The Semifinals are set for the Women’s 2010 EHF Championship. Sweden-Romania and Denmark-Norway. The EHF has been providing free web streaming throughout and that will continue through this weekend for both the semifinal matches on Saturday and the Finals on Sunday. As an added benefit, veteran Handball broadcaster Paul Bray will be calling the games from Denmark.

Also, if you’ve haven’t already noticed the EHF has added video reports to their website. The short videos, hosted by Adolf Ingi Erlngsson, include highlights, post match interviews and behind the scenes features. These videos can be accessed here: http://www.ehf-euro.com/EHF-EURO-WebTV.2915.0.html#

Women’s Semifinals
Sweden vs. Romania Saturday, 18 Dec, 1430 CET (0830, U.S. East Coast)
Denmark vs. Norway Saturday, 18 Dec, 1700 CET (1100, U.S. East Coast)

Finals
3rd Place Sunday, 19 Dec, 1430 CET (0830, U.S. East Coast)
1st Place Sunday, 19 Dec, 1700 CET (1100, U.S. East Coast)

Direct Link to Video Player: http://player.cdn.tv1.eu/player/_v_/_s_handball/_x_s-411205637/handball/dates.html
EHF: Live English commentary from EHF EURO 2010: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/13600
THN (Jan 07): Audio Interview with Paul Bray: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.250

For many years now, neutral observers of women’s handball might tend to describe Denmark-Norway as some kind of ‘dream final’ in a EURO event. (Of course, in a World Championship Korea tends to enter into the picture). And if a Championship is jointly hosted by Denmark and Norway, then it is not surprising if a lot of the media speculation has been about a possible final between these two teams. And for the most part, the results have been pointing in this direction.

But then came this strange ‘blip’ a few days ago, when the Norwegians lost on home court against Sweden. If at least it had been one of the ‘usual suspects’, i.e., Russia or Hungary, but Sweden…. So when Denmark and Norway now play each other, it will be on Saturday in the semi-final and not in the final on Sunday. Sweden gets to play another traditional handball power ‘in yellow and blue’, namely Romania, in the other semi-final.

In a neutral setting it would have been harder to mention a favorite but, playing at home in front of a fanatic crowd, the Danish team will be tough to beat. Indeed, it has caused strong reactions from many directions, when opponents and TV viewers have observed not just a strong positive support for the home team but also determined efforts to disturb the opponents. This kind of behavior may have become more and more ‘normal’ these days in many parts of the world, but I think the reactions are the result of a tradition and expectation that Danish crowds always seemed to be too sportsmanlike to behave like this…

Of course, it did not get better when the Danish coach did not seem to ‘remember’ that is clear considered illegal behavior, when he himself gets involved in agitating the crowd, and it also seemed it took a bit long for the EHF supervisors to remind him about it and stop the nonsense. If the ‘only’ effect is on the opponents, perhaps the whole issue is less drastic. (And in fact, the Norwegian players have shrewdly been heard saying that they look forward to the crowd behavior! True or not, that is of course the right attitude). But a major part of the problem is that some less ‘hardened’ referees may also become affected by the crowd. Clearly the game Denmark-Romania was a bad example of this effect.

Naturally, it is up to the EHF (and next month the IHF) to ensure that these events are handled by referees who have the experience and personality to ignore the crowd pressure as much as possible. But this is easier said than done. First, the world handball is currently undergoing a generation change in the top level of refereeing and, moreover, even the sturdiest of our elite referees can be made to hesitate for a moment. After all, as we sometimes conveniently forget, they are human beings! And a couple of moments of doubt or hesitation is all it takes in a close game.

So let us keep our fingers crossed for a weekend of pure handball propaganda!

In my posting below from earlier today, I hinted at the possibility that the Swedish team might try to surprise the Norvegians; and I mentioned the rumors about stomach problems on the Norwegian side.

Well appararently it was more than rumors, as three Norwegian players were unable to participate today. So this is now a 'popular' explanation, when the Norwegians (including the King, who was present) try to understand how it could happen that the Swedish women left the Norwegians without a chance. The half-time score was 14-6, and the final result was 24-19 after the Swedes had an eight-goal lead at one point. This is likely to be the best, and most important, handball result for Sweden against Norway, since the union between the two countries was dissolved in 1905…

Of course, for the Swedes it is slightly amusing to hear about the stomach virus or food poisoning on the Norwegian side. Clearly that Norwegian food must be pretty bad and dangerous; probably the Swedish team escaped just by eating food brought from home or by going to McDonalds….

