Your independent news and commentary outlet for the Olympic sport of Team Handball
New USA Men's Coach: Christian Latullipe
John Ryan interviews new USA Men’s Coach, Christian Latulippe. Discussion topics include:
– Christian’s previous role with the USA Women’s team
– His experiences coaching in France
– The USA Men’s roster selected to for the upcoming Pan American Championship
– Team USA’s opponents in Pool Play: Argentina, Chile, Greenland and Venezuela
Time: 34:52
Handball at the 1984 Olympics: Still paying dividends 28 years later
At the USA Team Handball (USATH) Strategy Conference in April I took the opportunity to conduct a short interview with U.S. Team Handball Foundation (USTHF) President, Rick Hurst. The interview (see below) provides some background on the USTHF and its role in supporting Team Handball in the United States. The USTHF was established after the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and its mission is to encourage, improve and promote amateur team handball in the United States. It is a separate organization from the USATH and its current Board Members are Rick Hurst (President), Rod Oshita (Vice-President), Tom Fitzgerald, Mark Noble and Kathy Dean.
For more information on how to send a donation or apply for a grant contact Rick Hurst at RHurst@nkhurst.com
My handy "efhTV final score protector" in action
This past Sunday, I was fortunate to be living in the path of the annular eclipse that traversed across Asia, the Pacific and much of the western U.S. We didn’t get the “ring of fire”, here in Las Vegas, but we got nearly 75% blockage of the sun. As everyone knows looking directly at the sun is never a good idea as it can cause permanent eye damage, so we taped some cardboard boxes together and a made a projection to view the eclipse with no risk.
This weekend with the EHF Champions League Final Four taking place, I’ll be using another homemade device to avoid seeing things that can cause damage. Not to my eyes, but to my team handball viewing enjoyment. As you can see, I will be making full use of my “ehfTV final score protector” to avoid the ubiquitous photos of smiling or frowning players getting interviewed or trophy hoisting celebrations. For several years now I have asked the EHF to spend about an hour of a web designer’s time to create a bare bones page with none of these revealing photos, but unfortunately those pleas have fallen on deaf ears. My colleague Christer pointed out to me that it’s probably because I’m the only one in the world who time shifts these web streams and cares to watch them oblivious of the outcome. I’m a little more optimistic, though, that the number is somewhat higher.
So, if you are part of this elite group of handball web stream watchers, get your ehfTV final score protectors made because the Final Four is clearly handball’s best weekend for professional club handball.
The first match is an all German affair with the New York Yankees of German Handball (AKA Kiel) taking on upstart newcomer, Berlin Fuchse. Kiel is hoping to complete the third leg of a title triple crown with a Champions league title. They’ve already won the German League and German Cup and have beaten Berlin three times this year. The Foxes are 6.5 goal underdogs. The Copenhagen vs. Madrid match is expected to be a tighter affair as Madrid is only a 1.5 goal favorite.
EHF Video Preview: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2011-12/article/14969/Watch+the+way+to+Cologne+on+ehfTV.com
Berlin – Kiel Preview: Link
Madrid – Copenhagen Preview: Link
Live Video Link: http://www.ehftv.com/schedule
Game times and on demand links
Saturday, 26 May
08:45 AM (U.S. East Coast) Berlin vs. Kiel http://www.ehftv.com/final4/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002432
11:30 AM (U.S. East Coast) Madrid vs. Copenhagen http://www.ehftv.com/final4/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002433
Sunday, 27 May
08:45 AM (U.S. East Coast) 3rd place game http://www.ehftv.com/final4/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002434
11:30 AM (U.S. East Coast) Championships http://www.ehftv.com/final4/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002435
Note: The on demand video for last year’s matches was posted a few hours after they were played. If the links don’t work, check back in a few hours. Also, remember to use a sheet of paper if you want to avoid finding out the final outcome. The banner at the top and the photo on the right are your danger areas. Once you click full screen, you should be OK. However, be advised that the EHF has made a celebration photo as the primary photo on the championship game video link. Such a choice makes it almost mandatory that you get a third part to open the link.
