We often write about the Men’s Champions League in Team Handball News, so I thought I would take upon myself to put the spotlight on the Women’s finals that were played today and last weekend. But I almost regret that I did so, because the experience was a disappointment. I have seen so many wonderful, high-quality women’s games over the years, in World and European Championships, the Olympic Games, but also in the European club competitions. So against this background these two matches were a real letdown, except for the excitement coming simply from the close result.

After having lost 27-29 in the away game a week ago, today Buducnost (Montenegro) managed to beat Gyoer (Hungary) by 27-25, so they won the title on equal goal difference but more away goals. Presumably Buducnost is a worthy winner, having won all the Main Round games and the semi-finals earlier, and it must be a special pride for such a new, small handball country to have a cup winner. But the lack of attractive and interesting handball really makes you wonder about the quality of the women’s club handball today. On the men’s side, the top club games are often of a better standard than many national team games, but this does not seem to be the case among the women.

In the first game in Gyoer (or actually in Veszprem), the home team looked more like a team, with several key players, while Buducnost depended totally on star player Popovic and goalkeeper Woltering. The small margin of victory depended partly on technical mistakes by Gyoer but unfortunately also on bad and ‘strange’ refereeing. A normal result from the first game might have put Gyoer sufficiently far ahead. In today’s game, the situation was somewhat reversed. Veterans Goerbicz and Palinger were the only stand-outs for Gyoer, but when Gyoer managed to neutralize Popovic this time, then a few other players stepped forward, notably Bulatovic and Miljanic. But the savior was probably Woltering.

However, despite a clearly acceptable referee performance, the main impression was the cynical and reckless action by home team players in many situations. For the most part this was detected and penalized, but Gyoer failed to take advantage. And it really made for a spectacle that at times looked more like ‘mud wrestling’ than handball. There were not many spectacular individual efforts (other than by Woltering), and many of the goals were more the result of poor defending and/or physical force. No technical sophistication could be noticed, perhaps apart from the rock solid 7-meter conversions by Goerbicz.

In the Cupwinner’s Cup, FTC from Hungary came out ahead, by winning twice by the same score, 31-30, against the winners in the Champions League from the past two seasons, Viborg from Denmark. The EHF Cup was won by Lada Togliatti (Russia), coached by Trofimov, against Zalau from Romania. Last year’s runner-up in the Champions League, Itxako from Spain, narrowly failed to make it to the semifinals this time, and now it seems the team is about to be dismantled. Money for club handball is not easily available in Spain these days, perhaps with the exception of the Barcelona men’s team.

Bottom line: women’s handball cannot afford to waste a propaganda opportunity in this way!

A week ago I wrote about a ‘Nordic Meltdown’; this was after Denmark had lost against Serbia and Poland in group play, joining the other Nordic teams in having a very poor start of EURO 2012. A year ago, I wrote an article which I illustrated with a famous picture from a Hans Christian Andersen story. When Denmark today kept their cool against a strong Serbian team and surrounded by a fanatic home crowd, winning the European title, then it is again appropriate to talk about a Danish fairy tale of the best H.C. Andersen style.

Denmark deserved this victory after five straight victories in the main round, in the semi-final and today. They also played a concentrated and strong game today and they have a resourceful team: a top-rate goalkeeper, a strong defense, good wing players and several options for the long-distance shooting. Mikkel Hansen was the hero in many games, but when he had an off day, then Rasmus Lauge stepped forward. And they were able to prevail both in high-scoring shoot-outs and in defensive games like today, where the result was 21-19 after a modest 9-7 at half-time.

Serbia had Ilic, Vujin, Vuckovic, goalie Stanic and several other really impressive players. In many games they were ‘carried’ by the crowd support. But today it somehow seemed the pressure and the expectations made the Serbs more nervous than their opponents. Nevertheless, after I saw them in the World Championship a year ago, I never hesitated about predicting that they would be in the final here, and they will certainly be a team that has good chances of remaining at the very top for a while.

The bronze medal game was the kind of anticlimactic game one sometimes gets when two frustrated teams cannot mobilize the right motivation. Croatia managed slightly better than Spain and won the bronze medals through a 31-27 (13-12) victory. During the first 35 minutes, Spain managed to come back every time when Croatia tried to pull away, but later in the game the energy was not there for such come-backs.

The final was played in a very positive atmosphere, with no incidents involving the spectators and a very sportsmanlike atmosphere on the court. The player showed mutual respect, and the referees, Abrahamsen/Kristiansen (Norway), displayed a nice calm control and a good consistent judgment.

Finally, the victory for Denmark also had the implication that they are directly qualified for London and that Poland gained the remaining slot in an Olympic qualifying tournament, taking over Denmark’s slot on account of their ranking in last year’s World Championship. There will be ‘chain reactions’ in the composition of the three qualifying tournaments in April as follows: Group 1: Spain, Poland, Serbia, Algeria; Group 2: Sweden, Hungary, Brazil , FYRO Macedonia; Group 3: Croatia, Iceland, Japan and Chile.

I clearly need to explain this heading. It is John Ryan’s fault… He cannot follow the web casts live but one or two days late, at which time he wants to be unaware of the results. But both of us get automatic e-mail where our headings of posted articles are shown. So I figured that I needed to use Swedish to avoid ruining things for the poor guy… So if you now wonder what the two words in the heading mean, the answer is roughly ‘helpless and meek’! Unfortunately, several of the games yesterday and today made me feel that this was a good way of describing many players or entire teams. Yes, the games were in some cases close in terms of result, but the quality was not much to boast with.

