Category Archives: PanAm Handball

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Argentina Men and Brazil/South Korea Women secure Olympic Berths

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3 Nations have recently secured Olympic bids.

The past few days saw 3 nations secure 2012 Olympic berths.  Last night in the Men’s Gold Medal match at the PANAM games, Argentina beat rival Brazil 26-23.  The match was a see-saw affair with both teams running off strings of unanswered goals.  Brazil’s had the first big run to get a 12-7 lead, but Argentina was able to respond and 1st half ended with Argentina leading 15-14.  In the second half they extended the lead to 19-14 and kept the lead throughout as Brazil could only narrow the gap to two goals.  Argentina has directly qualified for the Olympics and Brazil has qualified for an IHF qualification tournament next spring as has the third place team, Chile.  Notably, Chile gave Argentina a huge challenge in the semifinals, losing by just 1 goal, 26-25.

In the PANAM Women’s competition, Brazil clearly showed that they are in a class all by themselves as they won all five of their matches by an average of 26 goals.  The Dominican Republic came the closest with a 14 point loss in Group play.  In the semifinals they had a narrow 19-18 loss to Argentina who in turn lost to Brazil in the Gold Medal match 33-18.  Argentina’s 2nd place finish means that they will qualify for an IHF Olympic qualification tournament next spring.  The Dominican Republic may as well, but this will depend on where the Pan American region ranks at the World Championship next January.  As Brazil is hosting the event, they could very well secure an additional tournament slot for the region.

In Asia, the South Korean women prevailed in an Olympic qualification tournament in China.  6 nations played a straight round robin and South Korea came through unbeaten to secure the Asian bid.  They did, however, receive a strong challenge from runner-up Japan in their final game.  The score was tied 10-10 at halftime before the South Korea pulled away for a 27-22 win.

Olympic Qualification for the Asian Men is currently taking place in South Korea.

Here’s the current status of Olympic Qualification.

2012 Olympic Games Qualification (Women): https://teamhandballnews.com/2012-olympic-qual-women/
2011 Olympic Games Qualification (Men): https://teamhandballnews.com/2012-olympic-qual-men/

As always, these links are available on the right hand side of the page.

 

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PANAM Games: USA vs. Canada: LIVE AUDIO COMMENTARY

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Gary Hines and Team USA will take on Canada in Guadalajara

 

I will provide a live audio commentary of Saturday’s match between the USA and Canada.  This consolation semifinal is scheduled for 1:30 PM (U.S. East Coast Time).  Last December the two teams split a two game series with each side losing by identical 25-21 scores on the road.  Canada won a ten minute overtime, but that was played in Montreal, so this neutral ground showdown will serve as the unofficial rubber match between the two rivals.

The audio and video links are below:

Audio: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/team-handball

Video: http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/guadalajara-2011/en-vivo/

USA Federation Live Chat page: http://usateamhandball.org/

Undoubtedly, time delays will make traditional commentary unpractical, so I will try to focus on the overall situation.  If you’ve got comments/questions post them on the ustream chat or Federation chat pages and I’ll try to respond.

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PANAM Games: USA teams look for redemption in consolation brackets; PATHF considers cancellation of Men’s Div I tournament

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Mexico on the fastbreak

 

Commentary: The USA Men lost narrowly last night to Mexico, 33-32 to finish 0-0-3 in Group play.  It’s hard to sugar coat this disappointing loss as the USA was sloppy on offense and often uninspired on defense allowing many goals far too easily.  Fully assessing teams via an online video is somewhat difficult, but from the looks of things it appears that the USA was more experienced and physically gifted than the Mexican side.  In short, I would argue that the USA had a better individual player at every position, but somehow managed to lose.  The bright spot is that the American men have a clear shot at redemption with a chance to settle scores with Canada on Saturday morning in a consolation bracket semifinal.  The Canadian Men have also had a disappointing tournament, but were able to get a win against Venezuela yesterday, 28-25.  Depending on my schedule I will try and do a live audiocast commentary of the match via USTREAM.TV on Saturday.  Game time is 12:30 PM (US Central Time)

The USA Women have also struggled, and finished their group as well with a 0-0-3 record.  Their redemption opportunity will be today against Puerto Rico at 10:00 AM local (US Central time)

In other news Mundo Handball is reporting that the Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) is considering the possibility of cancelling the Men’s Division I Championship currently scheduled for next month in the Dominican Republic.  Instead, 12 teams would be invited to the Elite Championship which would be played next summer with the host nation opportunity being awarded to the PANAM Games Gold Medal winner.  This proposed change in format raises a lot of questions and we’ll address those in a follow up story.

