VIDEO: EHF Champions League “Match of the Week” returns

Posted on September 22, 2013 by John Ryan

Just a reminder that Champions League Group Play has started and the first ehfTV Match of the Week is later today as Poland’s Wisla Plock hosts Germany’s Kiel. Wisla Plock knocked off France’s perennial power, Montpellier in a wild card playoff to reach the group stage, now they will try to upend traditional German power, Kiel in week 1. Kiel is a 2.5 goal favorite.

The match will be available live on the ehfTV web streaming platform today (22 September) at 1700 Central European Time or 1100 U.S. Eastern Time. English language commentary will be provided by the always energetic, Tom Ó Brannagáin.

If you can’t catch the match live it will also be available later “on demand”. Further, U.S. residents with beIN Sport can also catch a retransmission on Monday, 23 September at 1700 (Eastern Time)

Additionally, all of the matches of week 1 are available for viewing and without giving away details there are a few surprises. Check out the links below:

Wisla Plock vs Kiel Video (On Demand): Link

All Matches (On Demand): Link (Warning: There currently isn’t a way to go directly to the On-Demand matches without being exposed to some content revealing the outcome of matches)

EHF Week 1 Preview: Link (A written summary by Bjoen Pazen previewing all 12 matches)

Tom Ó Brannagáin’s latest blog post: Link

Google Hangout preview of the season: Link

VIDEO: EHF Champions League Panel Discussion

Posted on September 20, 2013 by John Ryan

This “expert” thinks its Flensburg’s turn.

The European Handball Federation (EHF) hosted a panel discussion earlier today on this season’s Champions League competition. Team Handball News’ John Ryan, was part of the esteemed panel which also included handball journalists Björn Pazen and Grega Sever and the voice of ehfTV, Tom Ó Brannagáin.

Video (EHF Champions League website): Link
Video (EHF Youtube Channel): Link

BoD Election Results: Choi and Agoston Edge Rot in Low Turnout

Posted on September 18, 2013 by John Ryan

The official results are in for the recent election to determine the 2 new “General Membership” seats on the 9 member USA Team Handball Board of Directors. Former National Team player Jennie Choi and Denver Team Handball Coach/Player, Attila Agoston edged Minnesota Team Handball organizer Craig Rot.

85 valid ballots from USA Team Handball members were received by the USOC Audit Team and each voter had to rank all 3 candidates in order of preference. For each ballot the candidate that was ranked first received 3 points, the candidate ranked second received 2 points and the third place candidate received 1 point.

The overall point total for the 3 candidates was

Jennie Choi: 176 points (34.51% of overall points awarded)
Attila Agoston: 175 points (34.31% of overall points awarded)
Craig Rot: 159 points (31.18% of overall points awarded)

With the ranking system used for voting it’s possible that as few as 9 additional voters supporting Craig Rot could have tipped the scales in his direction.

Commentary: Low turnout is a reminder of sport’s low profile

Only 85 out of a roughly 1,000 members of USA Team Handball bothered to cast a ballot in this election. A less than onerous process (print, scan and email a ballot) that took me roughly 5 minutes to complete. Perhaps the low turnout can be chalked up to the quality of the candidates and an assessment by members that each of the candidates were qualified and would be capable board directors. Certainly, that was my assessment when I found out who the candidates were and it was also my assessment after I had the opportunity to chat with each of them. That being said I was still able to pick a preference even if I wasn’t overly concerned with the outcome.

Regardless of the reason for apathy there is no getting around the fact that 85 voters is a paltry number and a stark reminder of the low profile this sport has in this country. At different points in time I’ve reflected on just how low a profile. In this piece written last year I assessed that there were maybe only around 300 hard core fans in the U.S. Certainly, there are a number of ways to demographically look at the sport in this country and depending on how you want to define fandom you can edge that number up. For sure, thousands of Americans saw the sport on TV during the Olympics and liked what they saw. Federation membership is also on the upswing with over a 1,000 dues paying members, many of them youth players. A low number, but better than 300 or so it was just a few years ago.

