[b]Women from Mars (aka the Houston Firehawks): [/b]The Houston Firehawks concluded their clean sweep of the women’s competition with a 38-25 victory over defending champion, Chicago Inter. Houston won all of their games in convincing fashion with none of their matches ever being in doubt. Just who are these gals anyway?

During World War II, the U.S. project to build the Atomic bomb was a massive undertaking that required thousands of scientists and engineers. One small group of immigrants mostly from Hungary, however, played a key role in putting together the theoretical underpinnings vital to its success. One German scientist theorized that it was impossible that these geniuses were all from Hungary and that they were really Martians that wanted to stop Hitler and they were just pretending to be Hungarian as it was an obscure country with a language that few people spoke.

Sorry for the strange diatribe, but I was simply amazed with the talent, fitness and skill level of the Houston Firehawks team. I know they say there all from Mexico, but seriously they don’t handball there do they? And surely it’s impossible that a group of young Mexican girls (most of the team is either under 21 or close to it) could totally dominate an American Club Championships. I mean it really was a minor victory for Chicago Inter to cut the lead to 4 goals in the 2nd half. No, they must be from Mars or somewhere else.

Regardless, this is a dramatic wakeup call for the U.S. Federation. I’m sure the Mexicans are getting some level of Government support for this Junior National Team, but I’m guessing it’s not any more substantial than our current level of private funding. Trust me, if a young group of Americans were able to run circles around our expat laden club teams we would be trumpeting that success like there was no tomorrow. Models to copy and learn from can come from surprising places. Maybe we shouldn’t be looking eastward over the ocean to Europe, but just a few miles to the south. Perhaps we could copy what they’ve done and add in a few 6 footers to the team to one up them.

[b]LA grinds out a victory[/b]: The LA Team Handball Club played strong defense in the first half to build up a big lead. They then beat back a determined New England comeback for a 25-20 victory. New England had difficulty with LA’s 6-0 defense as they struggled to find gaps or shoot over the top. In the goal, Gabe Goodreau played outstanding earning Most Valuable Goalie honors for the tournament. Another factor to LA’s success was a deep bench that allowed key players more rest throughout the tournament.

[b]Miami wins a title[/b]: Miami won the Men’s open title and sent two teams to Las Vegas. My understanding is that the teams consisted of former Miami Sharks players as well as new recruits. Obviously, there is some development going on there. Maybe it’s time for the Handball knowledgeable people in South Florida to get on board instead of standing on the sidelines.
Miami Sharks Website Home Page: Miami Sharks is still here: http://www.miamisharksteamhandball.org/

[b]Lots of Euros[/b]: This was my first National Championship since 2004 and the bulk of my previous attendance was in the 1990’s. Memories can be hazy and biased, but I would assess that the level of play for the top men’s teams is a little lower than my “glory days.” This can be attributed to fewer American National team players being sprinkled amongst the top side. Most of the teams in Vegas were predominantly expat in composition. Such teams have always been around in U.S. club handball, but currently missing is a top notch, primarily American side like the old Sushi Masters, Condors and NYAC/Garden City clubs of my heyday. On the Women’s side it is even more striking. To be fair, however, I don’t think that there has ever been a longstanding club of American based women players. More often than not, the American clubs were temporarily put together by current and former national team players prior to the National Championships.

[b]Commentating at courtside[/b]: I enjoyed the experience of providing the color commentary for the Men’s and Women’s final. It certainly was nice to not have to do it solo as I did in Miami. I now have a healthy appreciation for those that perform such duties on a regular basis. At home, I certainly find myself yelling far less at my TV set, “you’re a know nothing idiot.”

[b]Running out of time[/b]: Sunday was a hectic day and I did not find time to sit down with USATH GM Steve Pastorino. Rest assured, however, as Steve has agreed to discuss in more detail U.S. National Team plans and development efforts. I hope to have an indepth interview in the next week or so.

[b]Men’s Semifinal Classic[/b]: The New England Freeze and the defending champions, New York City played an overtime thriller last night. The match was a see-saw affair with NYC establishing an early lead and NE rallying in the second half. NYC was able to hang on for a tie in regulation despite NE having a 6 on 4 advantage in the closing minutes. In overtime the game appeared to be headed to penalty throws with only an end of game 9 meter free throw left. The Freeze’s Marco Betsch, however, was able to find an opening in the wall to score the winning goal. New England will take on Los Angeles, which easily dispatched Houston 23-17

[b]Men’s Semifinal Classic #2[/b]: I was focused on the NE-NYC match, but right next to us on the center court, Miami and Denver needed penalty throws to decide who would advance to the Men’s Open Finals. Miami was the victor and they will face Minnesota in the finals.

[b]Women’s Final[/b]: This year’s final will feature the defending champion Chicago Inter and last year’s 3rd place side, the Houston Firehawks. It should be an interesting match with contrasting styles. Houston plays a fast paced game while Chicago Inter plays a more traditional half court game.

[b]Why crossover games are important[/b]: Today’s men’s elite finalists both placed 2nd in their respective pools. LA lost to NYC and NE lost to Houston in pool play. Both sides, however, won in the semifinals where it counted. A format without crossovers would have pitted NYC and Houston in the final.

[b]A very quiet town hall meeting[/b]: USATH GM Steve Pastorino and Board Chairman Dieter Esch spoke for about 25 minutes to around 50 members in attendance. A few details concerning U.S. National planning were revealed/confirmed. Resources are focused on 2016 Olympic qualification, but U.S. players will be allowed to self-finance an attempt for 2012 qualification. The first step in that process will be qualification matches vs. Canada later this year. It was also announced that there are preliminary plans for a USA match prior to the 17 July, Poland-Germany match in Chicago. As to why the meeting was quiet?: Only one question (where will Nationals be next year?) was asked by the audience. The answer for that question is TBD, but the plans are for May next year. I was a little surprised at the disinterest shown, but perhaps everyone is getting their questions answered offline.

[b]A chat with the AAC Rep[/b]: I sat down for a short interview with David Thompson, the men’s Athlete’s Advisory Council (AAC) Representative. As the AAC rep David also sits on the Board of Directors. We discussed his role and his position concerning the decision to not provide financial support to 2012 qualification. This interview as well as the town hall meeting will be posted later.

