Montpellier travels to Hungary Saturday to face unbeaten Veszprem in a key Group B showdown. Montpellier bounced back from their week 1 defeat to Hamburg with an easy victory over Sweden’s IK Savehof in week 2. Meanwhile Veszprem is riding high from their 3 goal victory last week over Group B favorite Hamburg. A victory for Veszprem gives them a leg up in Group B, while a loss for Montpellier will put them at 1-2. According to online sportsbooks Veszprem is a 3 or 3.5 goal favorite.

As my colleague, Chirster Ahl, pointed out recently four teams will advance from each Group and it’s a safe bet these two sides will advance. So what makes these matches important is the seeding that will come out of the group. A first seed will likely mean an easy match up in the round of 16 and an easier opponent in the quarter finals. A second seed will mean a stronger challenge in the round of 16 and a likely matchup vs. a #1 seed in the quarter. A third seed means even worse prospects and who knows, Denmark’s KIF Kolding might be for real with their 2-0 record so Montpellier could even be looking at a fourth seed if they keep losing.

For U.S. residents there is the added treat that this broadcast will be available on TV via the MHz Network at 1600 Eastern Time. See the press release for information on where you can watch this channel. MHZ is not ESPN, but it is available through a number of different avenues including Direct TV and via arrangements with local stations in several markets. We’ll be researching this more in the coming weeks. For those without MHz ehfTV will broadcast the match live at 1725 Central European Time (1125 U.S. Eastern Time)

ehfTV On Demand Video Link: http://www.ehftv.com/ec/cl/men/2010-11/video/001160
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 Veszprem’s Mark Vujin: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2010-11/article/13406/%22My+legs+are+much+stronger%21%22

Barcelona lost last week, 31-30, on their home floor to Germany’s Rhein-Neckar Lowen. This week they travel to Germany to take on last year’s champion Kiel. Barcelona will want to avoid going 0-2 in the standings in Group A and show a little Spanish League pride as one of the more heated ongoing debates in Handball is to whether the German or Spanish league is better. With Rhein-Neckar (arguably the 3rd best side in Germany) dispatching Reale Ademar in the Wild Card playoff and taking care of Barcelona in Barcelona, the argument appears to currently be leaning in Germany’s favor. Spain’s Ciudad Real easily dispatched Flensburg last week and few would argue against that club being one of the world’s best, but it could be that Spanish League is turning into a one horse town with Ciudad Real far outclassing even rivals like Barcelona.

Barcelona will want to show that they are still a team to be reckoned with. The oddsmakers at least still have some faith in Barcelona. Kiel is only a consensus 2 goal favorite.

EHF Preview: Duel of Kings in Kiel: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2010-11/article/13388/Duel+of+Kings+in+Kiel

Kiel v Barcelona On Demand Full Match Video: http://www.ehftv.com/ec/cl/men/2010-11/video/001157

ehfTV’s first game of the week (with English language commentary) on Sunday will feature two top sides, Montpellier and Hamburg, christening a brand new arena. Montpellier had previously played all of their matches in the Palais du Sport Rene Bougnol, a small arena with a capacity of 3,000. Now Montpellier will play its “big games” in a new arena, simply called l’Arena which can hold 9,000. This larger venue should help Montpellier get the revenue it needs to compete with the top clubs in the Champions League. All well and good, but will the new arena have the same atmosphere and magic as the old one?

I never stepped foot in Rene Bougnol, but as Montpellier was always (and I mean always) on TV while I was living in France it still is like saying goodbye to an old friend. With its distinctive arced stand and vocal crowd it was the scene for some remarkable Champions League games where top teams lost by a whole lot more than they should have. Most notably, it was the site where Montpellier won the Champions League in 2003 when they overcame an 8 goal aggregate deficit from the first match with a 12 goal slaying of Portland San Antonio. And it was where Montpellier annihilated a Flensburg side by a seemingly safe 14 goals in 2005. But perhaps as Chekov showed last year with their penalty shoot out win the luck of old Rene Bougnol had run its course. Will the new arena start a new run? Time will tell, but this match could be an indicator. The handicap line is 0 goals for this match.

