Author Archives: John Ryan

Asian Olympic Qualification Replay (China to Host?)

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The Japanese Handball Federation has issued a press release containing copies of letters the IHF has sent to the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) and to the member nations involved in the original tournaments (South Korea, Japan, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and Kazakhstan. In the letter, dated 21 December, the IHF requests that the AHF propose a venue and dates for the subject tournament. Additionally, it’s noted that both tournaments could be staged simultaneously and that “maybe China would be a suitable option.“

Japanese Federation Press Release: http://www.handball.jp/jha/press/2007/beijing_qualification_replay02.pdf

Handball Maps

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A new feature, Handball Maps, https://teamhandballnews.com/page24.html has been added to the website. This page will include links to interactive maps with Handball related information. The maps fit into two broad categories.

The first category is focused on Handball in developing countries, like the USA, Canada, the UK, Ireland and Australia. These Google Maps contain information about where established clubs, new clubs and where people would like to start a club are located. You just click on the marker and contact information is provided. And anyone with a Google account can edit and update the map. I’ve started to populate the North America map, but I’m sure other Handball fans can more accurately update their home country.

The second category is focused on Handball clubs in the top Handball Nations. Maps highlighting the location of First Division and Champions League teams in Europe have been started.

A link to the Maps Page has been added to the top of the page. Thanks to Mark Yazer for the idea.

ASIAN OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION RESULTS RULED NULL AND VOID; RESTAGING OF THE ENTIRE TOURNAMENTS PLANNED

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From Handball-World.com:

The Asian Qualification Tournaments for the Olympic Games for both the women and the mens teams will be replayed. This was announced after todays meeting of the IHF-council in Paris. Both tournaments will be replayed by the end of January 2008. Additionally, the IHF announce further states that, “The organisation and technical details of the tournaments will be under the full responsibility of the IHF and further information will be released within the next 72 hours”.

“We have come to a positive conclusion for the sport of Handball, which follows on from the huge success of the Womens World Championship in Paris", said IHF-President Hassan Moustafa who is under heavy pressure in regards to this issue. As previously reported at handball-world.com, the officiating at the Qualification tournaments in Almaty, Kazakhstan (women) and Toyota, Japan (men) had several grave irregularities. EHF-President Tor Lian took an unequivocal stand on the issue and he is quoted in the Danish news-portal tv2.dk, as saying: “About the worst that could have happened was if a majority would have voted against a rematch. In that case we would have been forced to reconsider our position and I believe that our colleagues from the other continents would have done the same".

[b]Commentary: [/b] This is simply an unprecedented decision, not only for Handball, but as far as I know, for any sport. I’ve seen the video and there was no question in my mind that the Men’s Tournament result was tainted. But, I am surprised at the bold decision to replay the entire tournaments and the implicit acknowledgment that goes with it- namely that the tournaments were fixed. The short statement on the IHF has no mention of reprimands or penalties, but surely they will follow.

I’m also a little surprised that the IHF decided for a replay of the Women’s Tournament. In the Korean news film there is some footage from that tournament and some complaints from the players. As well, it is also pointed out that Japan hadn’t beaten Korea in 31 years. In that tournament, Japan beat South Korea, South Korea beat Kazakhstan and Kazakhstan beat Japan. Those 3 teams also beat winless Qatar, so they were level on points, but Kazakhstan won on head to head goal differential amongst the 3 teams. While a big upset, it didn’t seem out of the realm of possibility that Japan couldn’t surprise Korea on a neutral court in Central Asia. As well, it seemed possible to me that Kazakhstan could lose only by 1 on their home floor. And I don’t know much about the inner politics of the Asian Handball Federation, but there’s no natural cultural alliance between the former Soviet republic and the Arab gulf states. So, I’m guessing there’s more evidence than meets the eye and that evidenced warranted the replay. But, I would also guess that some Kazakhs are not very happy right now.

IHF Notice: http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idcat=218&idart=998
Asian Women’s Olympic Qualification Final Results: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.377
Korean News Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-908556008345758262

Un-Ringing a Bell?

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Let’s assume for a moment that when the IHF Executive Committee meets next week they will reach the conclusion that the Kuwait – South Korea Olympic Qualification match was officiated unfairly. Not a foregone conclusion, but one that appears likely based on comments made by the IHF Secretary General, as well as the IHF website official statement.

