Category Archives: IHF news

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Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments: The Final Pieces to the Puzzle

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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)

 

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IHF Super Globe becoming more serious

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it seems the IHF COC must have put their 'thinking caps' on...

In a commentary two years ago, prior to the 2010 IHF Super Globe event, I made the point that while the Super Globe could be viewed as a nice PR event for handball, it was totally wrong for the IHF to insist on treating it as some kind of official world championship for clubs. The main reason for my criticism was that the IHF was allowing clubs to make a mockery of the competition by permitting an abuse of the IHF transfer regulations, under which the weaker clubs (typically from Qatar and Lebanon) could reinforce their teams by borrowing world-class players for a couple of weeks. Some teams had as many as eight such additions, totally dominating their teams, together with a famous coach also borrowed for the event. By contrast, all the teams from the other continents, including the Europeans, the Brazilians and the Australians came with their normal squads.

Accordingly, I am now pleased to report that, however belatedly, the IHF and its Commission on Organizing and Competition seems to have come to the same insight. At least they have taken a step in the right direction by limiting the number of ‘guest players’ to a maximum of three per team. Perhaps this ‘compromise’ will allow for less embarrassing results for the teams making use of the arrangement, while at the same time preserving the integrity of the event for those team who participate with their own players. The Super Globe will this year again be held in Doha, Qatar, during the period August 27 to September 1.

THN (16 May 2010): The IHF Super Globe: Fine as an all-star event, but not as a serious competition: https://teamhandballnews.com/2010/05/the-ihf-super-globefine-as-an-all-star-event-but-not-as-a-serious-competition/

 

 

 

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IHF: the usual lack of transparency

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In this photo, Redondo (second from left) looked distraught long before the Championship started; did he anticipate what would happen?


In recent time the IHF has yet again confirmed its reputation for leaving the international handball world in the dark about its decision-making on important matters. Perhaps I should not be surprised, but I generally prefer to be an optimist and always want to hope for improvements. But the shadow of the IHF role models Mubarak and Blatter is evidently too deep.

During the recent Women’s World Championship in Brazil, fortunately the participating teams may not have realized so fully that the whole event was really nothing better than a ‘house of cards’ in terms of finances, marketing, accounting and administration. During the course of the event, the organizers ran out of money and could not handle the daily expenses so the IHF had to step in. There was very little revenue from ticket sales, as there were extremely few spectators, the budgeted sponsor income seemed to be quite lacking, and there was not even an adequately functioning host broadcasting company to serve the international TV audiences. The organizers are now substantially in debt to the IHF.

One might have hoped for something better, given that Brazil has had two IHF Council members, Manoel Oliveira, also President of both the Brazilian and the Panamerican Handball Federations, and Fabiano Redondo, President of the IHF Commission for Development and, in this case, also Director of the World Championship organizing committee. Brazil has hosted junior world championships in the past, as well as numerous Panamerican events, and both Oliveira and Redondo have participated in numerous IHF events as IHF officials and/or Brazilian representatives. So there would be no excuses for not understanding what was required.

Not surprisingly, this state of affairs did not go over well with the IHF leadership. So even if it has never been officially reported, and even if the IHF web page still shows Redondo as an IHF Council members and Commission President, it appears that the truth is he was ‘forced to resign’ already during an IHF Council meeting during the course of the World Championship. Presumably he was seen as the main person responsible, as the Director of the Organizing Committee; however, it has also been whispered that Oliveira should really take the main blame as the Brazilian federation president.

But, as some suspicious persons have been heard noting, perhaps IHF President Moustafa sees Oliveira as too valuable in the efforts to secure votes from PanAmerican countries. Who knows what the precise truth is? And that is precisely the point: handball federations, media and the ‘international handball family’ have the right to know about such important development. Not perhaps the gory details, but the main issues and considerations and the confirmation when a decision has been taken!

On a separate matter, the lack of transparency and good judgment has again become apparent. For any sports federation, the nomination of referees to a World Championship or, as in this case, the Olympic Games, is an important decision and announcement. In this type of situation, even the flawed role model FIFA tends to do a very credible job, with announcements that honor the nominees, provide background information about selection criteria, and explain the plans for preparation.

But in the case of the IHF, the ‘methods’ are different. If you have followed web sites of a number of sports media or national handball federations, you have been able to pick up the names of a handful of the couples nominated. And the IHF web page does indeed announce that a meeting has taken place where the decisions were taken, but apparently the method is to inform the nominees individually and to keep the overall decision a secret. Of course, given the prestige involved in such nominations, there is a great interest in the decision around the handball world.