Mundo Handball:  Mario Moccia Interview: http://www.mundohandball.com/Continentes/Panamerica/2011/Moccia-handballde1.html

USATH:  USA Men’s comeback falls just short against Mexico: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/10/20/usa-men-s-comeback-falls-just-short-against-mexico/45121?ngb_id=42

VIDEO: USA – Mexico Highlight: http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,340860.html

 

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PANAM Games: USA and Canadian Men lose again: Both relegated to 5th-8th place

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USA defender, Domagoj Srsen, jumps high to block an Argentine jump shot

Both the USA and Canadian Men lost their second matches in Group play yesterday.  As expected the USA lost to Group favorite Argentina, 36-19.  Some solace, however, can be taken from a strong first half performance that saw the USA down only 12-9 at the break.  The Canadian Men got roughed up a bit more than I would expect by Chile, losing 42-25.  Based on results so far Chile may even give Brazil a run for the money in a Group A showdown on Thursday.

Men’s Competition Scenarios

Most of the suspense has been taken out of the Men’s Pool as the semifinal participants are now set.  In Group A, Brazil and Chile will advance, while Argentina and the Dominican Republic will advance out of Group B.  Those teams will play each other Thursday to determine who will get the higher seed.  Accordingly, the lower 4 teams are also set.  Canada and Venezuela from Group A and Mexico and the USA from Group B.  Again those teams will be seeded based on their head to head matches on Thursday.

Women’s Competition Scenarios

In Group A, Argentina and Mexico have secured spots in the semifinals.  Those two teams will battle on Wednesday to see who avoids Brazil in the Semifinals.  For the Mexican Women, this is surely a major Handball milestone.  In Group B, there is some suspense for the second spot due to the earlier Dominican Republic – Uruguay draw.  Currently, the Dominican Republic has a 35 goal differential lead over Uruguay, but that will be narrowed when the Dominicans take on Brazil in the first match of the day.  The USA will then have the opportunity to play the role of spoiler when they face Uruguay later in the evening.  Uruguay will know exactly how many goals they need to beat the USA by to advance and the USA should have the incentive to keep that number down or better, simply beat the Uruguayans.

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PANAM Games: USA Women fall to Dominican Republic

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The Dominican Republic stages a big second half comeback for a 33-26 victory over the USA

Commentary:  I did not have the opportunity to see any of this afternoon match, but the key numbers are simple:

Halftime Score:  USA 16, Dominican Republic 11
Final Score: USA 26, Dominican Republic 33

Based on what I saw in the first USA match Saturday against Brazil, I can only surmise that a lack of conditioning and depth played a major role in the final outcome of this match.

The loss eliminates the USA from the semifinals.  They will have one more shot at main round redemption on Wednesday when they take on Uruguay.  A victory over Uruguay will place them 3rd in the group and will give them an easier cross-over match in the consolation bracket.

USA Federation Summary: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/10/17/borg-s-10-not-enough-as-usa-women-defeated-by-the-dominican-republic/45035

Video Highlights: http://deportesus.terra.com/road-to-2012/videos/0,,339473.html

 

 

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PANAM Games: USA and Canadian Men lose and the battles for second place

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Brazil had no problems with Canada on Sunday, but the Canadian Men still have a shot at the semifinals

Both the USA and Canadian Men lost their first matches in Group play yesterday.  The Canadian ran into a Brazil onslaught and lost 46-17 in a game in which the outcome was never in doubt.  Despite this  blowout, though, Canada can still qualify for the semis with victories over Chile and Venezuela.

Canada-Brazil Highlights: http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338880.html

In contrast the USA men lost a hard fought match which was closer than the final outcome of 27-22 indicates.  In fact, the USA had a slim lead most of the first half which ended at 11-11.  In the second half the USA appeared to take command in the first few minutes jumping out to a 16-13 lead in the first six minutes.  Following a time out the Dominican Republic was able to settle things down and a USA scoring dry spell resulted in a 17-17 tie score with 14 minutes left to go in the match.  The teams traded goals and with about 6 minutes to go in the match the Dominican Republic had a narrow 22-21 lead.  When the Dominican Republic pushed the lead to 2 goals, however, the USA was not able to respond and appeared to panic with an overly aggressive defense which allowed the Dominican Republic to pad the eventual final scoring margin.