New USA Men's Coach: Christian Latullipe
USA Team Handball has posted the following update on their Facebook Page:
Staff Selection Committee Announces Choices
General Manager Dave Gascon today announced the long awaited selections of staff for the upcoming USATH Men’s National Team (MNT) as they will venture to Argentina for the Pan American Championships, which is also a qualifier for the 2013 World Championships in Spain.
“I am pleased to announce that our selection committee of Olympians Rod Oshita, Bob Djokovich, and Michael Lenard has selected Christian Latulippe as Head Coach, Michael Tilton as Assistant Coach, and Mariusz Wartalowicz as Team Leader for this event. I know the committee spent considerable time and effort evaluating all the candidates in order to provide us with the best possible selections. I am very impressed with the professional and thoughtful process with which they approached their responsibilities. USA Team Handball is grateful to them for their time and commitment to our Men’s National Team Program.”
The Pan Am Championships are scheduled for June 18-24, and although the timeline is not yet finalized, Gascon addressed the possible schedule. “Our tentative goal is to depart for Argentina June 10th and to try to get in a solid week of training before the tournament begins. The athlete selection process is being finalized and we hope to have a team selected around the 23rd of May.
We are hopeful that our newly appointed staff and the athletes will bond quickly and that the team will jell within the week. It will be quite intense,” said an optimistic Gascon. I expect our MNT Selection Committee will pick a great team to represent the United States for this important competition.”
Gascon has indicated he will ask for the assistance of 2011 Pan Am Games Head Coach Darrick Heath and Assistant Coach Wade Sutton, as well as former Pan Am Games MNT player Daniel Kimmich, to serve in some capacity on the selection committee. Latulippe, Tilton, and Wartalowicz will round out the panel.
This will be Latullipe’s second go round as a USA National Team Coach. From 2004-2007, he was the coach of the USA Women’s Team and was instrumental in the setup and organization of the residency program in Cortland, NY. In March of 2007, Latulippe, was abruptly replaced (fired, resigned, reassigned- take your pick) as coach shortly before key qualification matches for the 2007 PANAM Games. Latullipe, a Quebecois Canadian, has been coaching club handball in France where he was recently the head coach of 2nd Division Women’s side, La Motte Servolex. He also was the assistant coach for the Canadian Men at the 2011 PANAM Games.
The assistant coach, Mike Tilton, is the current West Point Men’s coach.
THN (13 Mar 2007): USA Women’s National Team Coach Resigns: https://teamhandballnews.com/2007/03/usa-women%E2%80%99s-national-team-coach-resigns/
THN (19 Mar 2007): USOC Statement on Latulippe Resignation: https://teamhandballnews.com/2007/03/usoc-statement-on-latulippe-resignation/
THN (22 Mar 2007): An Act of Desperation or Decisive Action?: https://teamhandballnews.com/2007/03/an-act-of-desperation-or-decisive-action/
THN (18 Jun 2007): USA Women: What happened and what’s next?: https://teamhandballnews.com/2007/06/usa-women-what-happened-and-what%E2%80%99s-next/
Handzone (19 Feb 2012): La Motte-Servolex without Christian Latulippe: http://www.handzone.net/asp.net/main.news/news.aspx?id=56593
West Point Team Handball Website (Coaches): http://wpteamhandball.wetpaint.com/page/Coaches
The "Sports Almirante Browm" Arena, where apparently, the Men's Pan American Championship will be played in June.
The participants for the upcoming Men’s Pan American Championships have apparently been determined. A total of 10 teams will participate in the event scheduled for 18-25 June in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The field has not been drawn yet, but the performance rows apparently are:
1) Argentina, Brazil
2) Chile, Uruguay
3) Greenland, Canada
4) Mexico, Venezuela
5) USA, Dominican Republic
The teams will be drawn into two groups of 5 and the top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals. The Champion, runner-up and third place team from this event will also qualify for the 2013 World Championships, to be played in Spain next January.
The reason for the delay in establishing the field was apparently due to a combination of IHF concerns with the format and structure of the tournament. The Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) regulations had established a two tier qualification format, with a Division 2 Championship played in the Fall prior to the Elite (Division 1) Championship in the following Summer. The top 6 teams from the previous Elite Championship qualified directly for the Elite Tournament while the remaining teams in the PATHF region first participated in the Division 2 tournament with the top two teams advancing to the elite tournament.