The game will start at 1700 in France and 1100 hrs on the U.S. East Coast.
On Demand Video: http://www.ehftv.com/ec/cl/men/2010-11/video/001153

Ulrich "Uli" Gutweniger, is EHF Marketing’s Head of Media. In this email interview he provides some insight in regards to their web streaming platform, ehfTV.

John Ryan: The EHF has been a trailblazer when it comes to providing web streaming of handball matches. Why has the EHF been so aggressive in promoting web streaming?

Uli Gutweniger: The ehfTV.com platform has offered us the chance to show matches from both the VELUX Men’s EHF Champions League and the EHF Women’s Champions League worldwide. This means extensive coverage of the competitions – and for handball fans the chance to see teams play that they perhaps wouldn’t normally see on TV at home. This service is a boon too for our clubs because they get the chance to analyse the performance of every team in the competition.

JR: The matches via ehfTV are provided free of charge, but I’m sure it’s not free for the EHF to provide this service. What exactly is the business model here?

U?: We launched the ehfTV.com platform with the aim of getting the competitions watched by more people in more markets. I think we’ve achieved this, and now we’re looking at how we can further improve the product to make it more and more attractive to handball fans. The “behind the scenes” video reports from the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne were one example and now we’re introducing our “Match of the Week” with full commentary in English.

JR: The matches, except for the occasional restrictions in countries where it’s being shown on live TV, are available all over the world. Does the EHF keep an eye on what countries are tuning in? Which countries have the most viewers? Are there a few countries that have been a surprise in terms of interest or lack thereof?

UG: In general interest in matches comes from those countries where we also get good television ratings and where handball is already hugely popular, countries such as Hungary, Poland, Germany and Romania count amongst the nations using our service most.

JR: What matches have had the most viewership? How many viewers total?

UG: We find that the top matches each season are hugely popular and of course the finals are watched by many, many people. Our on-demand service in particular has proven to be very popular.

JR: While I enjoy watching matches live I often find it impossible to do so with the time zone difference and family commitments. As such, I really enjoy the on-demand availability to watch when I want to. How do the numbers compare between live and on-demand viewership?

UG: This is exactly the reason we decided to include the VOD Service, we find that we have very good viewing figures for matches on-demand. We also have a large database of matches and clips available on-line, fans can still watch full matches from as far back as the 2007/2008 season.

JR: Alright, while I love ehfTV and I can’t complain about the price, I do have one big complaint as an on-demand viewer. For the most part when I select a match for on-demand viewing there is a non-descript picture from the match. I simply click on the picture and watch the match oblivious to the final outcome. But for the EHF Champions League final the last two years there’s been a picture of the celebrating team. This has been a crushing disappointment for me as I really don’t like to know who’s won the match before I watch it. Can I get a commitment that this won’t happen again for the 3rd year in a row?

UG: Well, this is quite difficult for us as the official website of the EHF, this is our biggest moment of the year and we want to celebrate this with our fans. We try to offer as many pictures and articles so that fans at home get a feeling for the event. Of course this is true for ehfTV.com too, but we will see what we can do!

JR: OK. I’ve got one more quibble here. And again I feel a little sheepish about asking, because it’s not costing me a penny, but are there any plans to provide higher quality video?

UG: This would only be possible if we began charging for our service and we have always tried to keep the service free of charge for handball fans. We have to bear in mind too that not all of our viewers worldwide have the technology and high-speed internet to watch our service if we increase the stream rate.

JR: What about the possibility of a premium service? I know that I would immediately pull out my credit card to watch matches with a better picture. I think others would as well.

UG: Right now this isn’t planned but we’re open to ideas and may look at this again in the future if the demand is there.

JR: What about TV broadcasting deals with more countries around the world? Is the EHF actively working to get Champions League broadcast in non-traditional handball countries like the U.S., China, India, etc.?

UG: This is something we are working actively on. It is our aim to see the VELUX EHF Champions League seen in as many markets as possible but of course the time difference and the lack of knowledge of the game in certain markets makes this difficult for us. We would love to see players from China, USA or India playing in the EHF Champions League, this would make life much easier for us!