In remains to be seen as to whether this low turnout is just a blip on the road to the sport’s greater awareness in this country. With one of the two board members just serving a two year term, there should be another election in a couple of years. With gains in overall membership the voter turnout should increase. Additionally, two years from now one can anticipate that it will be more clear as to what Federation plans and programs are in place and executing. Instead of dealing with hypotheticals there will be reality and a greater likelihood for candidates with differing viewpoints. Yes, some mild controversy to get voters energized never hurts voter turnout.

Handball News Summary (16 September 2013)

Posted on September 16, 2013 by John Ryan

USA’s Nico Mukendi this past summer at the Partille Cup.

1) The Handball Player’s Union criticizes the nomination process for the IHF Athlete’s Commission.
Handball-World (German): Link

2) Central American Qualifier for next year’s Men’s Pan American Championship Announced. The tournament will take place this December in El Salvador. The L.A. Women’s team is also apparently planning to travel to El Salvador
Mundo Handball (Spanish): Link

3) Local newspaper reports on USA Men’s prospect, Nico Mukendi. Report indicates that he turned down football scholarship offers at Maine, Delaware and Old Dominion so that he could focus on team handball.
Hillsborough Beacon (New Jersey): Link

AUDIO: Alberta Team Handball: Grass roots development firmly taking root

Posted on September 14, 2013 by John Ryan

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:43 — 9.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

Canadians from Alberta currently enrolled at the Aarhus Handball Academy in Denmark. Top row left to right: Kraig Fischer, Parker Love, Mackenzie Gleave, Tyler Southall, Lyndon Suvanto, Darryl Lakusta, Spencer O’Donnell and Mark Gordulic,
Bottom Row: Brenna Sanderson, Dusen Kristic and Janel Rogiani

Earlier this week I saw a post indicating that 11 players from Alberta, Canada had enrolled at the Aarhus Handball Academy in Denmark. I was surprised to see such a large number of players from Alberta trekking to Denmark to play team handball, so I contacted Alberta Team Handball, Executive Director/Technical Director Mike Nahmiash to find out more. Our conversation touched on a number of topics to include the Aarhus Handball Academy program; youth, junior and senior programs in Alberta; Canadian National Team plans and the possibility of a joint American-Canadian club league. Podcast length is 41 minutes

With thousands of athletes now playing at all levels (3rd grade to collegiate), Alberta Team Handball has come a long way in just a few short years. In fact, it could very well be true that with over a 100 high schools now playing boys and girls team handball as an officially sanctioned sport more handball is now being played in this corner of Canada then the rest of Canada and the U.S. combined.

Alberta Team Handball Federation: Link

List of Alberta players overseas: Link (This is the page that initially drew my attention)

Alberta player blogs: Link (Several players at Aarhus are blogging about their experience)

Aarhus Handball Academy: Link

Handball News Summary (13 September 2013)

Posted on September 13, 2013 by John Ryan

1) French League (LNH) press conference and club budgets. Prior to the start of the new season the LNH had a “State of the League” press conference. It was noted that the LNH is now the world’s 2nd best league and is gaining on the HBL. Also released were the budgets of the 14 clubs. No surprise that Paris’ 13.5M Euros leads the way and is nearly double #2 Montpellier.

LNH website (French): Link
Handnews.fr (French): Link

2) Liga Asobal takes unprecedented step in promoting sports betting. Several leagues and clubs have had agreements with sports betting companies. I’m pretty sure, however, this is the first time that league matches have been incorporated into a specific betting scheme prominently displayed on a league’s home page.
Liga Asobal Homepage (Spanish): Link
Liga Asobal Website article on Quinihandbal (Spanish): Link

3) Talant Dujshebaev on his Champions League career and future plans. He indicates that he will not coach any team until November at the earliest.
EHF Website: Link

4) Hombrados signs with German Club Wetzlar. 41 year old Spanish Goalkeeper Jose Hombrados joins Ivano Balic in Wetzlar
Handball-World (German): Link

Handball News Summary (12 September 2013)