[b]Live Broadcasts[/b]: The men’s and women’s elite finals will be broadcast live today at 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM (Pacific Time (GMT-8) today. Kenn Tomasch will do the play by play and yours truly will be providing the color commentary.

[b]The Facilities[/b]: The setup at the South Point Casino/Hotel has 3 full courts side by side allowing for easy viewing of multiple ongoing matches. Other than a few minor problems have been encountered with the behind the goal netting the tournament has run fairly smoothly.

[b]Local Club Makes Good[/b]: The Las Vegas Scorpions got off to a great start with 2 victories in pool play (28-15 against Salt Lake City and 21-19 against NYC’s 2nd team). We play Seattle early Saturday morning to decide the Group D winner. A couple of very satisfying outcomes for a group of players who’ve only practiced 5 times before. The Las Vegas Review-Journal also stopped by and did a great story on our club.
Las Vegas Review Journal (22 Mar 10): TEAM HANDBALL: New to the sport, Hartung thrives quickly in South Point event: http://www.lvrj.com/sports/new-to-the-sport–hartung-thrives-quickly-in-south-point-event-94647484.html
VIDEO: 1st ever Las Vegas Scorpions goal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yn2YHtkVyQ (Trivia question answer: Fernando Bonato

[b]The Interview[/b]: I had a frank one hour exchange with USA Team Handball Chairman of the Board, Dieter Esch and Board Member Jeff Utz. In the audio interview which will be posted later on THN, Mr. Esch expresses his disappointment with the IHF leadership, highlights ongoing engagement efforts with European Handball organizations and the upcoming clash between Poland and Germany in Chicago.

[b]The Ringer from Spain[/b]: A Spanish reader of our website sent me this link to an article on Spanish player, Jokin Eransus, who is playing for the Houston Firehawks. Eranus scored over 200 goals for his club Beti Onak in the Spanish 3rd Division. According to the article, the Firehawks have paid for his airfare and accommodations in Las Vegas. The Firehawks are 2-0 and appear to be on their way to the Semifinals. This acquisition could pay off if the Firehawks win the title and collect the “prize money” for first place. Regardless, this development will certainly help U.S. Handball development. (Note: Just in case you missed the obvious, there is no prize money and the last two sentences are mocking sarcasm.)
Diariodenavarra.es (20 May 10): (To Las Vegas to play handball: http://www.diariodenavarra.es/20100520/navarra/a-vegas-jugar-balonmano.html?not=2010052001015983&idnot=2010052001015983&dia=20100520&seccion=navarra&seccion2=sociedad&chnl=10&ph=8 (Note: The Handball National Championships are not being played in the arena depicted. The games are being played in the Conference Center)

That’s all for now. Hopefully, another report either later today or tomorrow.

As the U.S. National Championships get set to take center stage here in Vegas, I’ll pause for a little reflection on my last games as a competitive player with the Condors at the 2004 National Championships. As the old guard on our team was already showing its age, even back then, I wasn’t sure if we had the goods to win it all. Then in our first game I see this young kid jump out of the gym and score a goal like a young Darrick Heath, and I say to my teammates, “Where did you find this guy?” This “guy”, of course, was Gary Hines and with this welcome addition to the roster the route to a title that year was a whole lot easier. Later, I cornered, Bjoern Brembs as to whether he could get him a club contract in Germany. Bjoern, was already hot on the case, but it took a few years for the right situation to come along and in 2008, Gary signed with DJK Waldbüttelbrunn.

I haven’t seen Gary play since then, but I’ve followed his career on paper the past few years. When the U.S. National Team got together recently for training and matches against German Clubs a few weeks ago one of the clubs, TV Korsenbroich, posted a 12 minute video highlight film on their website. The U.S. was blown out by this 2nd Div club, but Gary Hines shines with several impressive goals.

I’m not a professional talent scout, but I’m thinking there’s got to be room on the roster for this player in Germany’s 2nd or even 1st Division league (Not for Hamburg or Kiel mind you, but I could see him play for some of the teams in the lower half of the table). Certainly, it looks like he could play for TVK. With 2 years of seasoning in the 4th Division Bavarian League, he should be acclimated to Germany. Certainly, he’s proven he can score at that level with a Bavarian League record of 300 goals in 28 matches. His 10.7 goals a game were 3 a game better than the next best player. In a higher division that number is likely to drop and I also think his size/skills are more in tune with a spot on the wing. And yes, this may be a little bold and biased, but the one player that I would compare him to in terms of raw athletic ability would be France’s Luc Abalo.

I’ve commented several times about the importance of the relationships that USA Team Handball is building with European Leagues and the potential for those relationships to pay huge dividends. Critics have been skeptical, but there is now a golden opportunity for the U.S. Federation to silence them with the successful shepherding of Mr. Hines to a top club. It really shouldn’t be a tough sell. He can play and the Handball Bundesliga (HBL) should be eager to increase its global reach. What better way to do that than to give a little extra push for the best player from the sleeping handball giant that is the U.S.?

[b]Seriously, get this guy a contract! [/b]

What have you got to lose? Here’s hoping some club we'll see the light and that we’ll soon see some kids sporting a Hines jersey in the U.S., much like the Nowitzki jerseys are commonplace in Germany.

THN (27 Nov 08): Gary Hines Signs Contract with German Club: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.641
VIDEO: Team USA vs. TVK: http://www.hand-ball-herz.de/fans/hoeren_und_sehen/tvk_player
Leading Scorers Bavarian League: http://www.bliga.info/bl2_spiel/torschuetzen.php?Art=1
USATH (18 May 10): 300 Goals, the Lions Roar, Partille Cup & EHF Final Four: http://usateamhandball.org/blogs/steve-pastorino-on-handball/posts/1891-300-goals-the-lions-roar-partille-cup-ehf-final-four

In my own little private Handball world it’s still last Saturday afternoon and I’ve just finished watching the 2nd leg match between Montpellier and Chekhovskie Medvedi. If you haven’t yet seen this match I encourage you to do so. A very injury depleted Montpellier side (Karabatic and Kvatnic are in civvies and Guigou is sitting on the sidelines) needs to turn around a 5 goal, 32-27 loss in Russia. Can Montpellier do it? Worth checking out even if only for the last 30 minutes or so.

