Women’s Group Play (Round 1) (Sat, 9 August) (Fri Night/Sat Morning in USA)

[b]Scheduled Matches (Beijing Local Time)[/b]
0900-1030 Match 1: France vs. Angola Video: Not Available
**TV Broadcast scheduled for 0930-1100 [East Coast, USA Time] on MSNBC
1045-1215 Match 2: Hungary vs. Sweden Video: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=1006599&channelcode=sporthb
1400-1530 Match 3: Romania vs. Kazakhstan http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=1011335&channelcode=sporthbVideo:
1545-1715 Match 4: Russia vs. South Korea Video: Not Available
**TV Broadcast scheduled for 1330-1500 [East Coast, USA Time] on MSNBC
1900-2030 Match 5: Norway vs. China
2045-2215 Match 6: Germany vs. Brazil

[b]Time zone addition/subtraction from Beijing[/b]
– Sydney (Add 2 hours)
– Berlin (Subtract 6 hours)
– New York (Subtract 12 Hours) (First match starts at 2100 hrs, the day prior)
– Los Angeles (Subtract 15 Hours) (First match starts at 1800 hrs, the day prior)

[b]Video On Demand Links: [/b] http://www.nbcolympics.com/handball/video/index.html

[b]Suggested match(es) to watch: [/b]The match of the day was Russia – South Korea, but video is currently not being offered. Germany -Brazil is also definitely worth your time.

[b]Notes: [/b]
– In the USA, NBC will be broadcasting the Olympic Opening Ceremonies on Friday evening, 12 to 15 hours after they’ve already taken place. And it will already be Saturday morning there, so instead of watching a taped broadcast of a bunch of athletes walking into a stadium on your TV it might be more entertaining to check whether the first handball matches are available via live internet streaming. The first match will start at 2100 hrs on the East Coast. It’ll take a while to get use to, but for US fans their “Handball day” will start at that time for the first 10 days of Group play.
– The NY Times has a great feature on their website which will create an online schedule for your time zone. Additionally, it appears to be setup to support time shifting in that results are only shown if you click on that particular day.
NY Times Olympics Tracker: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/05/sports/olympics/2008_OLYMPICS_TRACKER.html#
– Right out of the gate, France – Angola .should be an interesting match to watch. Angola stunned the French women 29-27 in France at the World Championships, but has struggled of late. France is a consensus 3.5 goal favorite

Click on "read the rest" for match results, current standings and news concerning the matches for this day.

AP Summary: http://www.nbcolympics.com/handball/news/newsid=188131.html#russia+south+korea+deadlocked
Detailed Results: http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idart=1452

[b]Group A[/b]
France 32 – Angola 21
Romanian 31 – Kazakhstan 19
Norway 30 – China 23

[b]Group B[/b]
Hungary 30 – Sweden 24
Russia 29 – South Korea 29
Germany 24 – Brazil 22

[b]Standings: [/b] http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/HB/C76/HBW400000.shtml#HBW400A02

Rank Team Pts MP W T L GF GA Diff Team
1 Romania 2 1 1 0 0 31 19 12
2 France 2 1 1 0 0 32 21 11
3 Norway 2 1 1 0 0 30 23 7
4 China 0 1 0 0 1 23 30 -7
5 Angola 0 1 0 0 1 21 32 -11
6 Kazakhstan 0 1 0 0 1 19 31 -12 1

Rank Team Pts MP W T L GF GA Diff Team
1 Hungary 2 1 1 0 0 30 24 6
2 Germany 2 1 1 0 0 24 22 2
3 Russian Fed. 1 1 0 1 0 29 29 0
3 Korea 1 1 0 1 0 29 29 0
5 Brazil 0 1 0 0 1 22 24 -2
6 Sweden 0 1 0 0 1 24 30 -6