Posted on September 12, 2013 by John Ryan

1) VIDEO: IHF President Hassan Moustafa discusses Argentinian Handball during his visit to Buenos Aires. He also indicates that Brazil’s debt related to their hosting of the 2011 Women’s World Championship might be partially recovered with that nation’s hosting of Beach Handball World’s Championships.
PATHF Website (Mostly English with some Spanish): Link

2) Argentinian International Diego Simonet and 3 others are now cleared to play for Montpellier. Previously, their contracts had exceeded overall budget restrictions imposed in France.
Mundo-Handball: Link

3) The Beach Handball community in Germany seeks more support from the German Federation.
Handball-World (German): Link

Handball News Summary (11 September 2013)

Posted on September 11, 2013 by John Ryan

1) Polish International, Marcin Lijewski, discusses returning to Poland to play with his new club Wisla Plock.
Gazeta.pl (Polish): Link

2) Spanish International, David Davis retires.
EHF Website (English): Link
(Side note: Of African descent and with an American sounding name, I was curious when I first saw him play several years ago as to the personal back story of this non-typical looking Spanish National Team player. There is, however, no USA connection. His ancestry is from Equatorial Guinea, Spain’s only former colony is Sub-Saharan Africa.)

3) Russian International, Sergei Gorbok discusses his return to the HBL and financial problems at his old club, Chekovski Medvedi.
Handball-World (German): Link

4) Chilean International and Magdeburg Circle Runner, Marco Oneto, discusses internal problems with the Chilean national team.
Short summary of the interview at Mundo Handball (Spanish): Link
Audio interview at Handball de Primera (Spanish) : Link

Olympic host city selection: Looking backwards and forwards 4 years for USA Team Handball

Posted on September 10, 2013 by John Ryan

While the selection of host city for the Olympics is always of great interest to sports minded people around the world this time around the selection was only of passing interest to the U.S. This is because unlike the last two selections for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics the U.S. had no city competing to host. This is not to say there was no interest and the selection of Tokyo has implications for a 2024 bid. In particular, the selection of Tokyo means that a European city (potentially Paris hoping for a sentimental 100th anniversary selection) will be the likely competition. Whereas an Istanbul or Madrid selection for 2020 would have probably ruled out a repeat trip to Europe 4 years later and a 2024 selection campaign vs. Tokyo. This assumes quite a bit, and other 2024 possibilities include a bid from Qatar, South Africa and Toronto. Qatar or South Africa would mean the Olympics being hosted in a new region of the earth and Canada hasn’t hosted a summer Olympics since 1976.

Looking Back (2016 Host City Selection): The devastation of the Chicago loss

For USA Team Handball the possibility of home based Olympics has always been a big deal because it means automatic Olympic qualification and the exposure, increased funding and sponsorship opportunities that come along with it. Four years ago in 2009, the Federation was devastated by the non-selection of Chicago for the 2016 Games. Although it was never explicitly stated preliminary plans were already in place for a residency program and marketing campaign focused on the Chicago area.

After his departure in 2011 former USA Team Handball General Manager told me it was pretty much a given that he would have moved to Chicago to directly oversee operations there. With his Chicago based connections it’s probably safe to say that USA Team Handball’s financial situation would be in a lot better place today. Most likely we would also have residency programs fully established in Chicago and competitive National teams. I doubt that we would have qualified for the 2012 Olympics, but with some decent recruiting I suspect that qualification might have been possible for the 2013 World Championships. Perhaps we would even have TV exposure for those national team contests much like USA Rugby now has. But, as we all know Chicago wasn’t selected and coupled with the Great Recession and some questionable management decisions it was the start of the downward spiral that led to the end of the Esch-Pastorino era for USA Team Handball.

Today (2020 Host City Selection): Tokyo, not that it matters

This time around in 2013, the host city selection was essentially meaningless to U.S. Team Handball. Assuming no major changes is in the qualification process, the U.S. will simply need to win the Gold Medal at the 2019 PANAM Games. As an aside, next month the selection for those games will be made and the candidate cities Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela; Lima, Peru; La Punta, Argentina and Santiago, Chile. It’s tough to project out 6 years, but heading down to South America to win Gold will surely be a challenging prospect for Team USA.

