Your independent news and commentary outlet for the Olympic sport of Team Handball
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Game MVP, Abou Fofana and MVG, Rene Ingram. (Also pictured, award presenters USATH CEO Mike Cavanagh and Mexican Handball President Mario Garcia Del Torre)
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The Canadian Men have been solid consistent performers for the past 6 months. Will that be enough to beat a new look U.S. team?
The USA and Canadian Men will face off against each other in a 2 game series this Sunday in Auburn, AL and Wednesday in Montreal to determine the North American qualifier for the PANAM Games next summer in Lima, Peru.
Unlike the Women, The USA and Canadian Men have played each other recently. Just this past April, Canada beat the U.S. Men 33-31 at the North American & Caribbean Championships. And, this was an important match in which a U.S. victory might have led to the U.S. Men qualifying for the Pan American Championships. While a close match the Canadian Men clearly were a better side that day and consistently a better side throughout that tournament. They rightly earned qualification to the Pan American Championships that were held in Greenland this past June.
At that tournament, Canada continued their steady, consistent play. They were not competitive against Brazil (42-13) and were soundly beaten by Greenland (32-20), but they finished up strong in the consolation rounds beating Puerto Rico and avenging an earlier defeat against Uruguay to finish in 5th place. They may not be the most athletic team, but they play smart and find a way to beat teams on their level. Not surprisingly, Coach Alexis Bertrand, has kept his roster almost entirely intact, with virtually an identical roster from the two tournaments played earlier this year.
With the U.S. Men, it’s a dramatically different tale to tell. The U.S. has a new coach, Robert Hedin, and a dramatically different roster with only 6 players returning from the NORCA Tournament. National Team mainstay, Gary Hines, has returned and several dual citizens, mostly playing in Europe will make their U.S. Sr Team debut. Some have previously played for the U.S. in Jr team competitions and have shown promise in those events. Adam El Zoghby also returns after a long spell and the U.S. has added a totally new face in 21 year old Ian Huter who plays for Dormagen in the German Bundesliga 2nd Division.
It’s hard to say who exactly will play the bulk of the minutes for Coach Hedin, but it won’t surprise me a bit if he leans heavily on the new dual citizens and Gary Hines. And, based on the individual pedigrees of all these players, in theory, overnight, the U.S. has a more talented and athletic team than Canada. Key words: “in theory.” Why? Well, because it’s not always easy to integrate individual talents into a cohesive team. It takes time to accomplish that task. And, time has run out for this “new look” U.S. team. They’ve had limited time to prepare, limited time to practice, and only a few friendly matches under their belt. None of which were played with the full roster.
Meanwhile the Canadians have played two important qualification tournaments in the last 6 months. They are as ready to play at their maximum potential as they probably could be. They know their teammates, their strengths, their weaknesses. They know that “so and so” likes his pass “right here” on the wing. And, when if the left back starts his move, the circle runner knows exactly where to go to get the entry pass. They are a solid “team”. Not flashy, but solid. Based on their recent performances they are very unlikely to beat themselves. Indeed, they’ve shown quite the knack of finding a way to win the close games at crunch time.
So, what we have are a lot of unanswered questions:
I could go on, but you get the picture. Lots of burning questions to be answered. And, the answers to these questions may change over the course of 120 minutes making the aggregate winner of this border war showdown all the more interesting.
USA – Canada PANAM Games Qualification Schedule
Sunday, 2 September at Auburn
USA – Canada (Women) 3:00 PM (Central Time)
USA – Canada (Men) 5:00 PM (Central Time)
Wednesday, 5 September at Montreal
USA – Canada (Women) 7:00 PM (Eastern Time)
USA – Canada (Men) 9:00 PM (Eastern Time)
All 4 matches will be live streamed.