Today, when one half of the Main Round is starting, it may be appropriate to offer some comments on the preliminary round. A major women’s handball event in Denmark and Norway is always likely to cause a festive mood, especially if the home teams do well. And when we get to the semifinals in Denmark later in the week, it would be a major surprise if both host teams are not there.

The preliminary round started out in a way that made it look as if we would have predictable results and no particular excitement. But in the end, this is not how it came out. The heading already reveals the main story for those who have not followed events in their daily media. The last thing I read in a German web site before the start was that ‘getting to the semi-finals is fully realistic’. And while a loss against Sweden in the first game was a bit of a setback, the situation at the start of the last group match was highly favorable. Germany could afford to lose by 7 goals against the winless team from Ukraine and still move on.

But the German women collapsed completely. They described themselves as ‘statues’ and ’paralyzed’. In an incredible manner they managed to lose by 10 goals so they are out; not the normal image of German handball! But Ukraine, who had won a qualifying group ahead of the strong Romanians, suddenly showed some qualities. And the Dutch benefited also. They had just lost against Sweden, but with Ukraine advancing instead of Germany, the Dutch now bring two points into the main round.

The Swedish team may be seen as the main positive surprise so far, but now they face tougher opponents in the form of Norway, Hungary and France from the neighboring group. After three straight wins, they will have to fight to avoid three straight losses, as discussed by the more pessimistic experts in Sweden.

Norway ‘obliterated’ Hungary in what had been anticipated as a close fight for the top spot in the group. But especially the performance of the goalkeeper, Katrine Lunde Haraldsen, caused the Hungarians to become desperate. She allowed only 13 goals by the strong Hungarian, and had a save percent of 68 in the first half! Perhaps her playing for the Hungarian club Gyoer this season gave her an edge!? Today we will have Norway playing Sweden, and even the rumors of a major stomach bug in the Norwegian camp cannot prevent them from being the favorites; but who knows…

In the groups played in Denmark, the home team got solid wins against Serbia, Romania and Spain. This should put them in a good position, although they now face Russia and Montenegro, two of the overall favorites. Montenegro showed that their impressive run in the qualifying group was not a fluke, as they prevented Russia from getting revenge. But then the Croatians, who had lost against Russia, brought their Montenegrin neighbors down to earth with a narrow victory in the final group match. All in all, these results seem to play into the hands of the Danish team. Tomorrow’s match pitting Denmark against Russia will be decisive.

Denmark has indeed benefited from a tremendous crowd support. And this should help them a lot the rest of the way. By contrast, there was some embarrassment in Norway, where the first two group matches drew very thin crowds in the huge Lillehammer arena with 11.000 seats. Christmas shopping, school exams, and bad winter weather (in Norway!?) were mentioned as excuses, but many also blamed it on exorbitant ticket prices.

Finally, it seems that, generally speaking, the refereeing has not been a problem area so far. The mixture of the top women couples and a number of couples with substantial experience has been adequate. However, the difficult part of the event remains. And, apropos, ‘tremendous crowd support’, this can unfortunately affect the refereeing as well, not consciously but at least subconsciously. Let us hope that controversies can be avoided, so good luck to all the referees!

In case you missed it, the EHF is making every single match of the ongoing Women’s European Championship available for viewing online. And not only is it free, they are even offering it at 1.0 Mbits/second, which allows for a pretty decent picture.

Link to Video Page: http://www.ehf-euro.com/Stream.2860.0.html#:
– Click on Program Overview

Direct Link to Video Player: http://player.cdn.tv1.eu/player/_v_/_s_handball/_x_s-411205637/handball/dates.html
– You can select matches by date, round or nation

Sorry, though for Handball fans in Germany, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belarus, Serbia and Russia. Due to license restriction, you’ll be limited to the matches on your local TV networks. Hats off to the EHF for providing these games free of charge to the rest of the world. Now, if we could only get them to provide the same web streaming quality for the Champions League matches.

Last year’s Champions League finalists will meet in a key Group A clash. For once, a so called Group of Death has proven to be an accurate moniker as this group has been ultra competitive from top to bottom through 6 rounds. Kiel is in first place with 10 points (4 wins and 2 draws) while Barca is tied for 3rd with 6 points (2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses). A loss for Barcelona at home could slip them into 4th place and with tough road matches at R-N L and Celje remaining it’s conceivable to start talking about a disastrous failure to advance out of Group Play. Yikes! Usually when teams of this caliber meet in Group Play it’s for pride and a better seed. That’s not the case here. Barca has some serious incentive to win this match.