In terms of individual performance, Martin Clemons Axelsson was a steady and reliable performer throughout the match and led the team with 8 goals.  Gary Hines struggled to get on track and the focused and physical Dominican Republic defense held him in check most of the evening.  For 55 minutes, goalie Danny Caparelli was outstanding with several huge saves on some point blank shots.  In the closing minutes, however, he was out of position away from the net allowing two easy goals (including one at the buzzer) for the Dominican Republic.  With Mexico capable of beating the Dominican Republic, the bloated 5 goal deficit may come back to haunt the USA in their match against Mexico on Thursday night.

USATH:  USA Men suffer loss to the Dominican Republic: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/10/16/usa-men-suffer-loss-to-the-dominican-republic/45016?ngb_id=42

Video Page http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos.html (I couldn’t find a USA – Dominican Highlight, but one may get posted later today.)

The Battles for 2nd Place

The first round of matches for both the Men’s and Women’s competition makes it fairly clear that the familiar sight of Brazil or Argentina at the top of their respective group is unlikely to change.  Accordingly, the only interesting battles will be the ones for second place and to help everyone follow along here are the current standings for each group, throwing out all the matches with Argentina and Brazil

Group A Women (Argentina likely winner)

2) Mexico 1-0-0 2 Points +1 GD
3) Puerto Rico 0-0-0 0 Points 0 GD
4) Chile 0-0-1 0 Points -1 GD

Head to Head Results
Saturday, October 15, Mexico 18, Chile 17
Monday, October 17 Puerto Rico vs Mexico
Wednesday, October 19 Puerto Rico vs Chile

Group B Women (Brazil likely winner)

2) Dominican Republic 0-1-0 1 Point +0 GD
3) Uruguay 0-1-0 1 Point -0 GD
4) USA 0-0-0 0 Points +00 GD

Head to Head Results
Saturday, October 15 Dominican Republic 24, Uruguay 24
Monday, October 17 USA vs Dominican Republic
Wednesday, October 19 USA vs Uruguay
(Note: Due to the Dominican Republic-Uruguay draw, the goal differential in the matches against Brazil could also be important

Group A Men (Brazil likely winner)

2) Chile 1-0-0 2 Points +9 GD
3) Canada 0-0-0 0 Points 0 GD
4) Venezuela 0-0-1 0 Points -9 GD

Head to Head Results
Sunday, October 16, Chile 37, Venezuela 28
Tuesday, October 18 Canada vs Chile
Thursday, October 20 Canada vs Venezuela

Group B Men (Argentina likely winner)

2) Dominican Republic 1-0-0 2 Points +5 GD
3) Mexico 0-0-0 0 Points 0 GD
4) USA 0-0-1 0 Points -5 GD

Head to Head Results
Sunday, October 16, Dominican Republic 27, USA 22
Tuesday, October 18 Mexico vs Dominican Republic
Thursday, October 20 Mexico vs USA

 

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VIDEO: PANAM Games day 1 match highlights

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Mexico celebrates after a key 18-17 victory over Chile

The terra.com platform has two minute highlight videos of all of yesterday’s matches.  Here’s the direct links for Saturday’s games

Group A
Brazil – USA 50-10 http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338686.html
Dominican Republic – Uruguay 24-24 http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338747.html

Group B
Argentina – Puerto Rico 35-26 http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338713.html
Mexico – Chile 18-17 http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338757.html

Mexico scored a penalty shot with 15 seconds to secure the victory over Chile.  This result might very well put Mexico through to the semifinals, although Puerto Rico might have something to say about that.  The Dominican Republic – Uruguay draw assures that every second of their upcoming matches against the USA will be hard fought.  The USA, of course, can still qualify for the semifinals by beating those opponents, but should they slip up and fall behind, the key tiebreaker for a Dominican Republic-Uruguay tie in the standings will be overall goal differential.

The Men’s competition starts today (Sunday, 16 October) and team USA takes on the Dominican Republic at 6:00 PM USA Central Time

 

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AUDIO: Post game interview with US Women’s Coach, Chris Cappelmann

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Brazil scores 1 of their 50 goals in all out blitz of Team USA

Tournament favorite Brazil totally dominated the USA in all phases of the game, enroute to an easy 50-10 victory.  Coach Chris Cappelmann discusses the match and what’s ahead for Team USA at the PANAM Games.