Montpellier vs. Chekhovskie Medvedi (2nd Leg): http://www.ehftv.com/ec/cl/men/2009-10/video/001044

An explanation on Handball Time Shifting: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.539

For those of you that have seen this match, check out my extended post:

So, last night I finally got around to watching the 2nd leg match and I’m patting myself on the back for having avoided finding out the score of the match. This means I’ve done a good job of avoiding the EHF, Facebook and other websites. Accomplishing this used to be a lot harder to do and on the whole, I’ll give the EHF a lot of credit for creating a web streaming platform that is very conducive to time shifting. The ehfTV website contains very few clues as to the outcome of the matches. There are no scores and they almost always post a non-descript photo of the match. The annoying exception was last year’s photo of Ciudad Real hoisting the Champions League trophy.

All’s well. But, then I notice in the lower right hand corner that the minute counter for the video goes all the way up to 104 minutes. Having watched lots of matches on the EHF website I knew that this counter usually is in the neighborhood of 75-85 minutes. Twenty extra minutes can only mean a few things. It could simply mean that the EHF folks have messed up in the production by perhaps running the camera through halftime. Or maybe there were some major injuries and again they decided to keep the camera rolling. Or it could mean that the game went to a penalty shootout. Of course, I’m thinking that’s pretty unlikely, though, since with the away goal tiebreaker the only way that can happen would be for the second match to end with the exact same score (32-27) as the first match.

But, as there were no halftime delays or major injuries it became steadily clearer to me that Montpellier and Chekhovskie were indeed destined for the unlikely mirror result of 32-27. So, for me it simply became a question of how it was going to happen and whether there might be some of the last second shenanigans that often occur in close matches with so much at stake. Fortunately, Sobol’s no angle wing shot goal occurred too close to full time for such a controversy to occur.

With plenty of time on the ticking clock my enjoyment of the penalty shots was also somewhat compromised as I knew that the 5 vs.5 competition was undoubtedly going to end in a draw. At least I had a good deal of suspense in the sudden death portion, but with only 30 seconds on the clock for David Juricek to shoot his penalty shot, I knew my “favorite” club was doomed and I’ve never heard Montpellier’s gym go so eerily quiet.

Montpellier has certainly had their share of success in Champions League classics. In the 2003 finals they overcame an 8 goal deficit first leg deficit against Portland San Antonio. In 2005, they almost blew a 14 goal advantage in the 2nd leg against Flensburg. I was fully expecting them to pull off yet another miracle, but this time it was not to be. I’m guessing some folks in Pamplona and Flensburg are grinning with satisfaction that what goes around has finally come around.

Side note: Mladen Bojinovich’s 9 meter free throw goal with no time remaining in the first leg provides clear evidence of just how much every goal counts in these home and away aggregate playoffs.

Team Handball Blog (4 Oct 05): Top 10 reasons why I love to hate Montpellier handball
http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/2005/10/top-10-reasons-why-i-love-to-hate.html

Team Handball Blog (14 Mar 05): Moins Treize! Montpelier Pulls Off a Miracle: http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_archive.html
Video of last second shot from 2005: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiQrocwn8Hw&NR=1

If you check the USA Team Handball website regularly like I do, you surely noticed General Manager Steve Pastorino’s recent blog post highlighting his recent trip to Germany and Denmark. Some shortsighted naysayers have knocked these trips to Europe as a waste of time and money, but I see those trips as just the type of frequent face to face interaction that’s needed to coax the Euros into realizing that 1) the U.S. is a massive untapped market for handball and 2) that market won’t wake up unless they (the Euros) take action to make it happen. The moves to build relationships with European organizations should pay dividends in the future and in particular, I was very pleased to see them meet with the TV production and marketing company, Sportfive. It’s one thing for a guy like me to pull them aside at the World Championships and tell them that they are missing the boat, and it’s another thing entirely for USATH to show up in force at their offices to talk shop.

But, while these international efforts are exactly the kind of moves I’ve wanted to see for years, I can’t say the same thing in regards to the moves the U.S. appears to making in regards to national team competition. I say “appears” because the U.S. Federation has not chosen yet to share any of its plans for national team competition. Even worse, in a clear lack of transparency, it masks that this topic is even being discussed by its Board of Directors. Why do I say this? Well, first off, you might be surprised to learn that the Board Meeting minutes from last March have been posted on the U.S. Website for a couple of weeks now. One might think that such a meeting merits a short blurb on the front page with a link to the minutes, but apparently the discussion that took place wasn’t considered interesting enough to the membership. I guess one could argue that really bad transparency would be not posting the minutes at all, but this can’t be done as it would violate the Federation’s by-laws. So much like USA Team Handball’s IRS Form 990, you’re going to have to periodically drill down a couple layers on their website to get some marginally more meaningful information.

Alright, why the sarcastic, “marginally more meaningful?” Well, read the meeting minutes as it relates to National Team development and judge for yourself. This passage, in particular, is very telling:

“A lengthy discussion about USOC High Performance funding ensued. Programs and funding for Domestic Development, Futures Program and European Resident Athlete Program are in place. A discussion about National Team Development resulted in a commitment by Wartalowicz and Pastorino to present at this year’s Nationals a “Plan 2016” that will outline the men’s and women’s roadmaps to success.

OK, how about a little more detail concerning this “lengthy discussion”? What exactly was discussed? Why did it result in a commitment to present an outline roadmap to success? Why isn’t there a plan already and why is it called Plan 2016? Underlying these rhetorical questions are some unsubstantiated rumors that I have received indicating that USA Team Handball is not even going to try and qualify for the 2011 Pan American Games. The information I received is second or third hand, but an email query from USA Team Handball General Manager Steve Pastorino acknowledged that they “have to address the upcoming PANAM issue” and plan to do so next month in Vegas.