Fortunately for them, Kiel continues to be plagued by injuries with circle runner Marcus Ahlm being the latest stalwart to be put on the sidelines for an extended period of time. The match is at 5:15 PM (Central European Time), 11:15 AM (U.S. East Coast) on Sunday, 5 December. Barcelona is a 2.5 goal favorite.

ehfTV Live Broadcast: http://www.ehftv.com/ec/cl/men/2010-11/live/high/001251
ehfTV Tape Delay Broadcast: http://www.ehftv.com/ec/cl/men/2010-11/video/001251 (Usually available a few hours after the match)

There is also a tape delayed broadcast on the MHz Network in the U.S. at 4:00 PM (U.S. East Coast), Sunday. For information on how you can watch MHZ see this http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhzworldview/carriage/

It’s déjà vu all over again this weekend as Flensburg and Zagreb will play each other again. Last Sunday, Flensburg held serve with a 32-29 win at home. This Sunday they travel to Croatia, where Zagreb will look to even things out with a victory. After this match there will still be 4 rounds left, but a Flensburg victory would all but assure them of at least 2nd place in Group D. A victory by Zagreb, however, would level the two sides on points.

It’s also worth pointing out that as there is a real possibility these two sides may finish the 10 rounds of group phase level on points. Should that happen, the goal differential between the two sides in their head to head games will decide seeding heading into the round of 16. Just something to keep in mind if Zagreb has a 2 goal leading heading into the closing minutes.

The match is at 5:30 PM (Central European Time), 11:30 AM (U.S. East Coast) on Sunday, 28 November. Zagreb is 1.5 goal favorite.

On Demand broadcast at ehfTV: http://www.ehftv.com/ec/cl/men/2010-11/video/001250

There is also a tape delayed broadcast on the MHz Network in the U.S. at 4:00 PM (U.S. East Coast). For information on how you can watch MHZ see this http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhzworldview/carriage/

The Champions League is back this weekend with a key match between Zagreb and Flensburg. Both teams are currently tied for 2nd place in Group D with 6 points apiece. Flensburg has 3 wins and a loss against group leader Ciudad Real while Zagreb has 2 wins and 2 draws. They drew Ciudad Real at home, but had a bad draw against winless Sarajevo. The two teams will play back to back matches with Flensburg travelling to Croatia next weekend. It’s likely that Ciudad Real will win the group, so these next two matches should be pivotal in deciding which side finishes second. Flensburg is a 2.5 goal favorite.

The match is at 3:30 PM (Central European Time), 9:30 AM (U.S. East Coast) on Sunday, 21 November

On Demand broadcast at ehfTV: http://www.ehftv.com/ec/cl/men/2010-11/video/001249

There is also a tape delayed broadcast on the MHz Network in the U.S. at 4:00 PM (U.S. East Coast). For information on how you can watch MHZ see this http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhzworldview/carriage/

A rainy weekend made it tempting to watch 3 matches on EHFTV, as all of them promised to offer some excitement. Well, one of them did not, but two out of three is not too bad… I will not offer detailed match commentary as you can find that elsewhere. Instead I will try to highlight some impressions and aspects of each match, including some comments on the role that the refereeing played.

Croatia O.G. vs. Ciudad Real turned out to be a real ‘propaganda’ match for handball lovers. It offered speed, great individual moves, tactical sophistication and a close score throughout the match. The players generally tried to be constructive, despite some conspicuous fouls, although most of these came in moments of desperation. There was a sense of great mutual respect. The spectators gave their home team strong support, but they also knew to appreciate good moves from the opponents.

The referees adapted well to this type of game and generally stayed in the background, preferring to trust the players as much as possible. There was a nice emphasis on maintaining good relations and a good atmosphere. Somewhat surprisingly, they may have been relatively tougher on the home team (even though one of their 2-min. penalties probably should have been a ‘red card’). But the sanctions against the visitors came a bit late and were not quite enough. But all in all it was a performance that suited this game, and the match remained good-spirited until the end, despite the 30-30 final result.

Kielce vs. Rhein-Neckar Lowen, with the appearance on Polish soil by Karol Bielecki and two more Polish players on the RNL team, playing against the dominant Polish club coached by Bogdan Wenta, promised to offer high emotions. And that is what we got, but unfortunately it seemed to cause to players to get a bit carried away. It was really a fight, where the ‘end justified the means’, and thus a regrettable contrast to the CRO-CdR game! It was typical that the match ended with a cynical foul by precisely Bielecki, whereby he destroyed a counterattack for Kielce that could have won the game. Instead, Kielce got a 7-meter throw which RNL goalie Fritz stopped. Presumably, Bielecki will now miss out on the next game (against Kiel).