JR: I know that many Europeans often don’t fully comprehend just how minor a sport Handball is in some countries. These broadcasts have not only been a godsend to diehard fans, but they have also become a great education tool for promoting the sport. Anytime, I’ve needed to explain the sport to someone I’ve gone to the ehfTV.com website. A picture says a thousand words, moving pictures say 10,000 words. I don’t know if it’s intended or not, but does the EHF realize what an invaluable service they are providing?

UG: Our aim through ehfTV.com was to offer as many opportunities to watch top-class handball as possible. So far we have concentrated mainly on the EHF Champions League but we hope to be able to offer other competitions and content in the future.

JR: I’ve seen the weekly magazine show evolve over the past few years. I particularly like the feature interviews that are mixed in with the highlights. This would seem to be a marketable product for TV viewing. Any chance it might get air time on regular TV?

UG: We are delivering the magazine to all interested parties and a lot of our TV partners are showing this programme and those highlights. Eurosport aired the show in 43 European countries for example. In a lot of territories the interviews we provided have proved very popular and I am sure will continue to do so in the future. It is in our interest to strengthen the product and it is clear that we need to focus more on the stars of our game – the players.

JR: Is the “Match of the Week”, with English language commentary, intended to further broaden the appeal of the EHF Champions League?

UG: Of course. We are looking to promote one top match in each round of the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League, both through reports on our website ehfCL.com and with the English commentary of each match. We want to increase our exposure in the English speaking world and in Tom O’Brannigain we have found a handball-mad professional for the job. People are still talking about his enthusiastic commentary from the EHF FINAL4 last season and I think he will bring a new excitement and level of interest to ehfTV.com. We’re all very much looking forward to the launch of this new feature.

EHF (20 Sep 10): "Match of the Week" launches this weekend: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/13332

Handball fans world-wide will have the opportunity to witness live Team Handball for the first time in several months this Sunday, 5 Sep as Rhein-Neckar Lowen hosts Ademar Leon in the final match of the European Handball Federation (EHF) wild card tournament. The German and Spanish sides are generally considered to be the 3rd or 4th best teams in their respective leagues and this match will likely decide who will play in the Champions League this upcoming season and who will play in the less prestigious EHF Cup. Of course, Denmark’s Bjerringbro-Silkeborg and Slovenia’s RK Gorenje Velenje will have to be dispatched first on Friday and Saturday to set up the winner take all show-down.

The match is scheduled to start at 5:45 PM in Germany, which is 11:45 AM on the U.S. East Coast. Be sure to keep both eyes on one-eyed Karol Bielecki of Rhein-Neckar. Bielecki recently scored 11 goals in a Bundesliga match and appears to be adjusting well to losing his sight in one eye last June.

EHF: Duel of two lions live on ehfTV.com: http://www.ehfcl.com/men/2010-11/article/1/13289
Link to broadcast: http://www.ehftv.com/ec/cl/men/2010-11/live/high/001145

[b]Update:[/b] Rhein-Neckar Lowen took care of business with a 33-28 win over Gorenje Velenje and a 31-26 win over Bjerringbro-Silkeborg. Ademar Leon, however, lost on the first day 27-26 to Bjerringbro-Silkeborg, but bounced back with a 27-21 victory over Velenje. Bjerringbro-Slikeborg defeated Velenje on Sunday, but cannot advance despite 2 wins. For the final match in this Wild Card Tournament, R-N Lowen will advance with with a win, draw or a loss of 2 goals or less. Ademar Leon advances with a 3 goal or more victory.

Recently I described the women’s qualifying for EURO 2010 as rather predictable and uneventful. There the final stage involved playing in 7 groups with 4 teams each. In the qualifying for the WCh, the normal method in recent time has been to have qualifying in groups in an earlier round, and then rely on pairs of ‘knock-out’ matches in the final qualifying. Seven group winners joined eleven teams who played in the EURO 2010. The seven group winners had mostly had an easy time in moving to the knock-out stage, but the knock-out matches, almost by definition, tend to create more excitement.