I don’t even know where to begin here. The Pan American Games is the primary route for the U.S. to qualify for the Olympic Games. How can a National Governing Body (NGB) underneath the U.S. Olympic Committee umbrella even contemplate not trying to qualify for the Olympics? Well, if you read the USOC Bylaws it’s pretty clear to me that an NGB simply can’t do that. Read Section 9, Athletes Rights, 9.1 Opportunity to Participate, which reads in part:

“No member of the corporation may deny or threaten to deny any amateur athlete the opportunity to participate in the Olympic Games, the Pan American Games, the Paralympic Games, a World Championship competition….”

I’m not a lawyer, but I’m thinking deciding to not even field a team for qualification matches for the Pan American Games pretty much denies athletes the opportunity participate in those games. And come to think of it, the decision to not send a Men’s team to the Division 1 tournament last year in the Dominican Republic would seem to violate the USOC By-laws as well, since it was a qualification event for the World Championships.

But setting aside the legal ramifications, you’re going to have a hard time convincing me that skipping out on a chance to compete in the Pan American Games can ever be construed as a good idea. Last October, I wrote a commentary on what a big mistake I thought it was for the U.S. to not send a Men’s team to the Pan American Team Handball Federation’s Division 1 Championship. Lacking a clear explanation behind the decision I provided some speculative reasons as to why this decision was reached. Those reasons were:

1) The USA Federation didn’t want to jeopardize the establishment of a North American Handball Federation (NAHF)
2) Not enough money to afford the trip
3) A European Friendly trip is seen as more productive
4) Participating would disrupt the youth movement
5) Team USA wants to avoid embarrassment

Six months later the picture is somewhat clearer. Reason #1 appears to have lost validity as the Board Minutes indicate that the motion for the new federation at the IHF Congress will “be withdrawn until a more favorable climate for a split is available.” (Memo to USATH Board: If a new federation means somebody else in the world is going to lose a slot for the WC or Olympics I don’t see any change in climate coming.) Aspects of reasons 2-5 would still seem to apply, but the words “Plan 2016” appear to signal that Reason #4 (the youth movement) is the focus for this decision.

Then as now, I don’t see a youth movement as justification for not participating. National Teams, with a heavy influx of young prospects could participate in Pan American Games qualification events later this year and next spring. Anyone who follows handball in this hemisphere knows that the U.S. has virtually no chance of putting together a men’s or women’s team capable of winning a Gold Medal next year in Guadalajara. But, it’s certainly feasible that we could put together teams that could qualify for 1 of the 8 spots at the Pan American Games. Those players would gain valuable experience in very meaningful and relevant competition and when we try to execute “Plan 2016” at the Pan American Games in 2015 wouldn’t it be better to have several athletes that have been there before?

But what do I know? Maybe Plan 2016 will try to incorporate an “out of nowhere” strategy similar to the North Korean soccer team that shocked Italy at the 1966 World Cup. All, I can say is that I look forward to the presentation of the plan next month in Las Vegas. As I’ve been saying for months it’s high time that we had one.

Steve Pastorino on Handball (16 Apr 10): USATH Welcomed in Hamburg and Denmark:
http://usateamhandball.org/blogs/steve-pastorino-on-handball/posts/1822-usath-welcomed-in-hamburg-and-denmark
USATH March 17 BoD Meeting Minutes: http://assets.usoc.org/assets/documents/attached_file/filename/24170/BOD_Minutes_for_3-17-2010.pdf
USOC Bylaws: http://assets.teamusa.org/assets/documents/attached_file/filename/17354/Bylaws_7.01.08__executed_-_final_.pdf
THN (22 Oct 09): USA declines to send team to Men’s Div 1 PATHF Championships: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.853
THN (25 Oct 09):Analyzing the US decision to not participate in PATHF: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.854

My colleague, Christer Ahl, noticed the other day that Team Handball News (THN) was approaching the posting of its 1,000th article and indicated to me that this milestone was probably worthy of comment. I agreed and thought it would be a good time for a commentary about the site, its history, its content and its way ahead. So here goes:

Site History: As this site regularly picks up new readers from everywhere in the world a little bit of history is warranted as to why the site got started initially and how it has evolved over time. During the 2004 Olympics I stared a simple blog on Team Handball primarily as a way to share my views about Handball with friends back in the U.S. while I was living in France. You can still read those old posts at http://teamhandball.blogspot.com. In 2006, an internal dispute within the USA Team Handball Federation bitterly divided the sport’s community within the U.S. In the midst of this dispute it became apparent that a blog couldn’t address the myriad issues as effectively as a dedicated website. So on 2 January, 2006 Team Handball News was born with this post.

With a dedicated site it was now easier to post documentation and store audio interviews on the site. Additionally, the site allowed more flexibility and made it easier to distinguish between commentary and straight news.

Since 2006, we’ve covered Handball news from all of the continental federations and we haven’t shied away from controversy. We’ve covered the never-ending (seemingly anyway) transgressions of the current IHF leadership, the occasional lack of transparency in the EHF and the PATHF’s unfair practices against its North American members. Sometimes forgotten, however, is that we also cover the “good news” stories like the IHF’s President’s cup, the EHF’s wonderful promotion efforts and the progress Brazil has made as a Handball nation. For those of you new to our site or new to handball, it’s probably worth your while to use the search function (upper right hand corner) to find out more about a particular topic.

THNs Content: Since being established, we’ve experimented with many different themes and topics, but for the most part we’ve focused on two major themes:

1) Handball news from the developing nations
2) Handball news for the English speaking world

With the addition of Christer Ahl to the site in July of 2009 we’ve also started to include more stories on technical issues like proposed rule changes, refereeing, coaching and gender issues.

We can’t even begin to cover everything so we have to pick and choose. Often that meets simply writing about what interests us, but we try to focus on events like Continental Championships (other than Europe) that are woefully under-reported. We also pay special attention to transparency and conflict issues because, not surprisingly, official sites either don’t report on them at all or provide a very slanted, one sided story. Finally, commentary is another important aspect of our site. For whatever reason, many European news outlets (not just handball news outlets) don’t do much in terms of opinion pieces. Shockingly enough, sometimes our site is the only one out there (in any language) stating a position on a controversial issue.