USA Team Handball: USA Women fall to Brazil in opener: Http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/10/15/usa-women-fall-to-brazil-in-opener/45004?ngb_id=42

 

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PANAM Games Open: Online video quality looks promising

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Team USA at the PANAM Games Opening Ceremonies

The PANAM Games have officially started with the traditional opening ceremonies in Guadalajara, Mexico.  The festivities were shown live at www.terra.com and at www.espn3.com .  Several Handball athletes can be seen in the ESPN3 replay:  http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/source/espn3/id/264854/size/condensed/ (Team USA enters the stadium at the 43:15 mark)

The terra.com website claims that they will have 12 channels in operation during the games and I was able to get a pretty decent video stream when sampling the videos they had available on demand. Hopefully, the same quality will be available for the matches

Terra.com on demand videos:  http://deportesmx.terra.com.mx/rumbo-a-2012/videos.html

Canadian Delegation clip: http://deportesmx.terra.com.mx/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338518.html
USA Delegation clip: http://deportesmx.terra.com.mx/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338568.html

The USA women are scheduled to play against tournament favorites Brazil on Saturday, 15 October at 1:00 PM, (Guadalajara Local Time) which is the same as U.S. Central Time.  (This is 7 hours behind for most Europeans.)  If I find a Direct Link, I’ll post it and the USA website has indicated that they plan on having an open webchat running at the same time.

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USA Teams arrive in Guadalajara

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Can Team USA keep a low profile and advance under the radar into the semifinals?

The USA Men and Women have arrived in Guadalajara for the Pan American Games.  I spoke briefly last night with USA Women’s head coach, Chris Cappelmann and he indicated that they’ve been please so far with the welcome and accommodations.  Part of that welcome was an offer to have a friendly scrimmage with the Mexican Women’s team yesterday.  The result was a 21-21 tie, which is a far cry from the results the last time the two teams played back in 2008 at the Pan American Team Handball Federations (PATHF) Div I Championship.   At that event the USA women lost twice to Mexico by scores of 31-23 and 33-14.  There are few holdovers from the USA roster from those defeats, however, and I have no clue as to what changes may have taken place in the Mexican roster as well.

The Women’s Tournament gets underway this Saturday with the USA Women taking on tournament favorite, Brazil in Group play.  Coach Cappelmann indicated that there were some plusses and minuses to playing the tournament favorite.  On the minus side it will be tough to meet the Brazilians in their first fully competitive match.  On the plus side, though, this scheduling will allow them to observe their other group rivals, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay prior to playing them.  The Men won’t have that luxury, though, as straight out of the gate on Sunday, they will have a key match vs the Dominican Republic.  With both sides knowing little about each other, how fast the teams can respond tactically could prove pivotal in that first match

Over the next two weeks, we plan to have several interviews with the Men’s and Women’s team coaches and players.  In particular, we’ll shoot to have audio podcasts of the interviews posted as soon after the match as possible.  For those that can’t wait to get their handball fix, be sure to check out the USA Federation and the Mundo Handball website, which has several articles on all the teams participating in the tournament.

Mundo Handball: http://www.mundohandball.com/

PANAM Games Schedule: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/09/12/pan-american-games-schedule/44549?ngb_id=42

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The numbers look good, but what more is there to it?

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Some time after the IHF Congress a few months ago, an old handball friend congratulated me because he had noted “the tremendous growth in PanAmerican handball”.  I did not quite understand what he was talking about, so he clarified that he heard about the huge number of new IHF member countries from PanAmerica which had been approved by the IHF Congress.  I decided to investigate the good news!

Soon I found that there had indeed been no less than 14 new member countries approved, and that eight of them were from PanAmerica.  But I must admit the list made me puzzled.  Of course, after all my years of involvement in the PanAmerican Team Handball Federation I am aware of the longstanding sense of frustration that handball has not caught on in the majority of the large number of countries in Central America and the Caribbean.  The contrast with football has been obvious and irritating.  I recently saw the list of match-ups in the football World Cup qualifying and I found, for example:  Grenada-Belize, Antigua & Barbuda-Curacao, and Surinam-Cayman Islands, with referees from St. Lucia, Barbados and Dominica. Quite impressive, because it is evidence of serious activity.

And now I found that the eight new IHF member countries were:  Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, and British Virgin Islands.  In other words, a grouping rather similar to that in football.  This sudden development intrigued me, so I spent some time contacting friends from these and neighboring places in the Caribbean.  Essentially, I was met by confused and puzzled responses.   Some helped me find my way to media indications that a handball federation was indeed registered, but virtually nobody managed to point me to any indications of handball activity.