One could argue that it was the kind of game where the players ignored the referees and continued their consistent pattern of rough play and reckless fouls. The referees tried at the beginning but then seemed to give up, preferring to pick out the worst transgressions and letting the rest go; hardly the approach one wants to see. To make things worse, the teams persisted in using penetrations at the 6-meter line, and this led to a considerable amount of ‘wrestling’. And this means that in a somewhat capricious manner there is sometimes a 7-meter throw and sometimes a quick whistle for a free-throw.

Celje vs. Kiel turned out to be the disappointing game. There was some special interest in having Kiel confront a team coached by their own recent coach Serdarusic, who left Kiel ‘under a cloud’. But it soon became evident that he is being asked to coach a Celje team that does not have much in common with the stronger versions of recent years. They held their own for only 20 minutes, with a result of 8-9, but this was soon converted into a 9-17 deficit shortly before half-time. The main difference maker was Omeyer, who seemed to ‘drive the opponents crazy’ with his frequent saves on ‘point blank’ opportunities. In the second half, Kiel relaxed quite a bit and allowed Celje to narrow the margin.

In this game, the referees tried to maintain a consistent line from the beginning, and the teams generally complied. There were also many more fast-breaks and goals scored from a distance. But the impression was clearly affected by the inability of the referees to stay sharp in the second half. The game was never very rough, but several fouls and technical violations were left without action, or handled with bad timing or misunderstandings in the interventions. In a game that is so easy in the second half, the main challenge is simply to remain concentrated, so there is really no excuse.

So a weekend with three top games can indeed offer an interesting experience and, above all, show some very sharp contrasts from one game to another. Handball is indeed unpredictable!

At first glance this Group A matchup between 3-0 Rhein-Neckar Lowen (R-NL) and O-3 Kielce looks like a stinker and the EHF should have looked for another option for its game of the week. But, this is the Group of Death where all 6 clubs have a realistic shot at qualifying for the round of 16 and where 3 clubs, Kiel, Barcelona and R-NL have realistic expectations of winning the title.

Poland’s Kielce started their Champions League campaign with 2 bad losses to Celje and Chambery. The 36-30 loss to Celje at home, in particular, could come back to haunt them if the 4th place slot in this group comes down to a head-to-head with Celje. Last weekend, however, they gave defending champions Kiel a real battle in Germany losing only by a score of 33-29. As is often the case in the smaller handball nations in Europe, there’s only room enough for one good club in their National League. Kielce is clearly that side for Poland and their roster has several national team players as well as the national team coach, Bogdan Wenta. Several players have also spent time in the German Bundesliga so there will be no intimidation whatsoever. Because they’ve dug themselves a hole they are also in desperate need of a victory.

Rhein-Neckar Lowen, on the other hand is sitting pretty all alone in first place. They’re smart enough to know, however, that if they want to stay there, they’re going to have to take care of sides like Kielce on the road. For 3 R-NL players, Karol Bielecki, Slawomir Szmal and Gregrory Tkaczyk they will also get to play a match in front of their countrymen. Szmal has even signed a contract to play for Kielce next year. As for Bielecki, the James Worthy of the HBL (Sometimes I like to go old school on my references), this will be the opportunity for many to see first hand on TV, how he’s adjusted to losing the sight in one of his eyes.

The oddsmakers have installed R-NL as a 2.5 goal favorite. The match is available live on ehfTV at 3:00 PM (Central European Time) or 9:00 AM on the East Coast of the U.S, this Sunday, 17 October. For those with access to the MhZ network it will be rebroadcast at 4:00 PM (East Coast Time). As always, THN will post the On-Demand link when it’s available.

ehfTV On Demand Link: http://www.ehftv.com/ec/cl/men/2010-11/video/001244
USA Team Handball: MHz Worldview to Air Velux EHF Champions League Across USA: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2010/10/08/mhz-worldview-to-air-velux-ehf-champions-league-across-usa/38948?ngb_id=42
EHF: Interview with Kielce and Polish National Team Head Coach, Bogdan Wenta: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2010-11/article/13441/Strong+support+by+the+%22eighth+player%22
EHF: Interview with Kielce and Serbian National Team player Rastko Stojković: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2010-11/article/13421/Results+will+come+soon
EHF: Interview with R-NL and Polish National Team Goalie, Slawomir Szmal: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2010-11/article/13443/Szmal%3A+%22Great+to+be+at+home%22
EHF: RNL Playing with new confidence: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2010-11/article/13439/RNL+playing+with+new+confidence