There is always speculation about the reasons why a certain couple has been nominated and why another one has been left out. There can be differences of opinion about relative quality, but there are also understandable suspicions about favoritism, political manipulations and considerations related to image. For instance, will there be additional couples from ‘special countries’, will some referees ‘with connections’ be included ahead of others, how many women couples will there be, etc.? One would hope that the Referee Commission has been allowed to take a well-considered decision without any political pressure. But does not the IHF understand the simple fact that its careful concealed processes and its refusal to make public and informative announcement are bound to create suspicions even if there is nothing to hide??

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EURO 2012: Teams hoping for the last Olympic chance must watch as others decide their fate

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Denmark's march from meltdown to miracle; will they go all the way?

To some extent, the final main round day became a bit anticlimactic, as three teams had already secured their places in the semi-finals. But there was still a lot of drama. Mainly this involved the Germany-Poland game, a match-up between rivals that is always emotional even when very little is at stake. But today this game could have meant that Germany would have been in the semi-final. They started out poorly and it did not seem promising. But in the middle of the second half, they went from 25-29 to 31-29 through great determination and will-power. However, in the end they went down 32-33, a bitter finish for a team that had to struggle without having any strong performances from veteran players to rely on.

Poland could then maintain their hope for a couple of hours, even if I suspect they did not have much faith in the chances of the Swedes to upset a determined Danish squad. And miracles did not happen. Denmark had a relatively easy time in defeating Sweden 31-24. So this means that Denmark obtained the remaining semi-final slot. Considering that they had to achieve this through three straight wins after having begun the main round with zero points, their turnaround is really quite remarkable. Poland then had to lower their ambitions and hope for at least a chance to go on to Olympic qualifying.

At the same time, Spain had been saving some energy, using some reserve players after already having their place in the semi-finals. But they still managed to pull out a win against Slovenia with 35-32, largely thanks to good goalkeeping and good shooting. This now sets up two intriguing semi-finals: Spain against Denmark and Serbia against Croatia. And it meant that the final games of the day, Serbia vs. FYRO Macedonia and Croatia vs. Hungary, had absolutely no importance in the standings for the Serbs and Croats who could instead be forgiven for looking ahead to the huge battle between the two of them on Friday. Unfortunately, serious incidents in the streets of Novi Sad have already suggested that the Croats will be up against more than the Serbian team on the court; they will be reminded of their ‘lack of popularity’ among many of the locals.

However, the two final games today did have a great importance for the final tickets to the Olympic qualifying tournaments. Hungary already have such tickets, and they could at best be aiming for 5th place this week. But by winning the game, they could prevent Slovenia from moving on and instead give Germany a chance to be in a qualifying tournament. . Talk about watching helplessly while placing your faith in others. The Slovenians would of course have to hope that Croatia play to the best of their capacity and win the game.

In the same way, the Polish team had to hope that the Serbs would not be good neighbors and allow the Macedonians to get two points. Because this would give the Macedonians a qualifying chance and move the Poles down to fifth place in the group. So what happened in the end?? Let me end the suspense and explain that, not unexpectedly, both Croatia and Serbia took it a bit easy. Croatia mostly rested their star players but, they still managed to gain a tie 24-24. This was enough to allow Slovenia to keep the third place in the group. Serbia allowed their key players, top scorer Ilic and goalkeeper Stanic, to rest. They still kept the game even almost until the end, but then the more motivated Macedonians pulled away and won 22-19. In other words, the Macedonians got the third place and also the chance to be in an Olympic qualifying tournament.

Germany will now go home disappointed. For Poland there is still a chance, as the complicated format has one more twist. Basically, the best two teams in EURO2012 who have not previously secured a spot will now get in through their result here. This means Serbia and the winner of the 5th place game between Slovenia and FYRO Macedonia, as the other three semifinalists are already qualified. However, if one of these three teams (Croatia, Denmark or Spain) were to win the Championship, then they will be directly qualified for London, and their place in a qualification tournament is freed up for Poland who were the team next in line from last year’s World Championship. Should instead Serbia become European champion, then both the winner and the loser of the 5th place game go on to the Olympic qualifying. I hope IHF and EHF have made this sufficiently challenging for you to follow!