Looking Forward (2024 Host City Selection): Automatic qualification for Team USA?

While this time around the host city selection didn’t mean anything it’s pretty easy to foresee the host selection in 2017 (for the 2024 Olympics) as a future pivotal event for USA Team Handball. In all likelihood the U.S. will have a city up for bid and on paper that city should be a very strong candidate for selection. By 2023 I’d like to think that our National Teams will have improved to the point that we can travel to a PANAM Games and compete for a Gold Medal, but there’s nothing like an automatic guaranteed spot. “Maybe, is replaced by “reality” and that will make it easier to secure funding via sponsorships years in advance of the games. Not to mention the increased media exposure that should facilitate recruiting.

With the apparent decision to start a residency program at Auburn University in the near future it would appear that USA Team Handball will not be repeating the all the eggs in the basket Chicago strategy. On the one hand this would seem to be a prudent course of action. U.S. selection is by no means guaranteed and to keep the old sayings flowing, “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” But, on the other hand the potential of setting up shop in one of the potential candidate cities (Dallas, San Francisco, L.A., Boston, Philadelphia and others) has some appeal that Auburn, Alabama might struggle to match.

The competition to be the USA candidate city is sure to be fierce and the USOC has indicated that it will winnow the field to 2-3 cities this winter then make its decision later in 2014 in order to give that city plenty of time to market itself to the IOC. It remains to be seen whether that marketing will pay off with a U.S. selection, but rest assured around 4 years from now the entire USA Team Handball community will be on pins and needles waiting to hear newly elected IOC President Thomas Bach announce where the 2024 Olympics will be.

IOC selection of Tokyo for 2020 Olympics provides opportunity for Japanese handball

Posted on September 9, 2013 by John Ryan

Tokyo delegation reacts to winning 2020 Olympics. What will it mean for Japanese Handball?

The IOC selection of Tokyo to host the 2020 Olympics is big news. There aren’t a whole lot of events in the world where so many future plans hinge on a truly unknown outcome. To the sports minded citizens of Turkey and Spain the disappointment is grand, while in Japan there is great joy. There just simply can be no “in between” feeling for the nations involved.

And in terms of the Team Handball programs in those countries it’s roughly the same story. Perhaps for the Spanish national teams it’s no big deal. It’s hard to project 7 years out, but Spain will likely be in the mix for qualification without the guaranteed slot that Olympic hosting provides. For Turkish Team Handball, however, it could have been a significant boon to their national teams to have participated in their first ever Olympics. Neither the Turkish Men’s or Women’s programs have ever qualified for the World or European Championships, but at times they’ve shown some competitiveness. In particular, I remember the Women’s team drawing France several years ago in a June Playoff event only to lose on aggregate in the 2nd leg. In all likelihood an Istanbul Olympics would have given the sport a boost similar to what Greece received before and after the 2004 Olympics. And who knows perhaps with good planning and a little luck maybe it would have led to sustained growth for the sport in that country.

For Japan it clearly is a chance for resurgence as the Women’s national team hasn’t been the Olympics since their sole appearance in 1976 and the Men’s national team, while it has been to the Olympics 5 times, it hasn’t qualified since 1988. It’s also probably not lost on Japanese Handball that it’s no coincidence that the 1988 Seoul Olympics also marked a turning point in Asian handball to Korean domination that has now lasted a quarter of a century. Undoubtedly, the industrious Japanese are probably contemplating right now just how they might duplicate the success that the Koreans had in Seoul.