The next question is what do you do about it? Here are some possible actions that might be taken:

[b]1) Sorry, but what’s done is done; We can’t un-ring a bell:[/b] The IHF might release a statement acknowledging that the match contained sub-standard officiating and that the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) would be reprimanded. The reprimands would be to bar the Jordanian referees from officiating future international competition and to bar the organizing official responsible for switching the referees at the last minute. And most importantly, the statement would basically say, while the events were unfortunate the IHF didn’t have jurisdiction over the AHF event, so the results will stand. The statement would then go on to emphasize that future Olympic Qualification contests would be organized and run by the IHF with assistance from Continental Federations to avoid this ever happening again.

[b]2) Stage a one game rematch: [/b]The IHF could take the unprecedented action of calling the result of the Kuwait – South Korea match null and void and scheduling a winner take all rematch. But, in doing so, a lot of logistical questions would have to be answered, including:
– Where do you play it? A neutral country; perhaps Japan again?
– When do you play it? Players are playing in club leagues and certain dates on the calendar are probably more advantageous to one country or the other.
– Who organizes the match? Does the IHF take full control?

[b]3) Stage a rematch of the entire tournament:[/b] If one match was tainted, who is to say that other matches in the qualification tournament weren’t also questionable. Maybe Japan could have beaten Kuwait as well and then Japan would have gotten 2nd place in the tournament and a spot in one of the Olympic Qualification tournaments in May. Or who knows, maybe Japan could pull off a big upset over Korea and win the whole thing. Korea also has a couple of older, veteran players (Cho and Yoon). Playing a one game rematch would be a lot easier for them then playing four games in five days.

The bottom line is that fixing the mistake is not as simple as saying “do over” is on the playground. If you look at previous sports related scandals, the end result has usually been to reprimand the guilty and say sorry to the victims. Often this is because restaging the event is too impractical. In recent years, drug testing results for Floyd Landis at the Tour de France and Marion Jones at the 2000 Olympics were handled in basically that way. You certainly couldn’t restage the entire Tour de France, so the 2nd place finisher got a hollow bump up to first place after the fact. And those examples don’t actually match this case, because as strange as it may seem, the Kuwaiti team is also a victim. While they benefited from the victory, I think it’s pretty unlikely that they had anything to do with the foul play. And I don’t know the Kuwaiti team and coach personally, but I’m guessing that if they had their way they would prefer to win on their own merits.

[b]So what should the IHF do? [/b] Well, I lean towards the one game winner take all replay match. I think it’s the most practical and fair way to handle it.

[b]What will the IHF do?[/b] Stay tuned.

And if you haven't seen the Korean TV news report on this topic,here's the link at Google Videos: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-908556008345758262

Women’s World Championships (The Olympic Ramifications) Part 2

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With the Main Round now over, the dust has settled a little on the Olympic Qualifications Tournaments

[b]#2 and #3 for Europe:[/b] As Russia, France, Germany and Hungary are all guaranteed to place somewhere between 1st to 7th, Sweden is locked into the 2nd place Europe spot. The 3rd place slot will boil down to whether Croatia wins the 9th place game (and secures the 7th place WC slot). If Croatia wins, Poland will take the 3rd place Europe slot. If Croatia loses, Croatia will take the 3rd place Europe slot.

[b]#2 and #3 for Asia:[/b] Thanks to South Korea squeaking into the quarterfinals, Japan is now bumped up to the #2 Asia slot and will play in Tournament 2. Qatar moves up to #3.

[b]#1, #2 and #3 for Africa: [/b] The African Championships will be played next month, and based on their performance at the World Championships its hard to imagine that the host, Angola, won’t take the title and the automatic spot in the Olympics. Tunisia and Congo will be the favorites for 2nd and 3rd.

[b]Ranking the Continents: [/b] With Brazil’s failure to qualify for the Main Round the PATHF finished 4th among the continents. This leaves the favored Europeans along with Angola representing Africa and South Korea representing Asia. The Angolans and South Koreans could win it all, but for now I’ll pencil in Europe as the #1 Continent. This means that the 2nd best continent will be determined by which nation places higher, South Korea or Angola. Should South Korea place higher then Angola, lightly regarded Qatar would be placed in tournament 1. If Angola places higher, Congo or Tunisia are the two African nations that will likely finish 2nd or 3rd in the African Championship.