Finally, as John Ryan has commented earlier, there is also the issue of more or less difficult qualifying groups. Sweden is currently sitting in a comfortable position, playing at home against Croatia, Japan and Chile, with two teams going on to London. But, should either Denmark or Spain become champions, then Sweden would move ‘up’ in the ranking and instead host a slightly less comfortable group with Hungary, Brazil and the winner between Slovenia and FYRO Macedonia. After their shaky performance this time, this is not so reassuring for the Swedes.

Breaking it down, here are the four possible tournament compositions:

If Serbia wins the EC
1) Denmark (Host), Hungary, Slovenia/Macedonia Winner, Algeria
2) Spain (Host), Iceland, Brazil, Slovenia/Macedonia Loser
3) Sweden (Host), Croatia, Japan, Chile

If Croatia wins the EC
1) Denmark (Host), Poland, Serbia, Algeria
2) Spain (Host), Hungary, Brazil, Slovenia/Macedonia Winner
3) Sweden (Host), Iceland, Japan, Chile

If Denmark wins the EC
1) Spain (Host) Poland, Serbia, Algeria
2) Sweden (Host), Hungary, Brazil, Slovenia/Macedonia Winner
3) Croatia (Host), Iceland, Japan, Chile

If Spain wins the EC
1) Denmark (Host) Poland, Serbia, Algeria
2) Sweden (Host), Hungary, Brazil, Slovenia/Macedonia Winner
3) Croatia (Host), Iceland, Japan, Chile

 

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European Championships: Sorting out the dominoes for Olympic Qualification Tournaments

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Where nations place at the European Championships will have cascading repercussion on Olympic Qualification Tournament seeding

In addition to crowning a champion of Europe, the European Championships (EC) will also finish the sorting out of which nations will still have a chance to qualify for the Olympic Games at 3 upcoming Olympic Qualification Tournaments that will be played 6-8 April.  Additionally, the final ranking will also determine which nations will host and which nations will play in each tournament.

As it currently stands the three tournaments are:

1) Denmark (Host), Hungary, Europe #2, Africa #2
2) Spain (Host), Iceland, Brazil, Europe #3
3) Sweden (Host), Croatia, Japan, Chile

However, as Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Hungary, Iceland and Croatia all have a good chance of securing the European automatic qualification slot it’s pretty likely that this current composition won’t hold up.  As it stands only 3 nations (Brazil, Japan and Chile) are locked into a tournament, but even those nations can’t be sure where and against whom they will play.

To further explain let’s break down the ramifications for each of the participating nations

France:  Already directly qualified as the World Champion; France’s final ranking doesn’t count in determining the placement of any other nation.

Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Croatia, Iceland and Hungary:  These nations placed 2nd to 7th at the 2011 World Championships and have already secured an Olympic Qualification Tournament bid.  If any of these nations win the EC or place 2nd to France they will directly qualify for the Olympics and won’t have to play in an Olympic Qualification Tournament.  Should that happen the nations that placed behind the EC Direct Qualifier each move up one spot based on their final ranking at the WC.  This is where it gets a little convoluted for each of these nations as moving up isn’t necessarily a good deal in terms of who you will play against in an Olympic Qualification Tournament.  Breaking it down further here’s the impact of shuffling a spot for each of these nations.

Denmark:  Can’t move up.  They either get the EC Direct Qualification spot or host tourney #1
Spain: Moves from hosting Tourney #2 to hosting Tourney #1
Sweden: Moves from hosting Tourney #3 to hosting Tourney #2
Croatia: Moves from participating in Tourney #3 to hosting Tourney #3
Iceland: Moves from participating in Tourney #2 to participating in Tourney #3
Hungary: Moves from participating in Tourney #1 to participating in Tourney #2

As we’ve pointed out numerous times before, as long as Europe dominates the world of Handball the seeding of these tournaments doesn’t make any sense because the lowest seeded tournament (Tourney #3) only has two European participants.  (Translation:  Unless there is an epic upset by Japan or Chile the two European nations assigned to Tournament 3 are going to the Olympics.  It’s good to be in Croatia or Iceland’s shoes.  Not so good to be in Sweden’s)

Poland:  Poland placed 8th at the 2011 WC, so they have 3 ways of qualifying for the Olympics.  They can 1) win the EC, 2) earn an Olympic Qualification Tourney slot (should Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Croatia, Iceland and Hungary win the EC direct qualification slot) or 3) earn the Europe #2 or Europe #3 slot

Serbia, Slovakia, Germany, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Russia, Norway and Slovenia:  These nations have 2 ways to qualify.  They can either 1) win the EC or 2) earn the Europe #2 or Europe #3 slot.  As the WC qualification slots take precedence over the EC qualification slots there is a sort of mini-tournament among the nations in this group.  In other words, whichever 2 nations place the highest amongst this group will earn the #2 Europe and #3 Europe slots.  (The only exception to this would be if one of these nations wins the EC; at which point Poland would no longer have a WC slot and would join the group competing for an EC slot.)