As we reported last fall, a decision was made at the 2011 PANAM Games to forego the established process in favor of a single, larger Elite Championships to be hosted by the winner of the PANAM Games. (As a side note, readers should realize that the PANAM Games and the Pan American Championships are distinct, separate events. The PANAM Games are held once every four years and serve as the qualifier for Olympic competition. The Pan American Championships are held every two years and serve qualifier for Handball World Championships)
While in principle, the idea had some merit, it apparently came up lacking in terms of planning considerations. Most notably, how many teams could participate in the bigger tournament and what would PATHF do if every PATHF nation wanted to come? With the established regulations essentially being ignored the new structure was apparently implemented on the fly and apparently it had raised some concerns with the IHF.
COMMENTARY: You’ll note the liberal use of the word “apparently” in this post, because, well, because there’s been no official announcement on the PATHF website in regards to this upcoming event. Our information comes from the Mundo Handball website, which got the information from an Argentine website with a Spanish language interview with Miguel Zaworotny of the Argentine Federation.
As long time readers already know, the PATHF has an unfortunate track record in regards to both time communication and transparency when it comes to organizing competition events. Nations have on numerous occasions gotten information late (or even not at all!) making it difficult to plan and schedule transportation requirements. It’s also worth considering this decision to arbitrarily increase the size of the tournament this year in the context of the 2006 Championships. Back in 2006, Canada was excluded from participating despite having placed 3rd in 2004 because they had not earned enough qualification points under the new regulations. Canada pleaded for a larger tournament, but those pleas fell on deaf ears. The regulations had to be followed. Flash forward, 6 years later and the iron clad regulations are apparently changed on a whim during the PANAM Games without fully considering the repercussions.
Reportedly, there is a PATHF meeting scheduled for today to address this upcoming championship, as well as, the format for upcoming events. Here’s hoping “apparently”, will take some form of reality with a clear communique on the PATHF website in short order.
THN (27 Apr 2006):Canada’s Exclusion from the Men’s Pan Am Championships- Commentary: https://teamhandballnews.com/2006/04/canada%E2%80%99s-exclusion-from-the-men%E2%80%99s-pan-am-championships-commentary/
Mundo Handball (29 Apr 2012): Pan American Championship Adult Male: Confirmed participating teams: http://www.mundohandball.com/Continentes/Panamerica/2012/panamericano-adulto-masculino-equipos.html
Mundo Handball (4 May 2012): Buenos Aires 2012: First and last Pan American Championship with 10 teams?: http://www.mundohandball.com/Continentes/Panamerica/2012/buenos-aires-2012-ultimo-com-10-equipos.html
Can Thor (AKA Mikkel Hansen) and Copenhagen hold off Barca?
Last weekend, Copenhagen beat Barcelona, 29-23 in the first leg. That showdown was the EHF’s match of the week with live English language commentary from Tom O’Brannigan. The clash of these two titans in the second leg should probably be the match of the week again, but the pluralistic EHF decided that the Berlin-Leon match should get honors this weekend. So, if you want audio commentary for this match you’re stuck with me.
Video Links are below. Remember to have a sheet of paper handy to lessen the chance of seeing extraneous indicators of the final outcome
Copenhagen vs. Barcelona
(28.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002344
Leon vs. Berlin
(29.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002346
Koper vs. Madrid
(28.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002345
Zagreb vs. Kiel
(29.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002347
Audio Mp3 files are below. You need to synch up the audio with the ehfTV video. The first half audio starts at 5:20 on the EHF clock. The second half starts at 48:00.
USA Team Handball's Board of Director's Chairman, Jeff Utz
This past Thursday and Friday, I attended a Strategic Planning Conference in Salt Lake City. There were 23 attendees including Board Members, athletes, club leaders and representatives from the USOC. Several issues regarding the future of USA Team Handball were discussed and 4 broad areas were selected for initial focus:
1) Financial Stability
2) “Pipeline” Athlete Development
3) Promotion and Marketing
4) Governance and Management Structure
Following the meeting on Friday, I sat down with Jeff Utz, USA Team Handball’s to discuss the conference, the future of USA Team Handball and his role as Chairman. The Audio is about 24 minutes and can be downloaded below.