Certainly, the possibility exists and unlike the recent British effort to build off of their 2012 opportunity, the Japanese will not be starting from scratch. At times the women have been competitive with the Koreans and they’ve been to the World Championships several times. The men’s program has been less successful, but they can point to Daisuke Miyazaki, a talented center back who scored 104 goals during his one season in the Liga Asobal. Miyazaki will be 39 come 2020, but perhaps the Japanese Federation will find a couple of more players to take his place in the meantime. One such player may be 27 year old Ryota Tanimura who joined Berlin Fuchse and will be playing for the club’s 3 division team. Interestingly, Berlin coach Dagur Sigurdsson played 3 years in Japan and still has ties with his former club there. Perhaps the former Austrian National Team coach might be a candidate to take over the Japanese program? Regardless, with 7 years to plan and develop it will be interesting to see if Japanese handball can take advantage of their Olympic opportunity.

Handball News Summary (5 September 2013)

Posted on September 6, 2013 by John Ryan

1) German Bundesliga clubs overwhelming reject a management proposal to add playoffs. Handball-World (German): Link

2) A French National Commission won’t approve the contracts of 4 Montpellier players. Contracts for Diego Simonet, Wissem Hmam, Arnaud Sifferet and Antoine Gutfreund exceed Montpellier’s authorized budget. Handnews.fr (French): Link

3) New French power house, Paris St. Germain is not happy with its LNH schedule. At issues is a quick turnaround between French League matches and Champions League matches. Sports.fr (French): Link

4) An update on which nations formally submitted bids for 2019 Men’s and Womens Handball World Championships. Inside the Games: Link

5) The Netherlands Handball Federation appeals EHF fines and suspension. The EHF Court of Handball imposed a 550,000 Euro fine and 3 year competition suspension for backing out of their host responsibilities for the 2012 European Women’s Championship. EHF Website: Link

6) Retiring German referees, Ralf Damian and Frank Wenz reflect on their career. The highlight their officiating at the 2010 USA National Championships in Las Vegas as one of their most memorable events.: Handball-World (German): Link

Handball News Summary (4 September 2013)

Posted on September 4, 2013 by John Ryan

1) The German Bundesliga is considering revamping the format for both the National Club Cup (DHB Pokal) and the HBL. There’s even talk of adding playoffs. Martin Kloth, DPA, reports on an interview with HBL Managing Director, Frank Bohmann

Suedkurier.de (Martin Kloth, DPA): “Playoff ideas: Club Handball modernized”: Link

2) Handball-World’s Christian Ciemalla sums up some of the issues with the HBL adding playoffs: “Playoffs are back on the table: HBL provides clubs with their plans tomorrow”: Link

3) Bjoern Pazen, writing for DPA, highlights the poor attendance at the recent IHF Super Globe in Qatar

Suedkurier.de: “Sandwich and free admission: Qatar is vying for viewers”: Link

Editor’s Note: The Handball News Summary is a new feature that we will be experimenting with over the next couple of weeks. The intent of the Handball News Summary will be to highlight some of the key news developments in the Handball world. In terms of experimenting we’re not certain yet as to how frequently we will post a news summary and how significant a news event will need to be in order to make the summary. If you would like to have an article considered for inclusion email us at editors@teamhandballnews.com

A couple of key points

1) We will always try to link and give credit to the original source of the news. Perhaps in some instances we might not realize that another site has simply taken the material from another website and claimed it as it’s own, but we’ll do our best.

2) The news items will often be in a language other than English. A number of websites such as Google Translate, Babelfish and Bing Translate provide workable translations. (Of course, we could simply do an automatic translation, not even bother to clean up the garbled English and then claim the news item as our own creation, but we’ll leave that to other websites.)

Handball News Summary (3 September 2013)

Posted on September 3, 2013 by John Ryan

1) Swedish International, Oscar Carlen, retires. Carlen, once a rising star, has had multiple knee surgeries and therefore has decided to end his career at the age of 25.

(Source: ystadsallehanda.se) (Swedish)

Summary story: Link

Commentary by Jan Ohlsson: “Could have been one of the world’s best players”: Link

2) Nikola Karabatic likes idea of an NBA style handball league. He isn’t so sure, however, if the French and German leagues would like it. Interview with El Periodical (Spanish): Link (Subscription required for full article)

3) Champions League qualification for Group Play is now complete. Summary of the key matches from this past weekend at the EHF Champions League site: Link

A couple of key points