[b]9th Place Equals 7th Place and that Game Will be Pivotal for Spain, Croatia and Poland: [/b] Norway has already qualified, so they won’t count in the standings, and Angola will be very heavily favored to win the African Championships, so they, in all likelihood, won’t count either. This means that the 9th place game between Spain and Croatia should secure the 7th place WC spot. For Spain this is their only chance to qualify, so this is a must win situation. For Croatia, they’ve already probably qualified for Tournament 2 as the #3 European team, but they would probably prefer the competition in Tournament 1. Both Tournaments 1 and 2 will be hosted by a top team (Russia, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania or South Korea), but 2nd place at Tournament 1 will be easier and likely come down to beating Sweden on a neutral floor. Whereas Tournament 2 will require beating another team from that same top team grouping of Russia, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania or South Korea. And watching all of this will be Poland, who can only qualify with a Croatian victory.

[b]Looking Ahead: The Battle for Bronze?:[/b] As previously mentioned, this game might be worth losing, but it’s still impossible to predict. As Norway, Angola, and possibly Russia won’t count in the standings it’s hard to say which placing game will actually be for 3rd or 4th place

[b]Current Possibilities (Assumes Angola wins African Championships)[/b]

[b]Tournament 1: [/b]
2nd Place WC (Host) (Russia, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania or South Korea)
7th Place WC Croatia or Spain
2nd Place Europe: [b]Sweden[/b]
2nd Place PATHF: [b]Cuba[/b]

[b]Tournament 2: [/b]
3rd Place WC (Host) (Russia, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania or South Korea)
6th Place WC (Russia, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania or South Korea)
2nd Place Africa: TBD in January (likely either Congo or Tunisia)
3rd Place from the Continental Championship for the best Continent at WC (Croatia or Poland)

[b]Tournament 3: [/b]
4th Place WC (Host) (Russia, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania or South Korea)
5th Place WC (Russia, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania or South Korea)
2nd Place Asia: [b]Japan[/b]
3rd Place from the Continental Championship for the 2nd best Continent at WC (likely either Congo, Tunisia or Qatar)

As you can see, there are still a lot of variables. After each day’s games it will become a little clearer. We’ll continue to update the narrowing possibilities at this link: https://teamhandballnews.com/page18.html

Women’s World Championship (Scenarios for the Quarterfinals)

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Going into the final day of Main Group play, here are the possibilities for the final standing of each Group:

[b]Main Group I: [/b] Norway is locked in as the #1 Seed and France is locked in as the #4 Seed, so they will play a meaningless warm up game on Tuesday. Russia and Angola will play head to head for 2nd place. In the event of a draw Russia will take 2nd on goal differential. Croatia and Macedonia will play for 5th place with the winner having the opportunity to play for 9th place. And as Norway has already qualified for the Olympics as the European Champion and Angola, is likely to do the same for Africa, the 9th place winner could very well be for the 7th and last spot in an Olympic Qualification tournament.

1) Norway
2) Russia or Angola
3) Russia or Angola
4) France
5) Croatia or Macedonia
6) Croatia or Macedonia

[b]Main Group 2:[/b] The picture in Main Group II is a little less clear. Germany currently leads the group with 7 points and Romania and Hungary are right behind with 6 points each. The winner of the Germany – Romania game will likely take 1st place. The loser will take 2nd or 3rd place depending on how well Hungary does against South Korea. Hungary will likely get 2nd place if they beat South Korea and 3rd place if they lose. And theoretically, Hungary can still get 1st place if Germany and Romania draw, but they would have to pick up 10 goals in goal differential. Spain controls their own destiny and with a win or draw against Poland they are through to the quarterfinals. South Korea needs to beat Poland and hope for a Spanish loss to make the quarterfinals.

1) Germany, Romania or Hungary
2) Germany, Romania or Hungary
3) Germany, Romania or Hungary
4) Spain or South Korea
5) Spain or South Korea
6) Poland

[b]Potential Quarter Final Pairings[/b]

[b]Upper Bracket[/b]
I-1st Place vs. II-4th Place (Norway) vs. (Spain or South Korea)
II-2nd Place vs. I-3rd Place (Germany, Romania or Hungary) vs. (Russia or Angola)

[b]Lower Bracket[/b]
II-1st Place vs. I-4th Place (Germany, Romania or Hungary) vs. France
I-2nd place vs. II-3rd place (Russia or Angola) vs. (Germany, Romania or Hungary)

Women’s World Championship Video Streaming: More Bits Please

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The IHF and Sportfive, Inc have made all of the matches at the Women’s World Championship available for viewing on line. Here’s a review of what you get for your 19.99 Euros.