21,000 Fans are slated to watch Barca and Copenhagen play in a soccer stadium
The Champions League quarterfinal matches will be played this weekend and next. The winners of the two game (aggregate goals) contests will advance to the Final Four in Cologne, Germany in May.
The marquee pairing is without a doubt Copenhagen taking on defending champion, Barcelona. Some might complain that it’s a shame that one of these teams will be bounced out prior to the final four, but don’t count me in that group as we will likely see two great matches instead of one. On top of that Copenhagen has decided to stage its leg Friday night at the Parken football stadium. The atmosphere should be electric for this event and the oddsmakers have the first match as a pick-em.
As a side point, for our readers who don’t follow handball closely, it’s interesting to note that the Copenhagen club (at least at this high level) is a fairly recent creation. Unlike the U.S., where new franchises are awarded to investors, European clubs with ambitions can simply work their way up through the ranks. And over a 3 year period AG Copenhagen advanced to the Danish first division, adding stars and increasing payroll to the point where they’ve become the undisputed top side in Denmark.
The other pairing worth watching will be the Leon – Berlin matchup. Whoever wins between these two will be the underdog outsider at the Final Four. These sides appear to be pretty evenly matched and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the winner isn’t decided until the final seconds. After all, both know how to win with a little drama as they both celebrated tight victories on aggregate differential on their opponent’s home court. Leon is a 2 goal favorite.
Alas, the final two matchups appear to be mismatches as it would be a major surprise for Koper or Zagreb to knock off either Madrid or Kiel. Both sides are underdogs on their home court in the first match and even should they eke out a win in the first leg they’ll have to follow up that with another surprise the following weekend in less friendly confines. Still, you never know, but I suggest you watch these matches with anticipation that you might be doing a little bit of fast forwarding.
EHF Quarterfinal previews article: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2011-12/article/14825/Eight+final+steps+to+Cologne
ehfTV Schedule with Live video links: http://www.ehftv.com/schedule
Note: The EHF has been pretty good lately about posting the on-demand video for the matches a few hours after the game. The hyperlinks below are best guesses as to what those links will be. Feel free to go directly to the ehfTV website, but beware the extraneous material that will show you the final outcome before you watch.
Copenhagen vs. Barcelona
(20.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002340
(28.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002344
Leon vs. Berlin
(21.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002341
(29.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002346
Koper vs. Madrid
(21.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002342
(28.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002345
Zagreb vs. Kiel
(21.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002343
(29.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002347
Do I really want to download the Sopcast platform? Yes, if I want to see whether Serbia or Poland qualifies for the Olympics.
Last weekend I had the unexpected treat of watching some great handball matches. Sure, the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments had some real snoozer games where the outcome was all but pre-ordained, but there were also a few matches with very real drama and thanks to the Macedonian fans in Sweden, tremendous atmosphere as well.
“But, why was watching these matches an unexpected treat?” you ask. Well, with the IHF’s apparent decision to only sell traditional TV rights to these matches and with no U.S. network buying I figured that it was about a 50-50 shot that I’d find a webstreaming video. But even then, I also figured that it would be a poor quality picture, barely worth watching. But, maybe those odd are improving or perhaps I’m getting a little savvier in finding viewable viewable webstreams, as last weekend I was able to watch Macedonia battle Hungary and Sweden and see Poland-Serbia battle to a 25-25 draw.
All well in good, I suppose. Nothing like watching free handball on TV in the United States. After all, just a few years ago, all anyone outside of the European continent could expect to do was read a computer generated translated summary of the match afterwards.
But, no, it’s not good enough. I want more. I want a better quality picture from a reliable source. And, this should be music to the IHF’s ears– I’m willing to pay for it. Heck, the word “free” is one of my favorites, but when you go to access the video from these fly by night websites, rest assured that they aren’t providing this service simply out of their love of handball. With the video come advertisements and some level of access to your computer, especially if it requires some sort of platform download to watch the video. Annoyingly, somehow my homepage was changed both for Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. Sure, easy to fix, but now I’m wondering what else has found its way on to my laptop.
