Team handball *may* have just taken off in the US.
ESPN just declared it the [link=http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3523021]most underrated[/link] of all Olympics sports!!! I dig that. You should too.
I am just a few days away from diving in to my NBCOlympics.com web commentator role. Hence, I am feverishly preparing for this assignment by watching every LIVE team handball feed I can keep my eyes open for. The 13 hour time difference is very annoying at times. Especially during the early morning hours as I am not into time shifting. Time travel? Well… maybe.
So what is there to point out following 4 days of team handball extravaganza?
I for one, am keeping an eye on the underdogs.
[color=#ff0000](if you are a time shifter, click "read more" at your own risk. I will not list scores but I may spill the beans on something you may not want to know about….)[/color]
On the Women side, Angola and Brazil showed a lot more than Sweden, Kazakhstan and China combined. Same cannot be said about the Brazilian men! They have been outclassed so far and have often looked clueless. Granted, their two opening matches were as tough as they come, as they faced the two future finalists (yep, that's right!) in France and Croatia.
Egypt however, looked poised to send the Russians home early in their second game but silly mistakes, a horrible last second defensive breakdown coupled with a bad official's call (not necessarily in that order!) prevented the African team from pulling out yet another surprise, bigger than the missed victory against the Danes, in their opening match.