This time was no exception, although four or perhaps five match-ups looked relatively one-sided, but not to the extent that a surprise could be completely ruled out. In the end, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Spain all moved on as anticipated. One could say that these matches involved strong winning teams or relatively weak losers. The other four pairings, by coincidence completely involving nations from the eastern part of Europe, lived up to the expectation of drama and last-minute decisions.

It would have been difficult for someone neutral to have been sure of a favorite between Slovenia and Hungary. The narrow 2-goal win for Slovenia at home proved to be just one goal too small, when Hungary got revenge at home by 3 goals. Serbia who started out with a 4-goal advantage at home quashed the hopes of the Czechs to make it back to the top group, as the 3-goal win for the Czechs in the second match fell just short of what was needed.

In the other two match-ups, the former ‘Soviets’ seemed to be bringing home solid lead, as Russia had won by 4 in Romania and as Ukraine, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, won by 5 goals away against Slovakia. Russia had probably been slight favorites to advance and there had been comments about bad luck in the draw for Romania. The Ukraine team was known to have injury problems, so perhaps the odds-makers favored Slovakia. But surely it was still a major surprise when Slovakia managed to turn things around and win by no less than nine(!) goals away. That the Russian would be in for a tough fight in the second match was expected, as the Romanians were really determined to reclaim their top status on the men’s side, but it was still a remarkable feat for the Romanians to match the 4-goal deficit with a 5-goal win. The Russian team is a homogenous side, with almost all of them playing together as a club team. So one begins to wonder if this is a sign of a broader decline for handball in Russia or if it was just a temporary set-back.

Of course, as hinted above, while the format of ‘knock-out’ pairings leads to excitement, it may not be the most fair and revealing approach. A lot depends on the luck of the draw. The teams that came from EURO 2010 definitely consisted of some high-powered teams and some more modest ones. Similarly, the seven group winners from the previous qualifying were not all of the same caliber. So it is really sufficiently fair then to depend on the draw. Perhaps it would be fairer to eliminate the play-offs in this form and let some of the EURO participants drop out, while the other teams would compete just among themselves for a predetermined number of WCh slots?

Clearly the trade-off are difficult among aspects such as fairness vs. excitement, advantages for the previous top teams vs. turnover and newness through more generous opportunities for other teams. And the desire to give a break in the competition calendar for those who participated in a EURO is obviously relevant, although perhaps progress on the issue of compensation for the salary-paying club teams may one day make this concern less pressing. In any case, after reviewing the process and the outcome for the EURO 2010 qualifying for the women and the WCh 2011 qualifying for the men, one might come to the conclusion that renewed thinking and some new methods might be welcome!

European Men's Qualification Playoff Results: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/13213

With a 32-28 victory last weekend in Bucharest, Russia appeared on track for another trip to the World Championship. Romania, however, had other plans and with their 37-32 victory in Chekov yesterday, they won the 2 game series with an aggregate 65-64 win. The Russians will now miss the World Championships for the first time since 1961.

Video: Russia vs Romania (last five minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrRZH2VWSjM

The main comment from the qualifying groups for the women’s European Championship later this year has to be about the success of the team from Iceland. We are used to strong men’s teams from Iceland, but the women have never had any results to boast with. Now they knocked out Austria, and the failure by the Austrians to qualify may in itself be seen as a bit surprising by some. But hasn’t the poor status of women’s handball in Austria really been masked for many years by the successes of Hypo and by national team results mainly achieved thanks to ‘imports’ from all over Eastern Europe? The league is so weak that Hypo’s youth/reserve is totally superior, while Hypo’s main team does not even bother to play in the league.