It really doesn’t have to be this way. The IHF has provided webstream subscriptions for the World Championships and the forward thinking EHF even streams the Champions League for free. Not to mention, the free European Championships streaming this past January. The technology is there and there are a number of entities like Youtube willing to help.
If unofficial entities can webstream these matches, then very clearly it’s possible that the IHF could officially do so. There’s simply no good excuse for this and the IHF should fix this in a timely manner. Let’s say in time for the Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments coming up in May.
Nikcevic's fast break goal in closing seconds bails out Serbia
Five of the six remaining Olympic bids are now known as victories by Sweden, Hungary, Croatia, Iceland and Spain on Saturday made their qualification a mathematic certainty.
Only Tournament 1 has any major suspense left as Serbia and Poland’s 25-25 draw means that both those teams still have hopes of qualifying. A tight affair throughout it appeared that Poland was pulling away when they secured a 25-22 lead with just under four minutes remaining. But Poland did not score another goal for the remainder of the match and Serbia’s Ivan Nikcevic’s fast break goal with 5 seconds left brought the game level at 25-25 all.
In Tournament 2, Hungary fought off a pesky Brazil side for a narrow, 29-27 win. The win assured that Hungary will advance to London. In the second match, the home team, Sweden held off Macedonia for a 27-23 win. The big difference was Right Back, Kim Andersson who delivered 3 straight goals from long range around the 52 minute mark to erase any Macedonian comeback hopes. Hats off, though to the Macedonians players and fans. With the exception of Lazarov, they have a pretty significant talent gap compared to the Swedes and Hungarians. And without question, they’ve got the best fans. Whether they traveled in force or were made up of resident emigrants living in Sweden they pretty much eliminated the home court advantage. I’ve never seen that done on the road like that before in European handball.
Tournament 3 was no surprise as Croatia and Iceland had easy victories over Chile and Japan.
Scenarios for Sunday
Tournament 1 current standings
Spain 2-0-0 4 Points
Poland 1-1-0 3 Points; +1 GD
Serbia 0-1-1 1 Point; -3 GD
Algeria 0-0-2 0 Points
Serbia and Algeria will play the first match on Sunday and while Algeria was able to give the Poles a tough match it’s hard to see Serbia not winning by at least 4 goals. With a victory by that many goals Serbia will have the goal differential needed to take 2nd in the group should Poland lose to Spain in the second match. And Poland will then need to draw or beat Spain in order to qualify for the Olympics.
And then the big question, especially for conspiracy theorists, will be just how hard will Spain play since they’ve already qualified? Fortunately, for Serbia the Spaniards will not totally be without incentive as seeding for the Olympic draw is still at stake. A first place in the group will put them on the same rank as World Champions, France, while 2nd place will pair them with Great Britain. So, if Spain wins or draws tomorrow against Poland they will avoid France in group play at the Olympics. Whereas losing means they will avoid Great Britain. Of course, 4 teams advance out of Group Play at the Olympics, making the Olympic draw less paramount. So, the Spaniards will have a little incentive, but for the Poles it will be do or die which should make for an interesting contest. At least the bookies think so, as the line for the match tomorrow is a pick-em.
Tournaments 2 and 3 are essentially over in that the Olympic participants are now known. In tournament 2, Sweden and Hungary will play to decide who gets first and second, while in Tournament 3, Croatia and Iceland will do the same. In terms of incentive for the Olympic draw these four teams will be split off into two performance rows (the 2 group winners will be paired as will the 2nd place qualifiers). Croatia is probably the strongest of the four teams, so the Sweden-Hungary winner can probably expect to be paired with Croatia, assuming they take care of Iceland.
Can Kiril Lazarov and Macedonia qualify for its first Olympics?