Of course, I am aware that the requirements for establishing a federation are rather modest.  You need to be able to fill out forms explaining the structure of the federation, naming the people running it, accounting for the number of clubs and players (often at the youth level, and sometimes more in beach handball) etc.  And naturally the establishment of a federation is a first step to really make our sport take root, so there is certainly nothing wrong about having a structure in place to spread the word, to recruit players and to try to obtain some financing for a limited level of competition and education.   This is the reality of how to go about spreading our often unknown sport, slowly but surely.

BUT, I am really intrigued about what the plans of the IHF and particularly the PATHF are, now that these eight countries have been added to the membership.  It would have been normal to find some kind of proud media announcement, together with an indication of the general plans to help these countries with some kind of jump start.  After all, they are in a region where travel costs do not match those of Greenland teams going to Chile, and they could even be collaborating with each other in a synergetic effort to create competition and interest.  And both IHF and the PATHF should be able to provide material and teachers at the grassroots level to train players, coaches, referees and administrators.

I am raising the question with some degree of apprehension or even suspicion, because I have experienced in the past that the efforts often have fizzled out, once some brand new federations, without any handball traditions, have been signed up.  The countries have been left to their own devices and one has almost had the impression that it was mainly a ‘numbers game’.  In other words, it looked good to be able to show that the continent’s handball was growing.  And here I am not picking particularly on Panamerica and PATHF;  the trend has been the same everywhere.  Where the suspicions enter the picture is when the time comes for an IHF Congress.  IHF dutifully(?) provides the poor new members with the help they need to attend.  And these new and uninformed members are then in the hands of continental bosses when it comes to understanding how to use voting power, how to be loyal members of the continent, and how to show their gratitude to the existing regime.

So my point is: I wish the eight new member federations every success.  I hope to see them matching the level of activity from football, both at the grassroots level and in regional competition, in a not too distant future.  Indeed, I just regret that this is happening now, after my PATHF involvement is finished, because just perhaps I could have been of some help if it had happened some years ago.  But the progress will clearly not come about with the external support that I mentioned about above.  These federations will need a lot of help, so I hope the IHF and the PATHF will be serious about that this time.  Again, I am looking forward to hearing about the plans for an efficient and sustained effort!

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USA Men’s Team getting ready for PanAm Games

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Adam El-Zoghby fit for fight again

The squad for Guadalajara was announced today, in connection with a presentation and interview opportunity via a conference call.  There were no surprises.  Head coach Darrick Heath noted that all the players he had wanted for the squad were available, except that back-up goalkeeper Ivan Ignjatovic cannot make himself available at the training stage and is now an alternate.  In any case, the limit of 15 players (as compared with 16 for other IHF events) meant that Heath had opted to go with two goalkeepers instead of three.

It is certainly good news that Adam El-Zoghby has been declared fit for fight after his unfortunate injury in the qualifiers against Canada last December.  He will even be able to fit in some games with his Egyptian club team Al Ahly, before it is time to join the squad in the training camp that will precede the travel to Mexico.   This camp will, as in the case of the women, take place in Lake Placid.  It might have been more ideal to have it in Colorado Springs, as preparation for the high altitude in Guadalajara, but apparently handball did not rank high enough to get this wish accommodated by the USOC.

The training camp and the time after arrival in Mexico will not include the opportunity for any practice games.  The focus will be on intra-squad scrimmages.  Coach Heath indicated that he has a pretty clear idea of who will be his starting seven in the PanAm Games.  But he also felt that he now has a lot of players at his disposal with both talent and valuable, continuous match experience from clubs in Europe, so he feels that they will be able to hit the ground running.  He also commented on special efforts to achieve the all-important cohesiveness on the court.  Moreover, film studies of the key opponents from Mexico and the Dominican Republic will constitute a high priority in the preparations.

While it will be tough to match up favorably with perennial powerhouses Argentina and Brazil, both Darrick Heath and USATH General Manager Steve Pastorino viewed it as a realistic goal to fight for the third place.   There is really a whole bunch of teams who see themselves being in contention for that spot, not just because it might be as high as they realistically can hope to climb, but because that third place brings with it the eligibility for the IHF’s qualification tournaments next spring for the final slots in the 2012 Olympics.