THN’s Audience: If it’s not already obvious, THN has a bifurcated audience. On the one hand there is the English speaking Handball world with the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, India and other assorted countries. On the other hand is the Handball world that has English as a second language and is looking for Handball news outside their home country. The interests of these two audiences overlap, but rest assured there are plenty of Americans who could care less about International Handball political developments and plenty of Europeans who could care less about American Handball development. The relative size of these audiences ebbs and flows, but currently are English second language audience is on the upswing. I guess if we are the only ones to report and comment on IHF developments the rest of the Handball world is going to take notice.

Audio Podcasts: https://teamhandballnews.com/download5.html
We’ve done several interviews, provided Champions League commentary, and a few “Handball Talk” shows since our inception. While I’ve enjoyed doing these podcasts they can be a time consuming endeavor. As the technology evolves and more people get comfortable with consuming audio content we’ll relook the possibility of regular shows on a weekly or monthly basis.

The Forum: https://teamhandballnews.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum.php
I probably get more feedback on our forum section than any other aspect of our website. Generally, that feedback is about how the reader doesn’t like the negativity coming from some of the participants. My response has been, universally, to tell those readers, “if they don’t like it, don’t go there.” While I prefer constructive dialogue on the many issues related to Handball, I acknowledge that the forum does sometimes degenerate into silliness, but we don’t have time to police and arbitrate every post. Instead we do minimal policing of the forum and as long as the attacks aren’t directed at race, creed, and the other assorted discriminatory categories we let the posts stay. Generally, the “idiots” eventually depart, but some do stick around to provide entertainment. It kind of reminds me of the old poker adage: if you don’t know who the worst player at the table is within 15 minutes, then you are the worst player.

Are we journalists?: I occasionally get emails along the lines of “you never went to Journalism school, why should we take you serious?” This, of course, is a debate that is taking place in every corner of the internet, and handball is just one niche example. In today’s world, anyone with an internet connection can spout their opinion and stake a claim as a news outlet. For the record, I’ve never been to journalism school and this website can best be described as a hobby. I have to admit that I have had to study up on the use and application of some common journalism terms such as “on background” and “on the record.” To those out there who do take us seriously and have seen fit to provide us “inside information” I say, thank you. To those out there who don’t take us seriously, I say, “Explain to me, Why do you check our site so regularly?”

How bout a little respect: Continuing on this journalistic credo theme: Team Handball News has queried major Handball organizations on a number of occasions. Sometimes the issues are controversial, but often they are about more mundane issues. Usually, we are lucky to get any response. And when it comes to unsolicited communiqués, we rarely get notification of major newsworthy events. OK, I understand we’re not a mainstream news site, but we are a Team Handball News site. Oh, and one other little factoid:

WE ARE THE ONLY INDEPENDENT HANDBALL NEWS SITE IN ENGLISH, THE WORLD’S LINGUA FRANCA.

Wow! You would think that the world’s “2nd most popular sport”* would be genuflecting daily in the direction of its only world-wide news outlet. OK, maybe genuflecting is a little much, but I’ll settle for a little respect. That respect could start with answering email requests for information. The next step would be periodic phone conversations and interviews.

*FYI. It’s pretty self-evident that I’m a huge fan of Handball, but the oft quoted claim of it being 2nd most popular sport is simply not a credible one. In fact, by a number of metrics it’s only the 2nd most popular team sport in a handful of countries. http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/search?q=popular

A call for help (reporters): Sometimes we’ve been critiqued for too little reporting on actual handball events. It’s certainly true that actual on the scene reporting has been scarce. I would certainly like to do more reporting like I was able to do at the World Championship in Germany (2007). To the IHF’s credit they gave me full media accreditation and access for the games. I was able to put this to good use and wrote several stories and even did some audio interviews like these with Greenland national team:
https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.254 and IHF Treasurer, Miquel Roca https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.264 There’s nothing to say that other Handball fans attending events couldn’t also do the same sort of reporting. If you’re interested in playing reporter let me know and we’ll even try and get you media accreditation.

A call for help (commentators): Have you got an opinion on Handball related issues? Would you like a platform to broadcast that opinion to the world? Team Handball exists that for that very reason. Since its inception we’ve been open to posting commentary from guest contributors. Few, however, have ever taken us up on this open invitation. The requirements are not overly stringent, but the prose does need proper construction and a reasoned argument. If you have a proposed essay, send it to john.ryan@teamhandballnews.com

A call for help (web designers): THN’s current web site can best be described as functional. It gets the job done, but it clearly lacks bells and whistles. If you are interested in spicing up our website by making it simpler to add more pictures, video, more web 2.0 features and/or an online shop please let me know: john.ryan@teamhandbalnews.com

The Way Ahead: THN plans to continue the same things we’ve been doing. As highlighted above there are several features/functions that we’d like to add to the site. I’d also like for the site to add more reporting on handball, but there’s only two ways that’s going to happen. We can either bend time to add more hours in a day or we could add more contributors to THN. The latter is more feasible and I would like to see THN have a sizable staff of dedicated volunteers. With such a staff more and better content could be provided. Ideally, the site would then grow to a point where revenue from advertising could be used to cover a portion of travel costs for volunteers to attend major events like the World Championships. But, barring an influx of volunteers we’re more likely to continue as before. We’ll keep fighting the good fight for transparency and fairness for our sport and hopefully, you’ll keep reading.

Group play for this year’s Champions League ended a couple of weeks ago. So what did we learn after 5 months, 10 rounds and 120 matches? In short, not a whole lot. In summary we learned the following:

– Chambery (France) proved that without Daniel Narcisse they are not a top 16 side.
– Kielce (Poland) and Constanta (Romania) are a little better than anticipated.
– KIF Kolding (Denmark) can play with the big dogs at home. (Draws vs. Kiel and Barcelona)

Wow, that’s a lot of games to find out so very little. But it’s nothing new for Group play in the Champions League as there have been very few surprises in recent years.

The EHF has been experimenting with the Champions League format in recent years. Previously group play was with 8 groups of 4 teams with 2 teams advancing from each group to the Round of 16. This year it was 4 groups of 6 teams with four teams advancing. This resulted in the 4 extra rounds, but the results were again all too predictable. The Round of 16 should prove a little more interesting, particularly with the #2 vs. #3 home and away matches. The #1 vs. #4 matchups are less likely to be interesting, although Kolding could surprise. More appealing will be the quarterfinals where Hamburg and Barcelona are likely to test the #1 seeds which are drawn against them. And the crème de la crème will be the Final Four where the top 4 teams will stage a final knock out tourney over 1 weekend in 1 location.