This weekend the final 6 slots for the Men’s Olympic Handball Tournament will be awarded. Three tournaments, each with 4 nations will play a round robin tournament with games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Here’s a breakdown of those tournaments:
All times are Central European Time/ Handicap point spreads for Friday’s matches in parentheses
Tournament 1 (at Alicante, Spain)
Friday 6 April
17:30: Poland (-7) vs. Algeria
20:15: Spain (-4) vs. Serbia
Saturday 7 April:
17:30: Serbia vs. Poland
20:15: Algeria vs. Spain
Sunday 8 April:
17:30: Serbia vs. Algeria
20:15: Spain vs. Poland
Host Spain is the clear favorite to advance and is a pretty good bet to win all 3 of their matches. Algeria is the outsider team and will probably lose all 3 of their matches. This means Saturday’s Serbia-Poland match could very well decide who will advance. The two teams met in January at the European Championships with Serbia winning 22-18. But that match was in Belgrade, Alicante should provide a neutral setting.
Tournament 2 (at Gothenburg, Sweden)
Friday 6 April:
14:45: Hungary (-1.5) vs. FYR Macedonia
17:00: Sweden (-10.5) vs. Brazil
Saturday 7 April:
13:45: Brazil vs. Hungary
16:00: FYR Macedonia vs. Sweden
Sunday 8 April:
14:45: Brazil vs. FYR Macedonia
17:00: Sweden vs. Hungary
Host Sweden is the favorite, but they struggled in January at the European Championships enroute to a disappointing 12th place finish. During Group play Macedonia and Sweden drew 26-26 on the first day of play, a performance that was an early indication of how nearby Macedonia would ride their pseudo home court advantage in Serbia to a 5th place showing and a slot in this qualification tournament. The other European side Hungary placed 8th in Serbia and will also be looking to advance. Brazil, the Pan American entrant will likely lose all three of their matches, so it will likely come down to head to head performance amongst the 3 European sides. With Sweden a slight favorite, the Hungary-Macedonia match on Friday afternoon could be the big decider in terms of 2nd place and who ends up in London.
Tournament 3 (at Varazdin, Croatia)
Friday 6 April:
18:00: Croatia (-9) vs. Japan
20:15: Iceland (-14.5) vs. Chile
Saturday 7 April:
16:00: Chile vs. Croatia
18:15: Japan vs. Iceland
Sunday 8 April:
15:30: Japan vs. Chile
18:00: Croatia vs. Iceland
Barring a huge surprise from either Japan or Chile it’s all but preordained that Croatia and Iceland will advance.
(Editor’s note: If you find an internet video feed for these matches be sure to post the link at our Facebook page)
Can Nikola Karabatic lead Montpellier to an upset over Barca?
I may have declared myself America’s #1 Team Handball fan, but even I can’t resist the lure of America’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. It’s kind of hard to explain to Europeans, but this tournament is kind of like a knockout National Cup tournament on steroids. Played over 3 successive weekends it totally captures the imagination of the American sporting public unlike any club event in Europe. Everybody fills out a bracket for the 64 teams to compete for bragging rights and/or money. Inevitably a little club or two knocks out a big club rendering predictions futile. It is simply an awesome event, but as much as I’d like to see European Handball adopting something similar I won’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen.
Instead, I’ll make do with watching the Champions League Round of 16 over the next couple of weeks. The 16 teams that advanced out of the Group Stage have been paired off and they will now play a 2 game aggregate goal playoff. The lower seeded teams host the first match and the higher seeded teams host the return leg. A definite advantage as those teams will know how much they need to win by in front of their home crowd.
At the EHF’s webstream platform, ehfTV.com, some of these matches will be available live and all of them should be available for viewing on-demand a day or so after the match is played. As I’m still immersed in the NCAA tournament the on-demand feature is my preference and catching up with the Champions League is great on Mon-Wed when the tournament is dormant.
The EHF has already posted a great summary of the 8 pairings and what to expect, so I’ll simply reiterate that there are two great showdowns (Montpellier-Barcelona and Berlin-Hamburg) worth watching. Normally, this type of matchup wouldn’t appear until the quarterfinals or the final four, but both Montpellier and Hamburg stumbled in Group Play resulting in a 4th place seeding.
In particular, I’m really looking forward to the Berlin – Hamburg showdown. These two sides have already played each other twice this season with Berlin winning 26-25 in Berlin and Hamburg winning 24-23 in Hamburg. With neither side having a realistic shot at catching 1st place Kiel this Champions League double-header takes on extra importance as a trip to the final four in Cologne is one thing they can still hope for this season.