But apart from this, there was not much new or surprising happening in the qualifying. Four of the teams who participated in the 2008 Championships failed to qualify this time. Apart from Austria, this involved very narrow failures for Belarus and FYR Macedonia, whereas Portugal seemed to show that the successes in 2008 was a one-time affair, as they had no chance this time. Belarus had the same points as Slovenia, but they missed out due to the aggregate results in the matches between the two teams. It was even closer between Netherlands and FYR Macedonia, where Netherlands managed to tie the game between the two teams on the final match day; this was exactly what was needed. The other ‘new’ team for the final event in December is Montenegro, who won their group in impressive style, taking 3 points of 4 against Russia. Perhaps it should also be noted that the traditionally strong women’s team from Poland failed to qualify for the second straight time.

In fact, if one looks at the men’s side, where of course the 2010 finals already took place back in January, the picture is not very different. Only 3 teams of 16 were different from 2008. Serbia and Ukraine participated this time, together with the host Austria. These three teams replaced Belarus, Montenegro and Slovakia. One might ask if the very limited turnover is surprising or not; and one might ask whether it is good or bad? Does it possibly have something to do with the format for the qualifying – do the previous participants have a situation that makes it too easy to repeat? And surely it is sacrilege to suggest that the ‘stability’ indicates that the European Championship is held too often? Perhaps it would be more helpful to ask if anything can/should be done to help some of the ‘other’ countries to progress to the level that they can qualify…

Here‘s the the direct link to the full match for yesterday‘s Champions League Final. If you want to watch the match without knowledge of the outcome I strongly recommend that you have someone else click on the link, hit the play button and select full screen. The EHF has unfortunately posted a picture with the winner celebrating for the video link. Try as I might with a sheet of paper blocking, I was unable to click without seeing the obvious result. Additionally, as there are other videos with extraneous information pointing to the winner, you‘ll need to keep the video in full screen mode to avoid seeing clues as to the winner.

Champions League Final Video (Full Match): http://www.ehftv.com/final4/ec/cl/men/2009-10/video/001088

This coming weekend is easily the best weekend of the year for Handball fans in parts of the world where there is no TV coverage of the sport. That’s because the EHF through their webtv platform will be broadcasting live all four matches from the Champions League Final Four in Cologne. The Chekov Medvedi – Barcelona semifinal will start at 3:30 PM Central European Time and the 2nd semifinal between Kiel – Ciudad Real will start at 6:00 PM. This time difference is 6 hours to the U.S. East Coast and 9 hours (breakfast time) to where I live. The EHF has already started posting videos with interviews conducted by Tom Ó Brannagáin, who will be providing English language commentary for all four matches.

If for some reason, you are out and about this weekend the games will also be available on demand. Generally, the EHF posts them a few hours after the match, but sometimes there’s a 24 delay. And be forewarned, if you want to watch without knowing the outcome you might want to open the webpage with a sheet of paper handy and a glazed look to avoid finding out who wins. Last year, I was very disappointed to see a Ciudad Real player hoisting the trophy on the lead in picture. I’ve been told they won’t do that again, but it won’t hurt to be cautious just in case.

And for what likely will be an unusual perspective on the Final Four you also might want to check out a blog by an American relatively new to the sport. Mary Chapman is a recent graduate of Rice University and actually won a scholarship to go to Europe and learn more about Handball. A scholarship to go to the Final Four? Where do I apply for next year?

ehfTV: www.ehftv.com

Final Four Handball Blog: http://usateamhandball.org/blogs/blog-for-mary-chapman

In his posting yesterday, John commented on the fate of the Great Britain team and noted that they are not strong enough to cause any surprises. In fact, the entire qualifying stage has been rather predictable, with the strongest teams dutifully having already ensured their participation in December, together with hosts Denmark and Norway. Several teams are totally without a chance, and the reality is that there simply are not 28 competive teams to make the 7 groups interesting. And it is hard to get excited about a situation where more or less 10 teams have 'smooth sailing' and the only concern is about the remaining 3-4 places.

[u]Seven teams are already through: Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Montenegro, Russia and Spain[/u]. While Switzerland mathematically still has a chance, most experts would say that it would take a miracle for them to keep Romania or Ukraina out. Serbia and Slovenia are heavy favorites to advance from their groups. The Netherlands team is currently ahead of FYR Macedonia in their group, but they will have a tough time defending that position. Sweden should have an edge against the Czech Republic, by virtue of having clearly won the away game. And then, finally, we have the toughest battle in the group where Iceland won by 4 goals at home against Austria. This means that Iceland needs to prevent the hosts from winning by a larger margin when they go to Austria in late May.