The first step for these nations will be to make it out of the preliminary rounds.  Once that goal is accomplished their goal will be to finish as high as possible in their Main Round Group.  Of course, the goal will be to advance to the semifinals, but barring that success it’s pretty likely that a 3rd place finish will qualify a nation for an Olympic Qualification Tourney.  A 4th place or even a 5th place may suffice as well or at least set up a 7th or 9th placement match against a nation from the other group for the last Europe slot.

In this regard, the nations in Main Round Group I (Groups A and B) have a distinct advantage over the nations in Main Round Group II (Groups C and D).  This is because Group I has only 3 nations (assuming Poland moves up) that have already qualified via the WC results, vice Group II which has 5.  So by default, the worst one of these nations can place in Group I is 4th.  Projecting results is never safe, but this is why the match between Germany and the Czech Republic is so critical, as could be the matches those nations might play against Serbia in the Main Round.

 

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Women’s World Championship: Some Reflections

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without some visiting fans there would not have been many spectators


Perhaps much can be forgiven when the World Champion, Norway, manages to win the gold medal game through a thoroughly convincing performance. Perhaps one should also emphasize the mostly enthusiastic and inspiring performances by the Spanish team. And pleasant surprises in individual games caused by Angola, Iceland and Japan would also have to be seen as positive experiences.

But probably this is overshadowed by several disappointing performances and a generally rather mediocre standard, even if in some cases the unusually weak team performances were caused by injuries and by players missing for other reasons. For instance, Denmark managed to show glimpses of its traditional strength, but in several games the team looked a bit lost and uninspired. Russia looked formidable in the early going, but in some of the subsequent games the team seemed to play on ‘autopilot’ despite Coach Trefilov’s admonitions. Korea seems to be in a rebuilding phase and was a shadow of its strengths in the past. Sweden was not anywhere near its level of a year ago in the European Championship.

Why am I not mentioning France? Well, the silver medals were probably deserved, but I must confess I was happy they did not win gold. I really do not like the ruthless and excessively physical style they showed. Taking advantage of your physical strength is one thing, but cynical and dangerous fouls without much respect for the opponents, no thank you! And there was also a reminder of the unpopular style of the French men’s team from some ten years ago, when all the emphasis was on clutching, grabbing and pushing as a method of preventing the opponents from moving the ball.

Brazil lost a tough quarterfinal against Spain, but then they won two games to gain the 5th place. With some luck, they could have placed higher, but it probably goes to show that it takes some time to get established among the perennial medal contenders. They enjoyed good support from their home crowd, but not unexpectedly the very poor spectator situation was otherwise a contributing factor to the lack of emotion and excitement around essentially all the other top games. This is of course a known risk when a country like Brazil gets to host, but the reality is that good crowds can only be expected in a relatively small group of countries.

In any case, the IHF tries to say the right things about making a special push for women’s handball. But ‘talk is cheap’ as the expression goes. Real action is mostly missing, and the traditional attitudes are often shining through. A mediocre conference on women’s issues was held, but there were few women in attendance, and there was no notion of any tangible result coming out of the talking. A number of women had been nominated for the important jobs of match delegates, but some of the choices were baffling and there was no serious training offered. It seemed like a conspicuous but fake attempt to convey an image that is not really true. The way that the small number of women referees in the event was treated reinforces the negative image.

Another telling fact is that the group of referees for this event could and should have been stronger. There are several top couples who are not nominated for next month’s European Championship who could have been used. Now some of the nominations looked quite ‘political’ in nature, and in at least one case the well-known personal preferences of the IHF President could be spotted. The Women’s World Championship requires and deserves a stronger focus on quality. As it now happened, the choices were really limited for the top games at the end, for instance with the same couple refereeing both a semi-final and then the final, something which is undesirable and has traditionally been unthinkable.