Live stream for matches at Auburn: Link
Live stream for matches at Montreal: (Link to be added when available)
I will be on the ground, both in Auburn and Montreal, with interviews, stories and some tweets during the match. You can follow me here: https://twitter.com/TeamHandball
The USA Men and Women will take on their Canadian rivals this Sunday and Wednesday. If you’re watching and being entertained then perhaps you should consider a small donation to defray player travel costs. Just sayin…
Most likely you’ve seen many online pleas for money. Support this, support that. My favorite is the college kid who held up a “Send Beer Money” sign behind the ESPN College Game Day hosts. And, the crazy thing is that it worked! This guy actually got total strangers to send him money. Crazy, but ingenious.
And, of course, I’ve seen many pleas for support to handball causes, particularly national team travel. While my love for the sport of handball and Team USA is pretty high I’ve always been reluctant to contribute to to these campaigns for a number of reasons. Those reasons:
1) Rewarding the Budget Shell Game. Back in 2011 USA Team Handball found itself short of cash for upcoming national team trips. In this commentary, I highlighted what can be called a “Budget Shell Game.” Essentially, this trick involves first spending all or most of your money on several items that might not be very popular and then playing the pauper, holding your hand out for critical needs that now can’t be paid. Our Congress uses this trick all the time. I was a party to it during my Air Force days arguing for budget support. “Cut something the Fighter Pilots really want and then we will get more money.” And, USA Team Handball, intentionally or not, sure was guilty of it back in 2011. The U.S. is really strapped for money now, so if similar machinations are going on now they are on a far smaller scale. Still, there’s a budget. Could more money have been found to support National Team travel? Could something else had been sacrificed? There’s no way of really knowing for sure and the details behind such decisions, but make no mistake, such decisions are made. And, I don’t care how tight money is, it just doesn’t seem right that travel can’t be funded by the federation and that pleas have to be made by the players. It’s annoying, but it can be effective. I complained back in 2011, but I still made a contribution for travel support.
2) Setting a Continuous Expectation? Further complicating things are the moral questions that play out when you help the homeless guy on the street. If you give him a buck once, why don’t you give him a buck every time you see him? Are you helping that guy out or enabling and encouraging him to ask for even more handouts? And, what about the other guy down the street? Shouldn’t he get a buck, too? And, why just 1 buck? Why not a 20 spot? All of these questions apply with handball fundraisers. The U.S. has multiple teams and those teams make multiple trips. Should one contribute to these equally and will these requests ever stop? As someone who never had to pay for his national team travel I feel a bit conflicted. On one hand, shouldn’t I help out those making similar sacrifices who are less fortunate than I was? But, on the other hand am I setting a precedent here? That this is the new way of doing business and I should just get used to it?
3) Other Handball Needs are More Deserving. Another conflict I often have is a reflection as to what our sport really needs if it’s ever going to succeed in this country. As much as I love cheering on Team USA it’s pretty clear to me that youth development, college development and other efforts to broaden our player and fan base are more important in the long term. In the big scheme of things near term National Team performance won’t make much of a dent, especially with the ultimate goal of Olympic qualification being a real longshot. Hence annual contributions to Air Force handball and youth programs have gotten priority.
4) Other Non-Handball Related Charities are Altruistically More Deserving. It goes without saying that the world has a lot of needs. Yeah, it’s hard to rationalize that flying some athlete to Montreal for a handball match is more important than say giving to a wounded warrior fund or helping starving kids somewhere. And, 100% selfishly, my daughters’ college funds.
I’m not sure I’ve resolved my feelings regarding these internal conflicts, but I’ve made a donation to the men’s and women’s online campaign for the upcoming PANAM Games qualifiers. Why these campaigns and not others? I guess I personally really put a premium on matches that are part of Olympic Qualification. Plus, I’m attending them, so that’s a further point suggesting a contribution. I am being entertained. I really am getting something transactional.
And, I would suggest that if you’re planning on spending about 8 hours watching the online streams for those 4 matches then maybe that ought to tip the scales for your contribution as well. How much do you pay for Netflix or Hulu or to go to a movie?