[b]It’s all about the bits:[/b] Or more accurately it’s about the bits per second (bps). And the video stream of either 450 or 750 Kbps just isn’t good enough any more. It’s not to say that 750 Kbps isn’t viewable, it is. But, when you’ve gotten used to the 1,500 Kbps provided for German Bundesliga games at HBL.TV, you can’t help but be a little disappointed. On my own personal viewing guide of 1-10, with 1 being a 1950’s over air B/W broadcast and a 10 being HD TV on a plasma screen, the World Championships stream is a 5, while the HBL.TV is a 7. The HBL.TV matches are very close to regular TV over cable. There’s a few occasional drop outs and the picture isn’t quite as crisp. The World Championship video stream, as the lower score implies, is a step down. The picture is less crisp and you can’t go full screen, because you’ll get too much pixilation. As Sportfive is providing both products, I’m not sure what the logic is for the lower bit rate. Let’s hope that the next time around a higher speed is offered.

[b]It’s also about where you live:[/b] When I moved back to the USA, I knew my options for watching Handball on TV would immediately drop to zero. Internet viewing I knew would be my saving grace. It’s not quite the same as viewing a match on regular TV, but you take what you can get. What’s amusing to me is that now what I can get is more than what many handball fans in Europe can get. Yes, believe it or not, because of TV rights issues, someone in the USA (a handball wasteland) can see more of the World Championship then someone living in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany and Slovenia. Who’d have thought that my colleagues at handball-world.com would be emailing me in the USA to visually verify what happened in a match because it wasn’t on TV in Germany. Not only is that funny, it’s financially silly. Who knows how many subscriptions would have been bought in those countries? I understand the underlying issues with broadcast rights. But until the quality of internet streaming is the same as regular TV, no one is going to forgo buying a cable channel, because he’d prefer to watch the matches on the internet.

[b]A different way to watch: [/b]I’ve already covered how the actual viewing experience compares to TV, but what might not be readily apparent is how video streaming and video on demand changes the way you watch.

[b]Where you watch: [/b] Sunday morning is traditionally Daddy-Daughter day at the Ryan household with me taking my daughters for bagels and then to play at a nearby park. But with wi-fi access at the local McDonalds, the girls spent a couple of hours at the play place while I watched games on my laptop. Try doing that over your TV.

[b]What you watch: [/b] And, I wasn’t watching a game. I was watching games. With 6 pools and as many as 6 games going on, I surfed from game to game based on the score. Who’d have thought that Romania-China would be such a good game. Glad that I wasn’t stuck with one game on one channel. Of course, the option to view multiple games is already available for some sports on TV as part of a subscription package, but as far as I know handball doesn’t have that enough pull in any country to pull that off.

[b]When you watch: [/b] As Las Vegas is nine hours behind Central European Time, only the weekends are conducive to live viewing. I suppose I could take time off from work, but there’s no real need to when you have Video on Demand and can watch whatever match you want, when you want to. As there are only so many hours in a day, you also need to be selective about what to watch. Case in point, last night I only had an hour or so of free time, so I watched the end of the Brazil-Russia game, the end of the Hungary-Spain, and the beginning of the Australia-Macedonia match as I was curious as to how the Aussies were able to lead for so long. To Videosport’s credit the interface also makes it pretty easy to find a certain point in a match that you might want to see, such as the Paraguay goalie scoring against Ukraine.

[b]News Blackout or Not:[/b] Another big decision is whether to watch without knowing the score or not. Generally speaking if I’m going to watch an entire match I don’t want to know how it’s going to end. But a news blackout is not always as easy. Fortunately in the USA the likelihood of overhearing someone at work excitedly talking about the Brazil – Russia Handball match is incredibly small, but you still have to watch out for self inflicting yourself with knowledge by going to handball websites. And to the videosport website’s credit, you won’t see the scores of any games on the website. But with limited time, sometimes it’s better to know what happened so you don’t waste time watching a bad game.