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Olympic Qualification Tournaments (2 Scenarios)

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Norway's victory over France was a victory for Sweden, too.

Norway’s victory over France in the World Championship final has given Sweden a direct ticket to the 2012 Olympics. This is due to Sweden’s 2nd place finish to Norway in last year’s European Championship.

The IHF Qualification Tournaments which will take place next 25-27 May are almost set. The only remaining question mark being whether Angola will win the African Championship in January. Angola is the odds on favorite and should they win Montenegro will get shuffled from Tourney 2 to Tourney 1 and the Netherlands will get take their spot.

IHF Olympic Qualification Tournaments (Angola does not win African Championship)

IHF Qualification Tournament #1
France (2nd at 2011 WC) Host
Angola (7th at 2011 WC)
Romania (1st ranked Continent at WC 2011; 2nd place team at that Continent’s Qualifying Event)
Japan (4th ranked Continent at WC 2011; 2nd place team at that Continent’s Qualifying Event)

IHF Qualification Tournament #2
Spain (3rd at 2011 WC) Host
Croatia (6th at 2011 WC)
Argentina (2nd ranked Continent at WC 2011; 2nd place team at that Continent’s Qualifying Event)
Montenegro (1st ranked Continent at WC 2011; 3rd place team at that Continent’s Qualifying Event)

IHF Qualification Tournament #3
Denmark (4th at 2011 WC) Host
Russia (5th at 2011 WC)
Africa #2 (3rd ranked Continent at WC 2011; 2nd place team at that Continent’s Qualifying Event)
Dominican Republic (Oceania Champion or 2nd ranked Continent at WC 2011; 3rd place team at that Continent’s Qualifying Event)

IHF Olympic Qualification Tournaments (Angola wins African Championship)

IHF Qualification Tournament #1
France (2nd at 2011 WC) Host
Montenegro (7th at 2011 WC)
Romania (1st ranked Continent at WC 2011; 2nd place team at that Continent’s Qualifying Event)
Japan (4th ranked Continent at WC 2011; 2nd place team at that Continent’s Qualifying Event)

IHF Qualification Tournament #2
Spain (3rd at 2011 WC) Host
Croatia (6th at 2011 WC)
Argentina (2nd ranked Continent at WC 2011; 2nd place team at that Continent’s Qualifying Event)
Netherlands (1st ranked Continent at WC 2011; 3rd place team at that Continent’s Qualifying Event)

IHF Qualification Tournament #3
Denmark (4th at 2011 WC) Host
Russia (5th at 2011 WC)
Africa #2 (3rd ranked Continent at WC 2011; 2nd place team at that Continent’s Qualifying Event
Dominican Republic (2nd ranked Continent at WC 2011; 3rd place team at that Continent’s Qualifying Event)

(Details on Olympic and World Championship Qualification are always available in the links on the right hand side.)

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Women’s World Championships: Implications for Olympic Qualification

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The dominoes are starting to fall in place for Olympic qualification.

Watch the Women’s World Championships Finals live this Sunday (now only $15): http://www.livehandball.tv/page/Home?WT.mc_id=aff140
Bronze Medal Match:  Denmark vs. Spain, 2:30 PM
Gold Medal Match: France vs. Norway, 5:15 PM
(Sao Paulo is GMT -2 or 3 hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast)

Tomorrow’s Gold Medal Final between France and Norway will determine more than the World Champion as it will also determine who will receive a direct ticket to the Olympic Handball Tournament next summer in London.  By no means have all the dominoes fallen into place, but at least a few items are now clearer.

Direct Qualification: The winner of tomorrow’s match will earn a direct ticket to the Olympics as the reigning World Champion.  Norway, however, has already earned a direct ticket by virtue of having won last year’s European Championship.  Since the World Championship direct ticket, takes precedence, a Norway victory will result in the European direct ticket being transferred to last year’s European runner up Sweden.

IHF Olympic Qualification Tourneys: From 25-27 May, 2012, three Olympic Qualification tournaments will be held to determine 6 at large bids for the Olympics.  Each tournament is a round robin competition amongst 4 teams with the top 2 teams from each tournament punching a ticket to the Olympics.  Teams are awarded spots in these tournaments based on their ranking at the World
Championships and at Continental Championships.  The final placement of nations in these tournaments is decided based on a fairly complicated hierarchy by which direct tickets take precedence over qualification tournaments and World Championship ranking takes precedence over Continental Ranking.  Because these rankings involve many of the same team a whole lot of dominoes still have to fall in place.

