF)

Also, worth reviewing is a USATH report that was done earlier in July that addresses some of the issues in the complaint.
[link=/request.php?2]USATH report pertaining to the USOC complaint[/link] (553.91 kb PDF)

As part of this new handball website, I’ve conducted interviews with Matt Van Houten, the Athlete’s Advisory Council Board Member and Mike Hurdle, the current or former President. These podcasts are available on the website and I encourage those with a stake in the future of USA Team Handball to take the time to listen to both interviews.
[link=/request.php?3]Interview with Matt van Houten, December 2005[/link] (12.29 mb MP3)
[link=/request.php?4]Interview with Mike Hurdle, December 2005[/link] (13.51 mb MP3)

After having read the USOC complaint and conducted both interviews, I am personally struck by how what appears to be some small differences of opinion has turned into a grand canyon divide. Maybe, I’m just naïve, but I think this whole crisis could be solved simply by taking the following steps.

1) The Board of Directors should acknowledge and accept the result of the 211-23 vote on the By-Laws. This is a very clear signal from the membership that they approve of the new By-Laws and they want the bickering to end. (Yes, there was a misleading note on the website, but everyone also knows (or should know) that we have a small membership base which is well informed by this and other websites.) The new constitution should be put in place. All claims concerning the legality of the vote should simply be dropped.
2) The President needs to acknowledge that the 19-5 vote by the Board of Directors to remove him from office also sends a very clear message. The Board of Directors were either duly elected or appointed to their position. One of the key roles that a President has is to work with the Board in the governance of the sport. This Board has clearly stated that they have lost confidence in the President.
3) The President also needs to acknowledge the seriousness of the USOC Complaint and the need for USATH to effectively address USOC concerns.
4) As the main point of contention is the leadership of USATH in the interim phase until new elections, the simplest solution is to install an interim leadership that is acceptable to the Board of Directors, President and the USOC. Certainly, [link=http://www.usoc.org/36370_37522.htm]Dr Leroy Walker[/link], a former USOC President who has already indicated a willingness to fulfill such a role, would be a strong candidate. I’m sure that there are others which could also be acceptable to everyone.
5) With alternative interim leadership in place, the President should then resign. Everyone can then thank him for his service to the sport. (either sincerely or with sarcasm)

Now without going into detailed analysis of this proposed resolution it should be evident that it would require some give and take from both sides. After having interviewed both Matt and Mike, though, I have the impression that this or something similar is acceptable to both parties. Perhaps, the Hearing Panel, rather than focusing on decertification, can lead us toward a resolution. Regardless, let’s get our USOC funding back and get the lawyers out of the process.