So what should be done to make the Champions League more interesting? Maybe it’s time to start thinking about scrapping Group play and home/away aggregate matches entirely. Why just have a Final Four? I say why not further copy the NCAA tournament and start with a field of 64?

For the Euros not familiar with America’s love affair with the NCAA basketball tournament a little education is in order. The NCAA basketball tournament is a single elimination knockout tournament played over 3 consecutive weekends by the basketball teams at American colleges and universities. 64 teams are selected through a combination of automatic and “at-large” bids and seeded 1-16 in four separate regions. The first weekend cuts the field from 64 to 16, the next weekend cuts it from 16 to 4 and the 3rd weekend is the Final Four. Unlike the more subdued crowds often associated with the NBA, collegiate crowds are more comparable to the atmosphere often seen at Handball matches in the Balkans. The first round matches, particularly the 16 vs. 1 seeds are often blowouts, but usually there are a few lower seeds that shock the favorites and become the darling of the tournament. Overall, the interest in terms of crowds and TV audience is massive with the month of March simply being renamed March Madness. Everywhere, even casual fans are filling out the 64 team brackets with their predictions of every game. Office betting pools abound with the secretary who knows nothing about basketball somehow always winning the contest.

So how would you adopt the NCAA format to European Handball? First off, you would make it “the end of season tournament” to be played after every national league’s season is over. The national leagues would wrap up on the 1st or 2nd weekend of May and then the tournament would take place the following 3 weekends. (As an example a would be tournament this year would start the 15th of May and conclude on the 29-30 May.) Participants would include every club champion in each European nation, perhaps with a reasonable cut off for 100% amateur leagues. (I don’t think we want to see England’s Great Dane vs. Ciudad Real.) Additionally, about 30 “at large” bids which would be awarded to the most deserving clubs in the top leagues. A fair distribution would probably have about 7 clubs from Germany and Spain, 3 or 4 from France, Denmark and Hungary and perhaps a few extra clubs from the Balkans, Poland and Romania. In terms of venues, neutral sites would be the most fair, but that would have to be weighed with locations that could assure good crowds. Top seeds could also be awarded with the right to host. The first weekend would have 8 sites, the 2nd weekend would have 4 sites and the last weekend would, of course, have 1 site just like Cologne this year. Also, depending on associated costs the sites could have staggered dates of competition for TV. (i.e. some sites could play Friday/Saturday or Sunday/Monday so that more games could be aired at different times.)

Of course, some of the same controversies that have plagued the NCAA tournament would be exacerbated in an International event. The NCAA tournament field is seeded by a committee and every year there are complaints that this team shouldn’t have made the field or this team didn’t deserve such an easy bracket. If Americans show strong allegiance to their college conferences it certainly can be said that Europeans would be even more parochial when it comes to defending their national leagues. The EHF would probably have to establish a ranking system that awarded national leagues a certain number of spots and then teams would have to be randomly assigned via some sort of drawing.

There surely would be other challenges to be resolved, but the plusses would outweigh the negatives. Here are some of the advantages to a 64 Team Tournament:

[u]It builds momentum[/u]: Playing the tournament over 3 consecutive weeks would avoid the current start and stop nature of the Champions League. Fans won’t have to wait for the next big game and would be less likely to lose interest.

[u]Rewards current season performance[/u]: One of the stranger aspects (at least to this American) of the current European Championship format is that entry into the competition is now based on last year’s performance. Why base a competition on last year’s results when due to transfers the teams could be totally different? Instead this format would reward teams that do well in the current season.

[u]Increased prestige[/u]: As the sole end of season tournament it will become the focus of clubs and fans. With the current format some clubs are conflicted with their national competitions. With nothing else going on this event will take prioirity

[u]Greater chance of upsets[/u]: As a couple of clubs proved during group play it’s possible for a lower rung team to beat (or at least scare) a good team once. It’s less likely though to happen over two games or over the course of a ten game round robin. The better team will still usually win, but it will only be a matter of time before some team from the Balkans celebrates while the big bad Bundesliga team goes home with their season being over. That’s drama and it will happen.

[u]Settle arguments[/u]: Another interesting aspect would be the opportunity to at least partially settle arguments about the relative strength of the different national leagues. This could be accomplished by placing the multiple German and Spanish sides in different sections of the bracket so that teams from the same nation can’t play each other until the quarter finals. Theoretically, you could have a final 8 with 7 Spanish sides. Unlikely perhaps, but should it happen I don’t think anybody would argue against any other league being better.

[u]Fewer games for top players[/u]: The fewer games would also have the added benefit of at least partially resolving the “too many games” issue impacting the world’s top players. Some of the weekends that would be freed up could also be used to encourage more cross nation club competition. You could even stage a couple Bundesliga – Liga Asobal showdown weekends that could be used to determine which league was entitled to more bids in the tourney. France and Denmark could also have a mini-competition to decide who’s third best.

[u]Financial considerations[/u]: Some might argue that this format would be less profitable as the clubs would have fewer games and fewer games at home. While there would be fewer games, the financial success of the NCAA tournament should give club executives at least reason to consider the possibility of an alternative. What kind of financial success are we talking about? Well, the current TV broadcasting contract alone was for $6 billion over 11 years. Yes that’s billion with a “b”. Contrast that to the average annual operating budget (perhaps $5 Million for the top clubs) in Europe. I have no idea what the current TV contract is for the Champions League, but I’m guessing it’s quite a bit South of 6 billion dollars. If you could replicate even a tenth of the revenue it would be an overwhelming financial success.

And if you could get even a hundredth of the interest the NCAA tournament has in the U.S. it would be a major promotional victory for the sport.

Wikipedia: NCAA Tournament: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Men%27s_Division_I_Basketball_Championship
Sports Business Journal (7 Dec 09): NCAA, TV talk about bigger men’s tourney: http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/64263

The results are in for the Slate Magazine “Hang Up and Listen” Podcast competition to get selected as a guest co-host. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago listeners were invited to send in their stories about how they’ve converted podcast newbies to check out the Slate sportscast. I didn’t win, but I got an extended shout out as co-hosts Mike Pesca and Stefan Fatsis expressed outrage at my being snubbed by the selection committee. For you Euro readers out there the reference is related to the NCAA basketball tournament field of 64 teams that is discussed at length in the show’s first segment. Every year there are always a few teams that are upset that they didn't make the cut.