Just saying… I really hate people bugging me for money. (And, wow, I just became one of those people.)
You can contribute at the following websites:
USA Men: Link
USA Women: Link
Can this motivated, but relatively inexperienced Canadian side match up with a USA “Road Warriors” team?
The USA and Canadian Women will face off against each other in a 2 game series this Sunday in Auburn, AL and Wednesday in Montreal to determine the North American qualifier for the PANAM Games next summer in Lima, Peru.
Based on recent friendly competition results the USA Women would seem to be solid favorites to come out on top. This is not so much because they have had better results than their Canadian rivals (although, they have), but because they’ve been able to play dozens of games together as a team in the past year. Really, you would be hard pressed to find any team in the world that’s travelled more than the U.S. Women in the past year or so. They’ve been to South Korea (August 2017), France (Dec 2017), Italy (March 2018), South Korea again (June 2018), and one last whirlwind European tour in July with stops in Germany, Hungary and France. Incredibly, the USA Women have probably played more games together as a unit than any other national team in the world. And, all done with a non-existent travel budget. Of course, all those games are friendlies. Rosters have changed from trip to trip. But, still… This is a team that’s played together… a lot.
Meanwhile, the Canadian team is a bit of a mystery. While the U.S. Women played in the North American & Caribbean Championships and the Pan American Championships in both 2015 and 2017, the Canadian Women stayed home. In fact, their only official competition of recent note is their 7th place (out of 8) finish at the 2015 PANAM Games which they automatically qualified for as hosts. And, only 6 athletes who played in that tournament are on the latest roster. Further, half the team (8 of 16 players) will be making their international debut on Sunday. The roster in total has played 83 International Games while the U.S. Women have a few players that may have well played more international matches on an individual level.
The Canadian women have had teams travel to Europe for competition and recently they played 4 matches against club teams in France, winning 3 and losing 1. But, the three wins were against lower level amateur sides and the 34-22 loss was to a club team still playing at a lower level than the sides that the U.S. faced in France just a week earlier. And, while the U.S. struggled at times against the higher French level teams they were competitive even picking up a few wins. Again, with friendly matches, roster experimentation, team fatigue, etc, it’s difficult to draw too many conclusions, especially when you haven’t even seen one of the teams (Canada) play. Still, one can infer that the U.S. is on paper a better, more experienced team.
But, the actual games will be played on the court. And, the Canadians as a mystery team may be able to surprise. Key to the match could be defense. The U.S. has had solid goal tending and have at times in the past year shut down opposing teams for large blocks of time. If the U.S can do that, they could build a sizable lead that they can take with them to Canada on the return leg.
Sight unseen, I suspect the Canadians will not want to get into a half court battle. They may well try to up the tempo of the game with the hope of scoring on fast breaks. And, with a faster paced game they might also force the U.S. to play some of their less experience reserves more than they would like to.
Historical Note: Best that I can tell this will be the first non-friendly matches between the U.S and Canadian Women since the 2010 PANAM Qualification matches played in 2010. Those matches had a bit of a twist to them with the U.S. losing the first leg in Lake Placid 23-18, but then winning the second leg in Canada 26-21. This resulted in a 44-44 tie on aggregate, but the U.S. won the 2 game series since they scored more goals in their away match.
2010 Match write up: Link
So buckle up and throw out the analysis. When the U.S. plays Canada you never really know what’s going to happen
USA – Canada PANAM Games Qualification Schedule
Sunday, 2 September at Auburn
USA – Canada (Women) 3:00 PM (Central Time)
USA – Canada (Men) 5:00 PM (Central Time)
Wednesday, 5 September at Montreal
USA – Canada (Women) 7:00 PM (Eastern Time)
USA – Canada (Men) 9:00 PM (Eastern Time)
I will be on the ground, both in Auburn and Montreal, with interviews and stories. All 4 matches reportedly will be live streamed.