[b]English Language Commentary:[/b] None so far, but I got an email from Paul Bray indicating that he will be calling games from the quarterfinal on. If you’d like to know a little bit more about Paul’s handball background check out the audio interview I did with him this past January in Germany.
https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.250

[b]The Future (Near Term):[/b] I can only hope that the EHF provides streaming for the Men’s European Championship in January. And while they are at it, why not the Champions League? I’ve also seen news reports that NBC will be providing a lot of handball coverage, but it is not clear as to what portion will be web based and what portion will be televised.

[b]The Future (Long Term): [/b] More games with more bandwidth. Some day soon, I envision that every Spanish League, German League, Champions League and major national team competition will be online. The questions are simply when and how much will it cost.

Video: Korean News on Olympic Qualification

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A Korean news report addressing the South Korea – Kuwait Olympic Qualification match has been posted at Google videos. The video is 17 minutes long and includes English language subtitles. In detail, the news report chronicles the events surrounding the controversy and clearly highlights numerous, serious officiating errors. Other highlights of the video include some non-verbal communication between a table official (presumably Kuwaiti) and the Korean bench, the on court intervention of the IHF, and Japanese fan reaction. Additionally, there is some discussion and footage of the Women’s Olympic Qualification matches in Kazakhstan. The Koreans were also concerned with the fairness of this officiating, but apparently it is not quite as obvious as the Men’s competition. Still, it is worth noting that while the Japanese Women have improved, their upset victory over Korea was a major surprise and was also their first victory over Korea in 31 years.

[b]Commentary:[/b] At best, the officiating errors highlighted in the Korea – Kuwait video are the result of inexperienced officiating. At worst, they are simply the deliberate intention of the officials to favor the Kuwaiti team. I haven’t seen the match in its entirety, so it’s theoretically possible the Korean report simply highlights the biggest mistakes of the officiating crew and leaves out all the errors that took place in favor of Korea. But there are 3 elements concerning the match that suggest that a review of the entire match would simply turn up more of the same transgressions. Those 3 elements are:

1) The decision by the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) to replace the neutral and experienced German officiating crew with the inexperienced Jordanian officials is all by itself, controversial and has never been explained or justified.
2) The on court intervention of the IHF representative, Alexander Kozhukov, is highly unusual and speaks volumes as to what was transpiring.
3) The negative and vocal reaction of Japanese fans was highly unusual for a couple of reasons. First, Japanese fans are normally pretty reserved and secondly, due to Japan’s long occupation of Korea the two nations have a historical rivalry, and it is surprising that they would intercede on Korea’s behalf.

Viewers will need to make up their own mind, but quite frankly I can’t see how anyone can come to any other conclusion than that the match was not fairly officiated.

Video: Korean News Report (with English subtitles): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-908556008345758262

Women’s World Championships: Match Day 3: Brazil, So Close and Yet So Far

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No major surprises in the end, although Brazil almost scored a big win against the defending champions. Here‘s a quick summary of day 3:

[b]Group A: [/b] France took 2 points into the Main Round with a narrow 28-26 victory over Croatia. Kazakhstan beat Argentina 26-22 in a battle for 3rd place and seeding in the consolation President’s Cup.

[b]Group B: [/b] A gallant effort by Brazil resulted in a draw match vs. Russia. Brazil needed a 4 goal victory in order to advance and at several points in the match they pressed the lead to 5 goals, but Russia kept coming back. With five minutes left Brazil led 30-27, but Russia rallied yet again for the final score of 31-31. As a result of their earlier loss to Macedonia, the surprise team from the last Championship will now do no better than 13th place. Macedonia took care of Australia 30-13, but the team from down under actually were leading 9-6 after 24 minutes until the wheels fell off and Macedonia asserted themselves. Games are 60 minutes long, but this first half performance should give the Aussies a little bit of confidence as they head in to the President’s Cup.

[b]Group C: [/b]Norway punched Austria’s ticket to the President’s cup with a convincing 33-20 win. Angola sealed their status as the surprise team with a 41-20 victory over the Dominican Republic.

[b]Group D: [/b]Romania took 2 points to the Main Round with a 38-33 win over Poland. China, which challenged Romania in its opener continued its downward slide losing to Tunisia, 30-27. Tunisia will play for 13th place and China can do no better than 19th.

[b]Group E:[/b] Hungary and Spain played to a 26-26 draw, so both teams will take 1 point into the Main Round. Congo beat Japan 32-28, making that 2 victories for the African continent over Asia.