Thanks to everyone who sent in their conversion stories. Maybe I’ll find an NIT tournament Podcast that I can participate in.

THN (17 Feb 10): Check out a free podcast and promote handball: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.956
Slate ‘Hang Up and Listen’ podcast page: http://www.slate.com/id/2243238/
‘Hang Up and Listen’ Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/hangupandlisten
This week’s Hang Up and Listen Podcast: http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.slate.com/media/slate/Podcasts/Sports/SG10031501_HUAL.mp3 (I’m mentioned around the 22:45 minute mark)

As a resident of Las Vegas I am very pleased that USA Team Handball has chosen my adopted home town as the site for this year’s National Championship tournament (21-23 May). Some might even theorize that a leading Handball proselytizer such as I consider myself to be may have been lobbying behind the scenes for Sin City. No, I played no such role although I have indicated to USA Team Handball a willingness to help out and will try and get a local team entered in the tourney.

In reality, I’ve actually been more of a proponent for combining our National Championships with this summer’s Poland v. Germany friendly in Chicago on July 17th. Last year I lobbied hard to have the National Championships combined with the French club Final Four in Miami. My logic then, as now, is that if your community is not very large it’s better to have two marquee events at the same time and the same place. It’s doubtful as to whether the extra 500 or so fans would have made much of a difference attendance wise in Miami, but it still would have been great for the younger players to see high level handball first hand. While a July Nationals was 2 months later than normal, I would have preferred to combine the events. But apparently, I was in the minority as the community spoke up, the Federation listened, and now we have Vegas.

And it’s a good choice, in my opinion. Even if the economy has hit our city hard, there’s still no other place in the country (arguably the world) that can provide better hospitality and accommodations at reasonable prices. Air fares are relatively low and lodging deals are the best they’ve been in years. Factor in the Gaming (aka Gambling), dining options and the high quality shows the city offers and few people need an excuse to come visit.

Team Handball, certainly isn’t the only sport that recognizes this. Two NCAA basketball conferences (MWC, WCC) already stage their post season tourneys here and a 3rd (WAC) will join the party next year. The National Finals Rodeo invades the town every year and you’ve never seen more cowboy hats outside the state of Texas. Not my cup of tea, but this past February I enjoyed another minor sports invasion as the Rugby 7’s World circuit came to town. You’ve never seen more Commonwealth members (Brits, South Africans, Kiwis and Aussies) and Pacific Islanders outside those home countries.

Which leads me to conclude that perhaps this is only the first major Team Handball event to be staged in Las Vegas. If Kiwis and Brits can come watch rugby here in the desert, why not Handball. It’s only a matter of time before we see a European Handball invasion. I’m thinking an EHF Final Four, say in May 2012. Maybe we’ll schedule Nationals in Vegas again, so everybody can attend both events.

THN (15 Oct 08): U.S. National Championships in Miami: Just Make it So: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.61
Las Vegas Review Journal (15 Feb 10): Rugby a passion play for U.S. team: http://www.lvrj.com/sports/rugby-a-passion-play-for-us-team-84371792.html

The New York Times has a story that highlights how Google translate has improved dramatically in the past few years. I’ve mentioned this in passing several times and this article explains how Google’s computing power has made it possible. In turn, it has made finding out what’s going on in the Handball world significantly easier. As little as a year ago translating an article from Arabic or Danish was either a time consuming process or impossible. Now, it can be done with a click of a button. While automatic translation can’t yet substitute for a human translation by a native speaker, it’s surely the next best thing.

New York Times (9 Mar 10): Google’s Computing Power Refines Translation Tool: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/technology/09translate.html?hpw

New York Times (9 Mar 10): Putting Google to the Test in Translation: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/03/09/technology/20100309-translate.html?ref=technology

The Canadian and American press made a big fuss over the failure of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s “Own the Podium” Campaign to win the most medals at the winter Olympics in Vancouver. Canada’s ambitious campaign spent $117 Million over 5 years, but while the Canadians did better than they have before they still came up short to the Americans and Germans. Meanwhile, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) is absolutely giddy with the success they’ve had in winning the medals race at the Winter Olympics for the first time since 1932. The U.S. didn’t spend as much as the Canadians, but the $58M over 4 years was still a 55% increase over the previous Olympics.

So what’s the Handball connection? The connection relates to the potential lessons learned that these Olympic Committee’s might take in terms of resource allocation. First, let’s look at the Canadians. They spent a fortune in their quest for medals and the results were arguably not worth the investment. And at the same time they were spending this $117M on winter sports, Canadian National Handball athletes have been paying their own way to competitions in South America and Europe. So, maybe one lesson that could be learned is that if winning isn’t guaranteed maybe it makes more sense to throw a few bones towards all sports. I can’t speak for the Canadian Federation, but I bet they would have been pleased with a measly $2M spread out over 5 years. It beats practically nothing anyway.

For American Team Handball, U.S. winter Olympic success is a mixed bag. On the one hand USA Team Handball can take heart in the success of another sport where the U.S. has historically done poorly: Nordic Combined. Prior to Vancouver, the U.S. had never won a medal in this sport and until recently they never were even competitive. This time around, however, they owned the podium, winning 4 medals out of 9. News reports highlighted how increased support from the USOC has paid dividends as athletes received better coaching and financial support allowing them to continue competing into their late 20s. So the rallying cry could be “Hey, if they can do it, we can too.”

Unfortunately, though, I’m guessing that following in that sport’s success might be pretty difficult. I won’t pretend to be an expert on Nordic Combined, but I’m guessing there are not thousands and thousands of ski jumping/cross country skiing enthusiasts worldwide and most likely there are even fewer full time athletes training in this sport. With a smaller talent pool to beat all you’ve got to do is find a few talented athletes willing to put in the time and then provide them enough funding to allow them to do so. Trying to use the exact same formula for Team Handball is not practical due to the greater number of participants world-wide along with the higher degree of professionalization in the sport. There are elements of the Nordic Combined model that might be relevant, but success in Team Handball will require much broader grass roots development and greater assistance from outside entities like clubs and federations in Europe. Translation: It would require a lot more funding to replicate the Nordic Combined success.