Apropos the hypothesis of reaching the third place, Steve Pastorini indicated that while there is no special funding for these qualification tournaments, the money to ensure such participation simply had to be found.  The team members were already substantially out of pocket in connection with the qualification games against Canada and the ‘last chance’ tournament in Guatemala.   While they now have to set aside more than a month for training and for the event in Guadalajara, at least they will have their travel costs and related expenses paid.  (Ed.: The players on the Canadian men’s team are being asked by the Canadian Olympic Committee to pay several thousand dollars each as a contribution to the expenses for their participation in Guadalajara).

When asked to describe the overall financial situation of the USATH at this point, Steve Pastorino used the telling word ‘precarious’.  He noted, without getting into details that, following the recent severe cut-backs in staffing, ‘some of the remaining staff’ were now operating on a volunteer basis.   Contrary to the hope which was expressed previously, that part of the amounts cut in the funding from USOC during 2011 might be restored, Steve suggested that it might instead be more realistic to expect a further cut of 20% in 2012.  The budget submission from the USATH for 2012 is currently being prepared.

Steve Pastorino implied that USOC seemed to want to ‘have it both ways’, by stating that they would insist that funding be used for development and grassroots activities, while at the same time using the lack of results on the part of the national teams as the main rationale for the reductions in funding.  He appeared to suggest that the emphasis on medals as the only thing that matters is just getting stronger.  This dilemma is, of course, not a new one to handball in the U.S.  It remains to be seen how the USATH leadership intends to deal with this situation, presumably in collaboration with its membership.

The link to the USATH press release, including the roster: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/08/17/men-s-national-team-roster-for-pan-american-games/44121?ngb_id=42

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Embarrassing outcome for PanAmerica in Junior Championship

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Iran and Algeria - levels above Canada and Venezuela

For the first time in a World Championship of any category, PanAmerica was entitled to have five participants in the recently concluded Men’s Junior event.  Perhaps some in the PanAmerican Federation felt some pride in this.  But as has typically happened in the past, whenever PanAmerica had more than the automatic allocation of two or three teams, the additional number only served to highlight to the handball world the weaknesses of the PanAmerican continent.

During many years now, we have been used to seeing Argentina and Brazil put in strong, or at least respectable, performances.  But rarely has another team managed to avoid getting a final ranking at the bottom.  This is also what happened to the other three PanAmerican participants.  Only the weakness of the team from Benin saved PanAmerica from occupying the last three places.  Now we saw Chile as 21st, Canada as 22nd and Venezuela as 24th.

 I am not saying that it is a surprise, because I had not expected much better.  The story of Canada’s truly amateur team has been reported here earlier.  And Venezuela had to fill in at the last moment, as a replacement for Uruguay, and their completely inexperienced team had no chance.  But it is really revealing that a continent with more than 30 member federations continues to be in a situation where it does not have more than two teams that are competitive internationally.

And to make it worse this time, Brazil and Argentina had their worst showing in many years.  After Argentina’s strong performance in the senior World Championship earlier this year, it is a bit surprising, and worrisome for the future, if the ‘under-21’ team cannot do better than a 20th place, ranking behind teams such as Iran, Algeria and Qatar.  Brazil managed to qualify for the 1/8-finals but finished in a modest 11th place.  By contrast, Tunisia and Egypt qualified for the bronze medal game, where the Tunisians turned out to be the strongest.

Clearly it is a disadvantage for most countries in PanAmerica that the caliber of play at the national level is too weak to provide strong development opportunities for the younger talents.  And the opportunities for continental events are very infrequent, moreover with the typical scenario of Argentina and Brazil being superior and the remaining teams finding it difficult to gain much useful experience.   Regrettably, it is going to be a very slow process before any change can be seen in this situation.  

The young European players have a much more favorable situation, both nationally and at the continental level.  The European Championships and qualifying events in the junior and youth categories are grueling and constitute a tough and beneficial preparation for those who qualify for a World Championship.  A wild idea would be to try to put together some kind of ‘non-European’ championship for the top 4-5 countries from each continent to gain some similar experience.  

However, when one sees the success of Tunisia and Egypt this time, these other continents may see little merit in such an idea, which in any event would be difficult to finance (although of course it would deserve the support of the IHF).  The North African countries and the Gulf States have an advantage financially, and they also have a closer proximity to Europe with better opportunities to develop players and team through more frequent interaction with the Europeans.  The risk is that PanAmerica will gradually fall further behind.