Montpellier – Barcelona could also be interesting. Montpellier is undefeated and 8 points clear of Chambery in the French league, so for all practical purposes continuing on in the Champions League is the only interesting thing left for them to do this season. In Group Play they lost a lot of close games and slipped all the way to 4th place in the Group of Death. One sure indication of what they can do when they play well is their 24-23 victory in Kiel. Barcelona will surely be wary of Karabatic and company.
EHF Preview of the first stage for the round of 16: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2011-12/article/14682/Prepare+for+the+knockout+stages%21
Tips on watching
To watch the matches without finding out the scores ahead of time, I’ll try and post direct links to the videos below. You can also find the videos with the ehfTV (full matches) link provided. I suggest you use this link instead of going directly to the efhTV home page. I say this because you’ll have a better chance of not finding out the final score of the match. Despite countless pleas for a different webpage design the EHF still likes to post all kinds of videos and smiling player interviews tend to reveal the outcome of matches. Even with the direct links to the actual matches, though, you would be wise to either have a sheet of paper available to kind of glaze over your eyes as there are annoying links at both to the top and right hand side to these sorts of videos. Once you start the video and click full screen, though, you are safe from harm.
With 16 matches you probably won’t have time to watch them all. Accordingly, I suggest you focus on the Berlin-Hamburg and Montpellier-Barca showdowns.
On paper, some of the other pairings should be one-sided affairs. For instance, I’m guessing that Kiel had little problem with Wisla Plock, but I could be wrong. So just in case, I’ll check out that match using the sliding bar at the bottom to check the score throughout the match to make sure that Kiel didn’t unexpectedly stumble in the first leg. I’ll do the same thing for Madrid and Copenhagen as well.
The other 3 matches (Leon-Veszprem, Kielce-Koper, Metalurg-Zagreb) should be more evenly matched, but I don’t think these teams are strong final four contenders. I’ll probably skim through these matches as well, just in the interest of time. I will say, though, that it’s usually entertaining to see the enthusiastic crowd at Macedonia’s Metalurg.
One final point: Make sure you write down the scores of the first leg matches, so you’ll know what that means in terms of aggregate for the final match. Also, keep in mind that the 2nd tiebreaker is away goals scored, as it wouldn’t surprise me at all if this doesn’t come into play in at least one of these pairings.
ehfTV (Full Matches): http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/men/2012/search/video/full-match/ (use this link to avoid final outcomes)
1 vs. 4 Seed Matches
Berlin vs. HSV Hamburg
(18.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002260
(25.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002266
Montpellier vs. FC Barcelona
(18.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002262
(25.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002250
Wisla Plock vs THW Kiel
(14.03.2012) Video: http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002244
(18.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002263
Kadetten Schaffhausen vs. BM Atletico Madrid
(15.03.2012) Video: http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002259
(25.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002265
2 vs. 3 Seed Matches
Leon vs Veszprém
(17.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002245
(25.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002267
Kielce vs RK Cimos Koper
(18.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002247
(24.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002248
HC Metalurg vs. Zagreb
(18.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002246
(24.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002249
IK Sävehof vs. AG Kobenhavn
(18.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002261
(24.03.2012) http://www.ehftv.com/ehfcl/ec/cl/men/2011-12/video/002264
THN (17 Mar 2010): EHF Champions League Format: More tinkering needed. Why not a field of 64?: https://teamhandballnews.com/2010/03/ehf-champions-league-format-more-tinkering-needed-why-not-a-field-of-64/
USA's Diva Desai takes a shot against Uruguay
John Ryan talks with USA Team Handball General Manager, Dave Gascon, Women’s Coach, Dede Piankova and USA players, Diva Desai and Erin Kizer from Montevideo, Uruguay, the site of the Pan American Beach Handball Championships. Included is a discussion on why the USA decided to participate in this tournament, how the game differs from the court version and where Beach Team Handball might fit into the big picture as the USA seeks to further develop team handball in the USA.
The women play their final game on Sunday at 1645, US East Coast Time: http://www.handballtv.blogspot.com/
Highlights of the women’s game against Uruguay are also available on the Day 1 video starting around the 17:00 minute mark.