The first ones who come to mind in deserving my description were the French team and many of its stars and veteran players. Sooner or later it had to happen that their impressive string of gold medal performances would come to an end but, please, not in this way! In the end they seemed lethargic and indeed helpless today against Croatia, just like against Hungary earlier. And it did not have to happen. During the middle of the game they seemed to turn it around and had a three-goal lead after a weak start. But when it mattered at the end, they just collapsed and seemed to give up. There was even open quarreling between coach Onesta and some of his key players.

The Swedes do not this time have a team of the same caliber as in their periods of greatness or even like one year ago. So perhaps they could not do much better. But what is frustrating to see is the lack of initiative, determination and fighting spirit. Serbia was a tough opponent yesterday, but the Swedes did not manage to put up a real fight. And a bit of the same was noticeable today with the Icelandic team. Despite some good efforts by the likes of Gustavsson and Palmarsson, there was no real team cohesiveness and no spark. Can it be that teams which already have an Olympic qualifying slot secured do not really manage to get up for the final games of a European Championship when they seem to be out of contention for the medals??

And then came today’s puzzling performance by the Hungarians, another team with a place secured in the Olympic qualifying, But today they had a chance to put themselves in a good position to gain a semifinal slot. And nevertheless, they did not get anywhere near the level that they have showed in some of the previous games. They are really like the ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ team of this tournament. Quite generally, it also makes you start wondering about a general lack of impact from the coaches during the games. These are, for the most part, well-known and highly paid coaches who should have the skills and the experiences to make major adjustments during a game and, at least, to ensure that their players are sufficiently motivated and up for the game.

So having sounded so negative until this point, let me conclude on a more positive note or two. We have seen a number of very close games and the spirit on the court in terms of sportsmanship and a general avoidance of dangerous fouls and provocations has been noticeable. The players are often showing a good deal of respect for each other, the coaches are for the most part on a good behavior, and the referees have contributed in a constructive way. They have generally been consistent and able to draw the line in the right place. Let us now hope for a thrilling finish of EURO2012 with a continuation of the good sportsmanship!

The groups in the preliminary round were completed today, and the main round starts tomorrow. The format used by the EHF makes for a combination of excitement and anticlimax. They start out with 16 teams and one of the two purposes of the group play is ‘simply’ to reduce the field down to 12. Moreover, at any given point in time, Europe tends to have about 10-12 really strong teams, so the weeding out of the more marginal teams, such as the Slovaks, does not often create much excitement. But this time we had thrillers at the end. And then the fact that the teams which advance bring with them the points from the games that they have played against each other, this means that every game means a lot even when teams already know they will advance.

For instance, yesterday, Denmark-Poland was a really important game, even though both teams were already through. Based on the form showed in recent time, the Danes may have been favorites against a Polish team that seemed to have stagnated in recent time and were missing key players. And Denmark seemed to have the upper hand, but in the end they basically gave the game away. So now they are still in the main round, but in practice virtually without chances of being one of the two teams out of the six in their main round group who will go to the semifinals. What is worse is the impression that, in the games they lost, the Danes really seemed to be lacking in mental strength and fighting spirit. They looked intimidated in the game against Serbia. By contrast, the Serbs are through with the maximum four points and seem to be a great shape.

In the parallel group, one could write the same thing about the Swedes as about the Danes. They lost a point against the Macedonians, after having grumbled about the impact of the fanatic crowd. And then they seemed to be strangely optimistic prior to the final game against Germany, despite the fact that the Germans really had been ‘boxed’ in with a desperate need to win. A loss for Germany might have meant elimination yet again in a major Championship, while the win against Sweden means that they instead are through with full points just like the Serbs. The listless Swedish performance, both on the court and in terms of coaching, obviously was the cause of a major frustration in handball Sweden. And the Czechs had to pack their bags, despite the strong start with a win against Germany.

In today’s matches in Group D, we had a ‘triangle drama’ between Norway, Iceland and Slovenia. The latter two played each other, and somewhat surprisingly, after mediocre play earlier, Slovenia came through. In fact, they almost went as far as to knock out Iceland, leading 34-30 just before the end. But two late goals by Iceland rescued their advancement, although they, just like Sweden and Denmark, will move on with zero points. Norway did not manage to surprise Croatia and, although they almost ‘got in through the back-door’, in the end they had to accept elimination. What now has caused some controversy is that Slovenia seemed to ‘give away’ the last two goals for Iceland, with the reasoning that the 34-32 and the elimination of Norway instead of Iceland now gives Slovenia the advantage of bringing two points to the main round. A smart way of taking advantage of the regulations or unsportsmanlike?

Finally, in Group C we had what is undoubtedly the biggest surprise. Even after France lost against Spain, most observers had seen them as a medal contender. But that has now become almost impossible after today’s surprising defeat against Hungary. Sure, Hungary is unpredictable and had already staged a great comeback against Spain, but in the game today we saw a French team that was really ‘helpless’ and resorted to individual efforts rather than their usual team play. Karabatic was just a shadow of his usual self. So while France is still in the tournament, they are not bringing any points to the main round. And next they will have to face Slovenia and especially Croatia, who both will have great crowd support. It should be noted that the Russians joined their Nordic neighbors in the ‘meltdown’; they are out!

Most of us will now start speculating about which teams will go through to the semifinals, but as far as Teamhandballnews is concerned, I will leave that task for John Ryan…