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USA Men’s National Team Coach, Robert Hedin
USA Team Handball Men’s National Team Coach, Robert Hedin, joins the podcast to to discuss his first impressions of his new assignment. In the last month he’s conducted training camps at Auburn and in Dormagen, Germany. We review both camps and the roster that’s been selected for the upcoming PANAM Games qualification matches vs Canada. It’s definitely a new look USA roster with only 5 players returning from the the roster that lost to Canada 33-11 earlier this year at the NORCA Championship.
USA Team Handball article on training camp in Germany: Link
USA Men’s National Team roster for upcoming matches vs Canada: Link
USA – Canada PANAM Games Qualification Schedule
Sunday, 2 September at Auburn
USA – Canada (Women) 3:00 PM (Central Time)
USA – Canada (Men) 5:00 PM (Central Time)
Wednesday, 5 September at Montreal
USA – Canada (Women) 7:00 PM (Eastern Time)
USA – Canada (Men) 9:00 PM (Eastern Time)
Both the Men and Women will play a two game series with the winner advancing based on aggregate goals for both matches. The loser will have an opportunity to qualify via a second chance tourney.
Men’s 2nd Chance Tourney: Chile, Dominican Republic, Colombia and USA/Canada loser
Women’s 2nd Chance Tourney: Chile, Mexico, Guatemala and USA/Canada loser
A collegiate final four in the future. A U.S. National Team competing in a French league. A bigger push towards television. There’s a lot to like in USA Team Handball’s 1st ever strategic plan.
This past week USA Team Handball unveiled a Strategic Plan which outlines organizational plans for the next 10 years leading up to the 2028 Olympics.
USA Team Handball article unveiling the Strategic Plan: Link
USA Team Handball Strategic Plan: Link
The plan covers a lot of ground, but here are the four main focus areas:
Organizational Development: This area outlines the need for reconstituting the Board of Directors and increasing the size of the administrative staff. The reconstitution of the Board has already started with 3 new board members (Randy Dean, Dee Miller, and Dave Buckman) recently being added to the Board. Administrative staff positions have also been identified with plans to hire a CEO later this year and a Digital Media specialist and Technical Director next year. Current CEO, Mike Cavanaugh will apparently be reassigned to a new Director of Operation position.
Fundraising: This focus area places additional emphasis on the need for improved fundraising with the hiring of a CEO with fundraising expertise, the need to develop fundraising acumen of the Board of Directors, the development of long term strategy for fundraising and to better engage national team alumni
Marketing and Digital Communication: This area will seek to improved USA Team Handball’s online presence and to better link marketing efforts with fundraising and sponsorship.
Operational and Competitive Excellence: For most long time followers of the sport this section contains the meat and potatoes initiatives that will seek to improve national team performance and club competitions. One key initiative will expand the college game and introduce a season ending Final Four Event. Another initiative will be to improve national team performance through the placement of a U.S. team in a French handball league for regular competition.
Commentary: Even occasional readers to this website have probably seen me link to this May 5th, 2013 commentary advocating the need for USA Team Handball strategic planning on more than one occasion. Yes, back in 2012 there was a similar effort that stopped prematurely for reasons that have never been explained.
The need for a strategic plan has been my personal mantra. A vital first step sorely needed to turn things around and for 6 years I expressed this to virtually everyone in a leadership role. For sure, I would have like to have seen this process start back up a whole lot sooner, but really, it’s time to just move forward and be glad it’s finally been done.
I also played a small role in the plan’s development with my attendance at one of the planning meetings. I had the opportunity to share my views and influence the final outcome. Do I think the “change agent” who advocated such an effort for so many years should have been more directly involved in the document’s drafting? Yes, for sure, but really, it’s time to just move forward and be glad it’s finally been done.
But, in effect, even if I was just peripherally involved one doesn’t have to peruse this section on the website very long to see that many elements of what I’ve been advocating have found their way into the strategic plan. Collegiate focus? An overseas residency? More focus in efforts to get the sport on TV? What’s next? A rethinking of our stateside residency program? Really, maybe, I should pinch myself. There’s a lot to like in this plan.