World Championship Slots (6 nations): Places 2nd through 7th are awarded slots in the qualification tournaments.  Because Norway and Brazil have already directly qualified their placement does not count.  Additionally, either France or Sweden will also receive a direct ticket.  This means the following nations will definitely be participating in a Qualification Tournament:  Spain, Denmark, Russia and Croatia.  Also participating will be either France or Sweden (whichever nation doesn’t get the direct ticket).  Finally, Angola is currently slated to participate, but they will also be the odds on favorite to win the African Championship in January.  If they win, Montenegro will become the 6th team.
Continental Qualifying Slots (6 nations): Each of the 4 Continental Federations (Europe, Pan America, Africa, Asia) get 1 slot for these tournaments and the top 2 ranked continents at the World Championship get an extra slot.  The ranking is simply the order of the highest placing team from each continent, so Europe and Pan America get the extra slots.  For Asia and Pan America these nations (Japan, Argentina, and Dominican Republic) are known and will not change.  Africa’s participant will be known in January.  For Europe it’s a little more complicated due to the number of nations that will receive the precedent taking World Championship slots.  The final ranking from the European Championships was:

1) Norway
2) Sweden
3) Romania
4) Denmark
5) France
6) Montenegro
7-8 ) Russia, Netherlands

Because Sweden is assured of either a direct ticket or an IHF World Championship Qualification Tournament slot, Romania will receive the European 2nd place slot.  Because Denmark and France will also get higher order slots from the World Championship, Montenegro is currently in line for the European 3rd slot.  But should Angola win the African Championship, Montenegro will receive an IHF slot, thereby moving the Netherlands into the European 3rd place slot.

Beware 2nd and 7th place: As I’ve pointed out before this qualification process has the odd ramification that it’s better to place 4th or 5th at the World Championships then it is place 2nd, 3rd, 5th or 6th.  This is because that tournament is likely to have 2 weak teams while the other tournaments are far more likely to feature a European side which will be more of a threat.  And sure enough the weak tournament will include the Dominican Republic and Africa #2 (probably either Tunisia or the Cote d’Ivoire).  Pencil in (or write in ink, if you like) the two European sides in that tournament.  The other tournaments will be far more challenging.  The 2nd and 7th place teams will take on Romania and probably the best non-European team remaining, Japan, which just battled Denmark into overtime in the round of 16.  The 3rd and 6th place teams will face Argentina and probably the Netherlands.  So conspiracy theorists, be on the lookout for the results in tomorrow’s placement games.  In some cases there’s real incentive for losing.

Following tomorrow’s matches we’ll update our Olympic Qualification Page:  https://teamhandballnews.com/2012-olympic-qual-women/

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Women’s World Championships: Quarterfinals Schedule

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France took care of Sweden, but will have a bigger challenge against favorite, Russia

The top seeded teams all won their round of 16 matches, but a couple of teams had to sweat it out.  Denmark even needed overtime to defeat Japan

Quarter Final Matches (Wednesday, 14 December)
(Point spread/Goal Handicap in Parentheses)
1145 Russia (-2.5) vs France
1430 Denmark (-2) vs Angola
1715 Norway (-5.5) vs Croatia
2000 Brazil (-2) vs Spain

All times are local.  Sao Paulo is currently (GMT -2 hours) or 3 hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast.

Current Odds to win World Championships
(Opening odds are in parentheses)
Russia 1 to 1 (1.75 to 1)
Norway 2.75 to 1 (3 to 1)
France 6 to 1 (6 to 1)
Brazil 8.5 to 1 (50 to 1)
Denmark 14 to 1 (34 to 1)
Spain 14 to 1 (39 to 1)
Croatia 70 to 1 (100 to 1)
Angola 150 to 1 (500 to 1)

Livesport.tv: Video highlights: http://www.livehandball.tv/page/Home?WT.mc_id=aff140
(Sign up to watch the rest of the tournament for $25.)

 

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Brackets set for the Women’s World Championships

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Surprising Angola sends Germany to the President's Cup

Preliminary Group play has concluded at the Women’s World Championships in Brazil.  Below are the respective matches/brackets for the “Round of 16”.

