Mexico on the fastbreak
Commentary: The USA Men lost narrowly last night to Mexico, 33-32 to finish 0-0-3 in Group play. It’s hard to sugar coat this disappointing loss as the USA was sloppy on offense and often uninspired on defense allowing many goals far too easily. Fully assessing teams via an online video is somewhat difficult, but from the looks of things it appears that the USA was more experienced and physically gifted than the Mexican side. In short, I would argue that the USA had a better individual player at every position, but somehow managed to lose. The bright spot is that the American men have a clear shot at redemption with a chance to settle scores with Canada on Saturday morning in a consolation bracket semifinal. The Canadian Men have also had a disappointing tournament, but were able to get a win against Venezuela yesterday, 28-25. Depending on my schedule I will try and do a live audiocast commentary of the match via USTREAM.TV on Saturday. Game time is 12:30 PM (US Central Time)
The USA Women have also struggled, and finished their group as well with a 0-0-3 record. Their redemption opportunity will be today against Puerto Rico at 10:00 AM local (US Central time)
In other news Mundo Handball is reporting that the Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) is considering the possibility of cancelling the Men’s Division I Championship currently scheduled for next month in the Dominican Republic. Instead, 12 teams would be invited to the Elite Championship which would be played next summer with the host nation opportunity being awarded to the PANAM Games Gold Medal winner. This proposed change in format raises a lot of questions and we’ll address those in a follow up story.
Mundo Handball: Mario Moccia Interview: http://www.mundohandball.com/Continentes/Panamerica/2011/Moccia-handballde1.html
USATH: USA Men’s comeback falls just short against Mexico: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/10/20/usa-men-s-comeback-falls-just-short-against-mexico/45121?ngb_id=42
VIDEO: USA – Mexico Highlight: http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,340860.html