Do I agree with everything? No. I think it is a bit too solution specific in a few areas. In a sense more “tactical” than “strategic” with strawman action plans that probably could stand more vetting and further assessment. A bit more weighing of all the possible tactical options that might a particular strategic goal before identifying a specific solution. One specific example: I would suggest that Denmark, Germany and Eastern Europe are possible candidates for a European residency effort in addition to France. And, that a tactical assessment should be left to the new staff to present to the Board for decision at a later date.
Of course, it’s always a debate as to how tactical a strategic plan should get. I think it goes too far in some areas. Others probably want everything spelled out in detail. Reasonable people can disagree.
There are several other areas that I could nitpick over. Some of the Appendix A financial goals are very optimistic projections. (Well, optimistic when compared contextually to other USA team sport federations with 50-100 fold larger fan and membership bases). Youth development goals are not well defined. The strategic vision of how the U.S. goes in 10 years time to a top 6 team needs a lot more definition…
I could go on, but as I wrote back in 2013 it’s very easy to critique just about any plan. But, it’s less easy to critique a plan developed through a structured process. And, while I would have like to have seen this effort involve more people and a formal review process, I won’t complain too much.
It’s time to just move forward and be glad it’s finally been done.
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USA Men’s Beach Handball Coach, Michael Hinson discusses the recent Beach Handball World Championships, some of the differences between the beach and court game, upcoming major tournaments in the U.S., and the future of the game as a potential Olympic sport.
Men’s World Championships Results: Link
Women’s World Championships Results: Link
Video highlights of the Russia-USA Match: Link
Commentary regarding the underlying math that might preclude Beach Handball from becoming an Olympic Sport: Link
Abou Fofana on attack vs Bergischer HC in Germany
The U.S. Men’s National Team is currently in Dormagen, Germany for a training camp in preparation for the upcoming PANAM Games qualification series vs Canada in September. New head coach, Robert Hedin, and Asst Coach Mark Ortega have called up a mix of stateside and European based players. Notably present is veteran Gary Hines who plays for HSC Bad Neustadt in Germany and Javier Coba Galindo who plays for Sant Marti-Adrianec in Spain. Also attending are Antoine Baup, Paul Skorupa, Abou Fofana and Rene Ingram who have represented the U.S. in Junior and Youth competitions.
The U.S. has played 2 matches so far. On Saturday they lost to GWD Minden’s 2nd team, 41-19 and on Tuesday they were beaten by 1st division Bundesliga side Bergischer HC 40-18. They will play a Dormagen side tonight that will include players from their 1st team and 2nd team. On Thursday and Friday, the U.S. will play TV Ratingen and TSV Vellmar. Those two clubs are lower division sides and will likely result in more competitive matches.
Also of note, the U.S. coaching staff met with Domagoj Srsen who recently signed with Hannover. Srsen, 27, previously played for the U.S. at the 2011 PANAM Games and to the best of my knowledge this season will become the first American to play in the German Bundesliga. Srsen expressed commitment to the American program, but will be unavailable for matches outside of the international windows in the Bundesliga schedule.
Photos from GWD Minden match: Link
Photos and report from Bergischer HC match: Link
New USA Men’s National Team Coach, Robert Hedin
USA Team Handball has announced that Robert Hedin has been hired as the interim coach for the U.S. Men’s national team. His assignment will run through the upcoming PANAM Games qualification matches vs Canada on 2 September (Auburn) and 5 September (Montreal).
Hedin, 52, is a native of Sweden, and is currently the club manager at St Hallvard, a suburb of Oslo, Norway. Hedin has extensive experience, both as a player and coach. His playing career includes two Olympic silver medals at the 92 and 96 Olympics and his club career included stints in Spain, Germany and Switzerland.