Quad 1
1B vs 4A Russia vs Iceland   (Sunday, 11 December, 1430)
3D vs 2C Sweden vs France (Monday, 12 December, 1430)
Quad 2
1D vs 4C Denmark vs Japan (Monday, 1715)
3B vs 2A South Korea vs Angola (Sunday, 1430)
Quad 3
1A vs 4B Norway vs Netherlands (Sunday, 1715)
3C vs 2D Romania vs Croatia (Monday, 1430)
Quad 4
1C vs 4D Brazil vs Cote d’Ivoire (Monday, 2000)
3A vs 2B Montenegro vs Spain (Sunday, 1715)|
(All times are local.  Sao Paulo is currently (GMT -2 hours) or 3 hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast.)
The winners of these “Round of 16” matches will play the other winner from their quad in the quarter finals on Wednesday, 14 December.   The semifinals will then be played on Friday, 16 December with the winner of Quad 1 playing the winner of Quad 2 and the winner of Quad 3 playing the winner of Quad 4.
The biggest news from preliminary group play is probably Angola’s 25-22 victory over Germany.  The win gave Angola a 2nd place finish and sent Germany into the President’s Cup (AKA, the little kid’s table) with all the other 5th and 6th place teams.  Also, of note, while Brazil finished in first place for their group, they had to come from behind for 34-33 victory over 5th place Tunisia.
Livesport.tv:  Video highlights: http://www.livehandball.tv/page/Home?WT.mc_id=aff140
(Sign up to watch the rest of the tournament for $25.)
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World Championship: no real spark yet, except for Brazilian comeback against France

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Chana Masson - incredible 67% save rate against France


Unless one is a fanatic follower of one particular team, chances are that the Women’s World Championship has failed to generate a lot of enthusiasm in the early going. Thanks to numerous media reports in participating countries, and especially through high-quality broadcasts provided by livehandball.tv on the internet, I have been able to follow developments quite well, and in my opinion the event seems a bit ‘flat’ compared with the Women’s Championship two years ago. To some extent, this had been anticipated, due to the unusually large number of top players who are missing, either due to injuries or because the simply did not want to participate.

But the pressure on the women’s players does not seem to be much recognized by the IHF (or the EHF for that matter). It is easy to organize conferences and talk, talk, talk about what needs to be done to get the women’s handball to catch up with the men’s side. But action somehow seems more difficult. While arrangements were reached to provide compensation for the release of players and insurance coverage for possible injuries, in connection with the Men’ Championship last January, the IHF Executive quite demonstratively ruled against such measures for this Women’s Championship. It seems the clubs and the federations have to protest more loudly…

A further reason for the lack of excitement is predictability in most groups and many individual games, due to the large number of mediocre teams mostly from non-European countries. The global competitiveness does not yet match that on the men’s side. And the system used this time, having the initial group play followed directly by 1/8-finals, instead of the approach with Main Round groups, may well backfire. After a number of boring group matches, I think people will miss the chance to see a large number of really competitive matches in a Main Round.

But there are some exceptions from the predictability and boredom. Group A in Santos has really been hard to figure out. Prior to the final day, only China is out of the running, but the Chinese have swung between 1-goal losses and disastrous 27-goal deficits. The other teams seem capable of beating each other without any logic. While Norway and Montenegro are through, Angola and Germany have a vital game tomorrow, and Iceland should have a good chance of advancing.

In the other groups, there tend to be clear separations between top and bottom. In Group B, Russia seems to live to up their role as favorites and Spain have done well. Korea will advance but it does not look like the dominant team of recent decades. In Group D, the European powers of Croatia, Denmark and Sweden are sorting out the top three places. Not unexpectedly, Argentina and Uruguay find themselves at the bottom. So it may well be that Cuba in Group C is in fact the second-best PanAmerican team.

But Cuba still is way behind Brazil. As I have noted earlier, they are quite realistically a medal candidate, or even a team for the final if they can avoid having Russia in their path. The experience gained through club play in Europe, together with a very systematic build-up has led to an ability to handle tough situations from both a mental and a tactical standpoint. Romania is the team that has suffered the most from injuries, and it is not clear just how good the French are this time. But they did have a seven-goal half-time lead before Brazil, led by their goalkeeper, closed things down in an absolutely amazing second half. This certainly looks promising for the home team!

