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PANAM Games: USA and Canadian Men lose again: Both relegated to 5th-8th place

USA defender, Domagoj Srsen, jumps high to block an Argentine jump shot

Both the USA and Canadian Men lost their second matches in Group play yesterday.  As expected the USA lost to Group favorite Argentina, 36-19.  Some solace, however, can be taken from a strong first half performance that saw the USA down only 12-9 at the break.  The Canadian Men got roughed up a bit more than I would expect by Chile, losing 42-25.  Based on results so far Chile may even give Brazil a run for the money in a Group A showdown on Thursday.

Men’s Competition Scenarios

Most of the suspense has been taken out of the Men’s Pool as the semifinal participants are now set.  In Group A, Brazil and Chile will advance, while Argentina and the Dominican Republic will advance out of Group B.  Those teams will play each other Thursday to determine who will get the higher seed.  Accordingly, the lower 4 teams are also set.  Canada and Venezuela from Group A and Mexico and the USA from Group B.  Again those teams will be seeded based on their head to head matches on Thursday.

Women’s Competition Scenarios

In Group A, Argentina and Mexico have secured spots in the semifinals.  Those two teams will battle on Wednesday to see who avoids Brazil in the Semifinals.  For the Mexican Women, this is surely a major Handball milestone.  In Group B, there is some suspense for the second spot due to the earlier Dominican Republic – Uruguay draw.  Currently, the Dominican Republic has a 35 goal differential lead over Uruguay, but that will be narrowed when the Dominicans take on Brazil in the first match of the day.  The USA will then have the opportunity to play the role of spoiler when they face Uruguay later in the evening.  Uruguay will know exactly how many goals they need to beat the USA by to advance and the USA should have the incentive to keep that number down or better, simply beat the Uruguayans.