Which is the problematic (for USA Team Handball, anyway) lesson learned that the U.S. Olympic Committee might take from this. Namely, concentrate your limited resources strategically in sporting disciplines where it will lead to the most medals for the U.S. The new CEO for the USOC, Scott Blackmun, indicated as much when he told the Associated Press: “Our job is to allocate the resources to the NGBs based on where we think they're going to have the greatest impact."

Adding to the degree of difficulty it will take to field a competitive Team Handball side is the “one medal and one medal only” handicap that all Olympic team sports have. Simply because some sports reporter for some newspaper years ago decided to do a tally of medals won and chose a format with only 1 medal being tallied for team sports, team sports will never have the potential “impact” that multi-discipline sports have.

One can almost envision the internal discussion that have either taken place or will surely take place at the USOC. “You mean it will cost x million dollars for us to just get competitive, let alone win a medal, and all we can get is one medal each for the men and women’s team. Why bother?”

The retort is that the Olympics are about a lot more than country medal counts in newspaper sidebars. This is not to say that winning isn’t important; it’s just that this over-riding emphasis on return on investment might need a little balancing out.

LA Times (22 Feb 10): So much for Own the Podium: US is a juggernaut at Vancouver Olympics: http://www.latimes.com/sports/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-oly-medals-race,0,3318655.story
Colorado Springs Independent (25 Feb 10): Canadian invasion: How Team USA has turned hope into history at an eminently satisfying Vancouver Winter Games: http://www.csindy.com/colorado/canadian-invasion/Content?oid=1633747
Montreal Gazette (23 Feb 10) These are the Americans' Games, we're sad to report: http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/2010wintergames/These+Americans+Games+report/2602174/story.html
ABC News: USOC Leaders Stuck With Plan During Time of Crisis: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=9897847
Wikipedia: Nordic Combined at the 2010 Olympics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_combined_at_the_2010_Winter_Olympics

The European Handball Federation (EHF) has issued an official statement regarding what it calls “IHF Matters.” The vaguely worded statement unfortunately says little and gives the impression that the press is manufacturing problems that don’t really exist.

The EHF starts out with the following sentence: “Since the publication in Der Spiegel of articles concerning the President of the IHF, the EHF has been asked for its position concerning the accusations expressed in the German magazine.”

There are a couple of problems with this statement. First off, it neglects to mention what any of the so called accusations are. This might not seem like a big deal to those who follow Handball closely and have read the Der Spiegel article in German, but there is still a sizable following that either can’t read German or haven’t seen a translation. So in short, the EHF press statement talks about accusations without stating what they are. Which leads to the second problem: Namely, that we’re not talking about idle accusations here. If you read the translations of the Der Spiegel articles you’ll find that for the most part they are rather specific and arguably factual in their presentation.

The first article focused on the 600,000 Euro personal services contract that IHF President Moustafa signed with TV distributor, Sportfive. As you recall, Sportfive, by coincidence, also won the TV rights for the IHF Championships. Der Spiegel and others have noted the inherent conflict of interest, but even Mr. Moustafa has not denied the existence of the contract.

The second article focused on the conversion of Mr. Moustafa to a paid employee and the increase in payments to IHF Council members. Most notably, a 1,567 % increase in remuneration for Mr. Moustafa and an average increase of 400% to other council members. The validity of this information may not be known to you and me, but the EHF leadership knows, because they also happen to be members of the IHF Council, the very body that approved the hiring and the honorarium increases.

This leads to the silliness of the second paragraph which seeks to give the impression that there is a massive firewall between the IHF and its preeminent continental federation. For the record, the EHF President, Tor Lian, sits on the IHF council with the title, VP Europe. The EHF VP, Jean Brihault, sits on the IHF Council with the title, Representative Europe.

The statement goes on to indicate that the EHF has received a statement from the IHF President explaining his professional situation and business contracts, as well as a letter from the IOC Ethics Committee President stating his position on the Sportfive personal services contract. However, the EHF fails to take note that the IOC President, Jacque Rogge, has spoken out and indicated that he “would not tolerate such behavior.” The EHF then notes that the IHF has agreed to its request for an audit of the financial situation and dealings of the IHF and its leadership.

Finally, the statement closes by saying that the EHF members of the IHF Council (Lian and Brihault) “sincerely hope that the press will then be in position to report the performances of the players and the teams and that the growing support of the media for this fast developing sport will be confirmed and increased.”

[b]To which I say it’s my sincere hope that Messrs Lian and Brihault quit hiding and speak out.[/b] Let me state it more clearly. Gentlemen, you don’t need an audit to better understand the situation. You’re also smart enough to know that an audit won’t uncover much of anything as Mr. Moustafa has shown that he knows how to cover his tracks. Nope. You already have more than enough information to form an opinion and take a stand. So, I submit to you the following questions:

1) Do you think Mr. Moustafa’s contract with Sportfive was appropriate or do you think it was an inherent conflict of interest? If not appropriate, are you going to do anything about it?

2) Do you think Mr. Moustafa’s hiring as an IHF employee and his remuneration increase from 30,000 Swiss Franc to 500,000 Swiss Francs is appropriate? If not, are you going to do anything about it?

3) How much of a raise did each of you get and do you think maybe that money would be better spent on world-wide handball development?

[b]Answer those questions honestly, then take some appropriate actions and guess what: The press will have nothing else to focus on but this great sport’s players, teams and performances.[/b]

EHF (25 Feb 10): EHF statement on IHF matters: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/012925/EHF+statement+on+IHF+matters
THN (25 Feb 10): IHF Payments to President and Council Members – outrageous or not?: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.968
THN (10 Feb 10): IOC President Rogge comments on Moustafa's contract with Sportfive: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.948
THN (28 Jan 10): Conflict of Interest – or worse !?: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.933
THN (23 Jan 10): IHF President Moustafa had lucrative private contract with IHF’s TV partner: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.930