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Women’s World Championships: Russia, Norway and everybody else

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Watch every match live: http://www.livehandball.tv/page/Home?WT.mc_id=aff140 ($40 for a complete subscription)

The Women’s World Championships got underway in Sao Paulo, Brazil last night with the host team easily defeating Cuba, 37-11.  As I don’t follow the Women’s game as closely as the Men’s I won’t pretend to have very many keen insights as to how these games will unfold.  Recent history does suggest, however, that Russia and Norway are the top two teams to beat and that’s exactly the odds set in the online sportsbooks. Following Russia and Norway, France, Montenegro and Romania are modest underdogs, while Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Brazil, South Korea and Croatia could all be classified as conceivable longshots. The odds on the remaining teams suggest that there is not a realistic path to a title

Here are the best odds available for the 24 participants

Russia 1.75 to 1
Norway 3 to 1
France 6 to 1
Montenegro 10 to 1
Romania 14 to 1
Denmark 34 to 1
Sweden 34 to 1
Spain 39 to 1
Germany 40 to 1
Brazil 50 to 1
South Korea 50 to 1
Croatia 100 to 1
Angola 500 to 1
Netherlands 500 to 1
Tunisia 699 to 1
Iceland 749 to 1
Japan 749 to 1
Argentina 1000 to 1
China 1000 to 1
Ivory Coast 1000 to 1
Kazakhstan 1000 to 1
Cuba 1999 to 1
Australia 2999 to 1

Format Changes and Breaking Down the Groups

The format for this year’s tournament is a significant departure from previous championships in that there are no Main Round Groups after Preliminary Group Play.  Instead the top 4 team from each of the 4 Preliminary Groups will play a 16 team knock out tournament.  This should provide for some interesting jockeying of positions as teams look ahead to try and figure out potential quarter and semifinal opponents.  With that in mind here’s how the oddsmakers see the four groups

Group A
Norway .55 to 1
Montenegro 2.3 to 1
Germany 8 to 1
Iceland 250 to 1
Angola 500 to 1
China 500 to 1

Norway is the clear favorite, but Montenegro is seen as a realistic threat.  Germany is pegged for 3rd, while Iceland, Angola and China are expected to battle for the fourth slot.

Group B
Russia .2 to 1
Spain 6.5 to 1
South Korea 9 to 1
Netherlands 150 to 1
Kazakhstan 1000 to 1
Australia 1499 to 1

Russia is the prohibitive favorite and the Spain-South Korea match should determine 2nd-3rd.  Netherlands is pegged for 4th.

Group C
France 1 to 1
Romania 1.6 to 1
Brazil 3 to 1
Japan 199 to 1
Tunisia 199 to 1
Cuba 999 to 1

This group is projected to be a 3 way battle for first between France, Romania and Brazil.  I think the oddsmakers discounted Brazil a little too much and it wouldn’t surpise me much if the home court advantange propelled Brazil to a first place finish in this group.  (Going further, 50-1 to win the whole tournament seems like a pretty good deal if you ask me.)  For all three contenders in this group securing first place is pretty important for improving your prospects of reaching the semifinals.  Second place in the group means a likely quarterfinal vs Russia and third place will likely mean taking on Norway.

Group D
Sweden 1.5 to 1
Denmark 1.75 to 1
Croatia 2.75 to 1
Argentina 500 to 1
Ivory Coast 500 to 1
Uruguay 1000 to 1

Group D pretty much mirrors Group C with Sweden, Denmark and Croata battling it out for first.  And as with Group C, a first place finish is important if you want to avoid Russia and Norway in the quarters.
Breaking out the placement into Round of 16 Quads

For reference, here’s how the brackets will align based on oddsmaker projections on winning each group.  Of course, anything can happend and should Russia or Norway slip up in Group play it could really make things interesting in the last round of matches.  Some teams might even theoretically benefit from losing.

Quad 1
1B vs 4A Russia vs Iceland
3D vs 2C Croatia vs Romania

Quad 2
1D vs 4C Sweden vs Japan
3B vs 2A South Korea vs Montenegro

Quad 3
1A vs 4B Norway vs Netherlands
3C vs 2D Brazil vs Denmark

Quad 4
1C vs 4D France vs Argentina
3A vs 2B Germany vs Spain

Link to PDF Schedule (Entire tournament): http://www.ihf.info/files/Uploads/Documents/10071_match_schedule.pdf

Link to schedule and results: http://www.ihf.info/IHFCompetitions/WorldChampionships/WomensWorldChampionships/WomensWorldChampionship2011/FixturesandResults/tabid/5821/Default.aspx