Switching gears, more immediately we have the Champions League semi-finals coming up the next two weekends. The draw caused us to have two interesting battles among neighbors and rivals: Viborg (DEN) – Larvik (NOR) and Gyor (HUN) – Valcea (ROU). Judging from comments in the media, Larvik are perhaps the favorites in the Nordic matchup, but this just might the Viborg's chance to pull off a victory before Larvik appears to come with an even stronger team next season. Valcea has the advantage of playing the second game at home, but it is not at all clear that this is a sufficient edge between two teams that seem very evenly matched. We are certainly looking forward to the broadcasts of these exciting games!

Multiple news outlets and Handball figures have weighed in with reaction to Hypo coach, Gunnar Prokop’s on court maneuver to physically prevent a game winning goal by Metz in an EHF Champions League match Thursday. The condemnations have been near universal.

Aftonbladet (Major Swedish Newspaper): “The most scandalous behavior we have ever seen; must be suspended for life’; the club must be barred from EHF for many years” http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/handboll/article6042460.ab

Ulrik Wilbek, Men’s Danish national team coach: the most disgusting thing I have seen in my career; he must be permanently suspended; http://sporten.tv2.dk/article.php/id-26108364.html?rss

Jan Hansen, Director of Aalborg Handball club: “They must be kicked out; and if he is not given a very long suspension, then all top clubs in women’s handball must join together and demand a more appropriate punishment” http://sporten.tv2.dk/article.php/id-26107347.html?rss

Amandine Leynaud, Metz and French National Team Goalie: “We could have scored that last goal. It's shocking, it was a feeling of injustice” http://www.lequipe.fr/Handball/breves2009/20091030_190554_leynaud-choquant-bas-honteux.html

Metz Coach, Francois Bertrand’s reaction was somewhat subdued. Speaking to the local paper in Metz, Bertrand explained that his reaction was mild for 3 reasons. 1) He is trying to improve upon his image as a “hot headed” coach; 2) The fact that the rules of Handball are actually limited in that instance (there is no technical foul as in basketball; and 3) He desired to keep Metz’s image clean in the eyes of the EHF http://www.republicain-lorrain.fr/fr/article/2142691,75/Bertrand-Francois-Un-sentiment-d-injustice.html

Gunnar Prokop’s reactions have stoked outrage in forums and handball circles. Shortly after the match he indicated no remorse, explaining that “Before I lose the game, I must risk the red card. Tactically, it was perfectly correct, and there was also no risk of injury to the player” http://de.eurosport.yahoo.com/31102009/73/champions-league-buntes-gegnerin-coach-umgemaeht.html

Also, of note is that the incident has been seen worthy of a short blurb in the USA Today, which only rarely posts anything about Handball: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2009-10-30-3281814801_x.htm

Finally, the EHF has indicated on their website that a disciplinary procedure has been initiated with the intention to review prior to Hypo’s next Champions League match on November 8th: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/12697 And speaking in an interview with the Austrian Press Association, EHF General Manager, Michael Wiederer indicated that it was an act without precedence that had created a media uproar. He also indicated that the EHF would not be showing any favoritism to the local club, stating that the case would be treated as if it were a Danish or Russian club.

With 10 seconds remaining and the score tied between Hypo Niederösterreich and Metz, Hypo turns the ball over on attack giving Metz the opportunity to score a shock upset. With Metz on the fastbreak, Hypo coach, Gunnar Prokop, takes matters into his own hands (literally, no less)

Youtube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEB9B9MDQr8

This Champions League Group B match took place Thursday night and is just the most recent example of the shenanigans that take place all too often in the waning seconds of competition. It should be interesting to see how the EHF responds, now that even the coaches have become involved.

THN (10 Dec 2008): Handball Explainer: What’s the deal with all of the suspension announcements on the EHF webpage?: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.651