HSV Hamburg demolished Red Star Belgrade, 38-22 on Wednesday, but if you were to have walked into the gym in Belgrade at any point during the match, you probably would have thought it was a tight contest. Why? The crowd of 2,200 was singing and chanting non-stop throughout the match.

Hey, normally a coach will tell his team let’s take control of the game early and take the crowd out of the contest. I guess in Belgrade you can take control of the game, but you can never take control of the fans.

EHF Article on Match: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/11842
EHF match video: (Match was played on October 15th): http://www.ehftv.com/

The French Coupe de la Ligue final four will be staged at the American Airlines Arena in Miami from 10-12 April. Outside of the Olympics in 1984 and 1996 this is without question the biggest Handball event to ever take place in the United States. With the exception of the 1997 Men’s World Championships in Japan, it is probably the biggest event ever to take place in a country without a significant Handball fan base. Without question it is the biggest professional club event to take place outside of a club’s home country. I guess what I’m saying with all this hyperbole is that this tournament is a really big deal and the French League and Cristian Zaharia should be commended for the vision and follow through to make it a reality.

But looming on the horizon for American handball fans could be some tough financial choices next spring. Namely, fans will have to ask themselves how many plane tickets and hotel stays can I afford to support my handball hobby? Or in simpler terms, many will have to choose between attending the National Championship Tournament or attending the first professional handball matches every played on U.S. soil. Of course, individuals could choose to do both, but with the stock market dropping like a rock and Miami being on the far Southeastern tip of the USA the cost of doing so will likely be prohibitive for many.

But, there is a simple solution to this dilemma. Namely, the National Championships should be placed in Miami the same weekend. Which Championship though? Collegiate or Club you ask? I say both and heck, why not throw in an invitation for Canadian Clubs to come down south while we’re at it. Let’s not stop there, get the Caribbean nations there and especially the French outposts of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Yes, why don’t we turn 8-12 April, 2009 into the biggest handball festival North America has ever seen.

OK, maybe the festival is asking too much. The USA Federation has also already put a marker out for the club championships to take place on a different weekend (1-3 May). But let’s at least look at putting the collegiate nationals there the same weekend. And let’s also consider staging an elite club tournament the same weekend as a National Championship tuneup. Perhaps, 4 top USA Clubs, 2 Canadian Clubs, and the Guadeloupe and Martinique club champions. Maybe we could have a Canada-USA friendly and play it also at the American Airlines Arena.

Bottom Line: Something should be done to supplement the French Club Final Four—It just makes too much sense.

The EHF has added a weekly show featuring highlights of the past week’s games and interviews. The first edition showed highlights of 8 matches and summarized the results for each group. With English language commentary and at about 20 minutes long it’s a nice lunch time break to catch up on the Champions League.

The featured interview in the first show was with new Kiel head coach, Alfred Gislason. Gislason, an Icelander, formerly coached his country’s National Team and at Gummersbach in the Bundesliga. A little bit of backstory is warranted as the feature pretty much ignored most of the controversy surrounding his hiring.

Some of the things left unsaid include is why would Kiel replace their tremendously successful coach, Noka Serdarusic, in the first place. In 2006-07, Kiel became the first German team to complete a “triple” by winning the EHF Champions League, the Bundesliga Title, and the German Cup. In 2007-08, they had to settle for a double, losing to Ciudad Real in the Final of the Champions League. A disappointment for sure, but hardly justification for a change in leadership. According to reports in Handball-World, the change was made due to personality conflicts between Serdarusic and Kiel General Manager, Uwe Schwenker. When the private conflict between Serdarusic and Schwenker could no longer be covered up, the board of shareholders at Kiel decided unanimously to quit with Serdarusic and keep Schwenker. And on top of the 700,000 Euro transfer fee paid to Gummersbach, Kiel is also still paying Serdarusic’s salary through 2009.

Another point worth mentioning is the relationship between Serdarusic and star player, Nikola Karabatic. Karabatic’s father and Serdarusic are long time friends and Karabatic’s move to Kiel from his native France was largely facilitated by this relationship. Karabatic has obviously adjusted well to the HBL, and willingly signed a long term contract with Kiel through the 2011 season. I wonder, though, if he would have signed the same contract after Serdarusic was unceremoniously let go.

It remains to be seen if Kiel’s coaching change will have an impact on the team. So far, the results look good. Kiel is 7-0-1 and on top of the standings in the HBL and are 2-0-0 in Champions League play.

Handball-World: “The New One: Alfred Gislason will be coaching THW Kiel” http://www.handball-world.com/news-index.php?auswahl=15431&GID=1
EHFTV: www.ehftv.com (The 1st Champions League show is listed under 6 Oct)

Just a short note to indicate that I won’t be duplicating the fine work that the EHF is doing with their new EHFTV.com www.ehftv.com platform for web streaming. This site has all the information you need in regards to games that will be web streamed live. Additionally, the latest press release from the EHF indicates that all the games will now be available on tape delay.

The EHF is to be commended for developing this platform and I particularly appreciate that they are also not posting the final score for time shifters. My only remaining gripe is that they are not offering the matches with a higher bit rate comparable to the German Bundesliga matches available at HBL.TV www.hbl.tv. The video quality of HBL.TV is an order of magnitude better, but then again the HBL.TV stream is not free either.

[b]Note to EHF Marketing: If you were to offer a premium service with a 1,500 kbs (as opposed to the currrent 600 kbs) I will immediately reach for my wallet. And more importantly, I don’t think that I’d be alone![/b]

EHF Press Release: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/11824

The Champions League started yesterday with Portland San Antonio easily taking care of Steaua MFA Bucharest, 38-32, at home in Pamplona, Spain. Portland? San Antonio? Pamplona? Huh? Did the NBA actually create a Handball all-star team out of the Trailblazers and Spurs rosters?

This is probably one of the more common questions an American Handball Fan has as he is introduced to the European club game. I know it’s one that I had. For the record, according to Miguel Garcia, a frequent poster in our forum, the name derives from a school named San Antonio in Pamplona that the original founders of the club attended. Portland is the name of their sponsor, a cement mixing firm, Cementos Portland.

Of course this begs the question, what the heck is a Steaua MFA?

This question and others like the ones below need to be answered:
Is Danish side GOG Svendborg named after the Biblical creature?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gog
Did Pick Szeged get it’s name from their mastery of the “pick and roll” in the early 50’s? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pick_and_roll
Is Chekovskie Medvedi named after the SS Enterprise Helmsman?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Chekov
Is FCK Handbold A/S missing a vowel and, if so, why are they so angry about Handball?

So, it’s time to go to work Handball Fans. Yes, I’ve created a new Wiki to explain what these club names mean. If you have a clue please fill us in. Simply go to this link, click on “Edit this Page” and start typing. When finished, we’ll add it to the FAQ.

Handball Club Names Wiki: http://teamhandball.wikispaces.com/Club+Names

The Olympic Games have a global reach to the far corners of the globe. As proof of that reach, a recent article from the Otago Daily Times highlights the sport's recent growth in New Zealand: http://www.odt.co.nz/sport/other-sport/24605/handball-sport-starting-gain-handhold

And for those who may wonder if national infighting over Handball development is a peculiar oddity limited to the USA will be amused to know that tiny New Zealand has competing federations. The official Federation recognized by the IHF is Handball New Zealand while the New Zealand Handball Federation also seeks to develop the sport.

Handball New Zealand: http://handballnewzealand.com/
New Zealand Handball Federation: http://www.handball.net.nz/cms/