[b]Group F: [/b] Germany took 2 points into the Main Round with a 32-26 victory over South Korea. Ukraine easily beat Paraguay 43-17 to take 3rd place in Group F

[b]Main Round Groups and Standing (Points and GD after 1 Match)
Group I: [/b]
Norway 2 +6
Russia 2 +5
France 2 +2
Croatia 0 -2
Macedonia 0 -5
Angola 0 -6

[b]Group II: [/b]
Germany 2 +6
Romania 2 +5
Hungary 1 0
Spain 1 0
Poland 0 -5
South Korea 0 -6

[b]President’s Cup: 13th Place Brackets[/b]
Group I: Kazakhstan, Brazil, Austria
Group II: Tunisia, Congo, Ukraine

[b]President’s Cup: 19th Place Brackets[/b]
Group I: Argentina, Australia, Dominican Republic
Group II: China, Japan, Paraguay

IHF Releases Official Statement on Korea – Kuwait Olympic Qualification Match

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Three months after the controversial Men’s Olympic Qualification Match between Kuwait and South Korea, the International Handball Federation has responded with an official statement addressing the match and media reports, such as the one previously written at handball.world.com. http://www.handball-welt.de/o.red.c/news.php?GID=1&auswahl=11833

The official statement confirms many of the elements previously reported including the questionable replacement of the experienced German referees with inexperienced Jordanian referees just prior to the start of the match, as well as the on court intervention of the IHF representative, Alexander Kozhukov, during the match to reprimand the referees.

The statement indicates that the match was discussed at an IHF Executive Committee meeting in September and will be further addressed by the IHF Council in Paris on 17-18 Dec, just after the completion of the World Championships. Until that meeting the IHF will make no further pronouncement.

Additionally, the statement emphatically states that the IOC is not considering the removal of Handball from the Olympic program and that this controversy is one of the reasons why the IHF should retain organizational control of handball qualification events.

IHF Official Statement: http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idcat=218&idart=968

Women’s World Championships: Match Day 2: Angola Demolishes Austria

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Match Day 2 saw a mixture of upstart successes and European resurgence. Here’s a quick Summary:

[b]Group A: [/b] Croatia and France easily took care of Argentina and Kazakhstan, and are through to the Main Round. Their head to head match tomorrow will count as their first Main Round game tomorrow. Argentina and Kazakhstan will battle for 3rd with the winner playing for 13th place and the loser playing for 19th in the President’s Cup.

[b]Group B: [/b]Macedonia turned off the Samba music in St Brieuc by storming back from a 1 goal halftime deficit to beat Brazil 26-22. Brazil now will have to beat Russia tomorrow by 4 goals in order to advance to the Main Round. Current Head to Head Goal Differential (Russia (+5), Macedonia (-1), Brazil (-4). Winless Australia is destined to be playing for 19th place in the President’s Cup

[b]Group C: [/b]Angola’s 33-22 blowout of Austria is clearly the upstart sensation so far of the tournament. Many were expecting to see Angola to challenge Austria, but few would have predicted an 11 goal margin of victory. Austria is now destined for the President’s cup, unless they can pull off a highly unlikely 9 goal victory against Norway. Angola should have no problem beating the winless Dominican Republic. Current Head to Head Goal Differential (Norway (+6), Angola (+5), Austria (-11).

[b]Group D: [/b]On the first day of competition China challenged Group favorite Romania, but on day 2 Poland ended their hopes of advancing to the main round by easily defeating them 27-20. Poland and Romania are through to the Main Round and their match tomorrow will count in the standings. China will battle Tunisia for 3rd place.

[b]Group E: [/b] At halftime it looked like Japan might send Spain home early as they lead 17-15. But Spain dominated the second half and went on to win 36-29. Spain and Hungary are through to the Main Round and their match tomorrow will count in the standings. Japan will battle the Congo for 3rd place.

[b]Group F: [/b]South Korea held off Ukraine 26-25 to punch a ticket for the Main Round. South Korea and Germany are through to the Main Round and their match tomorrow will count in the standings. Ukraine should have no problem with Paraguay tomorrow to secure 3rd place.

