I continue my look back at Nikiola Karabatic’s career and try to illustrate why he’s one of the greatest, if not the greatest 2 way defender of all time. (Read Part 1 Part 2)

Why Handball Defense Gets No Respect

As a former defensive specialist perhaps nothing annoys me more about typical Handball GOAT debates than the often total lack of any discussion whatsoever regarding defensive capabilities.  It’s annoying, but understandable.  Understandable, because unless it’s a GK save you’ll rarely, if ever see any any defensive highlights. This is in sharp contrast to another indoor sport, basketball.  No finger wagging Mutombo blocks or career defining Lebron chase downs to win a title. 

No. A great defensive play in handball… often is a defensive foul that stops play and results in a 9 meter free throw or restart. Yawn…  Of course, if you know a little bit about the sport you know that a good yawner can be pretty important.  On a tactical level it stops play and requires the offense to start over.  Seemingly a no big deal, do over, but the offense is now that much closer to a passive play call and may well end up having to settle for a less than ideal shot. 

On a strategic level a good hard foul resulting in a restart plays an important role in the attrition nature of a pretty physical sport.  Athletes like to think that they just brush off such contact and move on to the next play… and they do, but sub-consciously it plays a role in subsequent attacks.  If an offensive player tries a tactic that the defense stops they will then try another tactic the next time.  And, that other tactic… well, it often tends to be a tactic that next time results in less contact.  Maybe, it’s just the smart move.  After all, avoiding contact when trying to throw a ball into a goal is generally a good thing.  But, maybe they just don’t want to get hit again.

That psychology plays a role especially in a 60 minute game.  And, if you are the focal point of the offense, make no mistake, you’ve got a bit of a target on your chest.  That contact adds up and takes a toll. It’s why you often see offensive stars subbing out on defense or playing the wing defender position.  It’s a chance to lick your wounds and rest up so you can be more ready for the next offensive attack.

But, not the Handball GOAT, Nikola Karabatic. No, he has either played as a middle defender (often referred to as a “3” defender), and more often lately as a “2” defender in between the 3 and the “1” or wing defender.  No subbing out or hiding out on the wing. No, he’s typically been making stops and looking for contact.  In fact, I wonder what would have ever happened if one of his coaches suggested that he should play wing defender. Not that any coach would be so foolish as to put one of his best defenders there.

Match ~#400: 2020 Olympics Final, France 25, Denmark 23: Karabatic Slows Down the Young Gun and Stops him in Crunch Time

To take a closer look at Karabatic’s defense, I’ll use what I estimate is about the 400th match that I saw him play. The gold medal final between France and Denmark in August 2021 at the COVID delayed 2020 Olympics.

The 2020-21 season was a challenging one for Karabatic as he tore an ACL in October of 2020. ACLs aren’t as devastating as they used to be, but they are still a major injury. And, at age 37 one might think that even one of the greatest players of all time might not recover in time to make another Olympics… But, Karabatic was back on the court in May after seven months of rehab. And, recovered enough to make the Olympic Team. Check out this video which is queued up to the injury and subsequent rehab.

So more than a few people felt that Karabatic, coming off an injury and in the twilight of his career was making the French Olympic team as sort of a lifetime achievement award. But, while Tokyo Olympics Karabatic was certainly not Peak Karabatic he still found ways to contribute, particularly on the defensive end in a gold medal showdown vs Denmark.

As has often been the case for the past several years, Denmark and France finished on top in their respective groups and then marched through the knockout phase to meet in the final. The only thing somewhat different, was the continued emergence of Denmark’s, Mattias Gidsel, who at just 23 years old was starting to change the game with his slashing, 1v1 breakthrough first offensive focus.

Matched up against him much of the game was Karabatic. I recently rewatched the match and it was a real battle between the Old Man and the Kid. And, while this is a commentary on the GOAT’s defensive prowess, Gidsel more than held his own, scoring 6 goals, the most goals from the field and only trailing Mikkel Hansen who scored 9, but with some of those being penalties.

That said, here’s a sequence that resulted in one of those “yawner” 9 meter restarts that Karabatic has been a part of God knows how many times.

Anyone who’s watch Gidsel play the last three years knows that more often than not this sequence ends in a goal, sometimes with the defense hardly touching him. Plays like this don’t show up in the stat sheet, but plays like that make a difference and is an example of the defense France played collectively that day when they held the high powered Danish offense to just 23 goals.

Here’s the video of that sequence queued up:

And, in the crunch time of all crunch times: 15 seconds left in the Gold Meda Olympic Final they were matched up against each other for one final time.

And, here’s the video of that final 15 seconds queued up:

A yawner of a turnover and I’m not even sure exactly what happened. But, the stage for that turnover was setup by the previous 59 minutes of play. And, on that day during crunch time the end result went the GOAT’s way. Did we think that it would somehow end differently?

Too much love for the Handball GOAT? Perhaps, but I’m next going to provide a little balance. Yes, I’ll address a match I’ve never seen and most of the Handball World pretends was never played: 12 May 2012, Cesson-Rennes – Montpellier.