[b]Likely Main Round Groups: [/b]
Group I: Croatia, France, Russia, Macedonia, Norway, Angola
Group II: Romania, Poland, Hungary, Spain, South Korea, Germany

Women's World Championships Underway

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No upsets in the first day of competition, but the underdog teams made it interesting in several contests, with China scaring Romania, Japan hanging tough against Hungary and Congo narrowly losing to Spain. All told, 8 of the 12 underdogs covered the handicap spread and in many cases by several goals. Day 2 should feature some interesting contests with the upstart teams that battled the group favorites close having realistic expectations of beating the 2nd best team in the Group. Matches to watch:

Group B: Macedonia played the Russians close today, but lost. If they want to advance to the Main Round they'll need to beat favored Brazil.
Group C: Angola will play Austria with the winner likely advancing
Group D: China vs Poland for the Main Round
Group E: Japan vs Spain for the Main Round
Group F: Ukraine vs Korea. Ukraine needs a win or they are headed to the Presidents Cup

Match reports on all of the games are available on the left hand side of the screen from Handball-World. Anybody who wants to help with editing the match reports, please drop me a line at john.ryan@teamhandballnews.com

Women’s World Championships (What the Sports Books Think)

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According to a survey of online Sports Books, Russia and Norway are the odds on favorites to win the 2007 Women’s Handball World Championships. The defending World Champion Russians are slightly more favored at 1.6 to 1 while Norway, the current European Champions are 1.75 to 1. Romania is the next team in line at 5-1 odds and 4 other teams (Hungary, South Korea, France and Germany) are grouped at 15-1.

Longshots grouped between 120-1 and to 500-1 include Spain, Ukraine, Croatia, China, Poland, Austria, Macedonia and Brazil. The remaining 9 nations are all viewed as 3000-1 or greater longshots. Brazil, which won a tournament last weekend in France, however has seen its odds fall in some books to as low as 39-1.

The odd for teams to win each preliminary group are(from www.expekt.com:

Group A: France(1/4 ) Croatia(11/5), Argentina(249/1), Kazakhstan(499/1)
Group B: Russia (1/20), Brazil(8/1), Macedonia(14/1), Australia (499/1)
Group C: Norway(1/20), Austria (10/1), Angola, (14/1), Dominican Republic(499/1)
Group D: Romania(1/10), Poland(9/2), China(39/1), Tunisia (249/1)
Group E: Hungary(1/5), Spain(27/10), Japan(99/1), Republic of the Congo(249/1)
Group F: South Korea(11/10), Germany(13/10), Ukraine(4/1), Paraguay(499/1)

With only 2 teams advancing to the main round, these odds, on paper, point to a only a few key battles in the preliminary round. In Group B, Brazil and Macedonia should battle it out for the 2nd spot and in Group C, Angola should challenge Austria. Group F could be a real dogfight, with South Korea, Germany and Ukraine all having realistic expectations to reach the Main Round.

The handicap (point spread) lines have also been posted for the first day’s games on Sunday. Australia has the dubious distinction of the being the biggest underdog with a 31 goal handicap vs. Brazil. The Aussies aren’t likely to pull off a miracle, but with several players playing competitively in Europe they are unlikely to suffer a defeat similar to 2005’s 57-9 loss against Hungary. Paraguay is the other huge underdog and they have 30 goal handicap vs. the South Koreans.

[b]Odds to win World Championships (www.bet365.com)[/b]
Russia 1.6 to 1
Norway 1.75 to 1
Romania 5-1
Hungary 15-1
Korea 15-1
France 15-1
Germany 15-1
Spain 120-1
Croatia 120-1
Ukraine 150-1
China 150-1
Poland 150-1
Austria 250-1
Macedonia 300-1
Brazil 500-1
Angola 3000-1
Japan 5000-1
Tunisia 5000-1
Argentina 5000-1
Australia 5000-1
Congo 5000-1
Dominican Republic 5000-1
Kazakhstan 5000-1
Paraguay 5000-1

[b]2 December 07 Handicap Lines (www.bet365.com)[/b]
Austria -15.0 vs. Dominican Republic
Brazil -31.0 vs. Australia
Croatia -14.5 vs. Kazakhstan
France -16.0 vs. Argentina
Germany -3.0 vs. Ukraine
Hungary -14.5 vs. Japan
Norway -8.5 vs. Angola
Poland -5.5 vs. Tunisia
Romania -12.0 vs. China
Russia -9.5 vs. Macedonia
South Korea -30.0 vs. Paraguay
Spain -11.0 vs. Congo