His most notable coaching assignment was as Norway’s head coach from 2008-2014. Club coaching assignments include Melsungen in Germany, Aalborg in Denmark and most recently Bregenz in Austria. At the end of the 2016-17 season he reportedly moved back to Norway at least in part to facilitate his wife’s career as a screenwriter
Commentary: This is a great hire for USA Team Handball. While it is only a temporary assignment Hedin will have the opportunity to show what he can do as coach in the 2 game series against Canada. Canada beat the U.S. 33-31 in April and gained some valuable experience with their 5th place showing at the Pan American Championships in June, but they are clearly beatable. In my opinion, success will hinge on selecting the right players and then getting them to gel as a team in a short period of time. This may be a far cry from the sort of coaching challenges a coach faces in a more structured European environment, but it is the sort of challenge an American coach often faces.
Coach Hedin will get his first opportunity to evaluate some of his players in two weeks with a tryout scheduled at Auburn on 22 July. It will be interesting to see what players there garner his interest as well as which dual citizens ultimately make the roster for the clashes vs Canada. And, then ultimately how well the team performs in the critical 2 game series in September.
A win on aggregate will directly qualify the U.S. for the 2019 PANAM Games. A loss will result in the U.S. playing in a 2nd chance tournament against a stronger Chile team from South America and 2 TBD teams from Central American & Caribbean.
Qualifying for the PANAM Games also might lead to some talk of erasing the “interim” from Hedin’s Head Coaching title. But, should that happen a whole host of other issues would have to be addressed to include salary and job responsibilities. For instance, would a permanent head coach take on recruiting and player development challenges that are unique to the U.S.
A soccer podcast series for handball fans
It’s the dog days of summer and the sport viewing options are limited, so I’ve been watching the Soccer World Cup. Well, sort of watching, anyway. The U.S. didn’t qualify, so I’ve got no one to cheer for and I really don’t get the game. This means that I fast forward until I see a goal has been scored and I rewind to watch how it unfolded. That 3-5 minutes is kind of interesting. Better than all the kicking the ball back and forth at midfield. Occasionally, if there’s a big upset brewing I’ll watch a bit more, but it’s a chore. Yeah, I’m an old school American and I just don’t get it. I just don’t understand how this is the world’s most popular sport and I never will.
But, that being said I’ve got a little appreciation for the sport and I can watch an entire match when the U.S. plays in the World Cup. It’s fun to watch the underdog Americans and I’ve always seen soccer as a model for what handball could be in the U.S. An imperfect model for sure, but a model nonetheless.
Recently, I binged listened to a 12 episode podcast series that brought back a lot of soccer memories that I had forgotten. This unlikely bingeworthy podcast series, “American Fiasco” chronicles the USA Men’s National team that finished dead last at the 1998 World Cup. At first glance this probably seems like the most unworthy story to ever listen to, but I thoroughly enjoyed it for a number of reasons.
Those reasons:
1) The narrator, Roger Bennett, from ESPN’s Men in Blazers tells a damn good story with great interviews. This transplanted American Brit is just fun to listen to. Even if you hate soccer, which I essentially do.
2) In chronicling the 1998 team, it also tells the story of soccer’s growth in the U.S. The first few episodes, in particular, really captures what a waste land soccer in the U.S. was and how it has become “something” in the U.S. It sure gives you some perspective of how far the sport has come in the U.S. and what handball would like to achieve in the U.S.
3) The story is a compelling portrait of team dynamics. Anyone who has ever been part of a National Team will appreciate the interactions between the players and coach and the ensuing personality conflicts that ensue.
If you don’t have time for all 12 episodes I suggest that you listen to the first episode and the bonus episode with Dan “Big Cat” Katz, who hosts one of the top sports podcasts in the U.S., “Pardon My Take” at Barstool Sports. In that bonus episode Big Cat and Roger Bennett discuss what it will take for the typical American to become a true soccer fan. Incidentally, Big Cat tweeted the following to his 602K followers during the 2016 Olympics”
“Team Handball is awesome. Need this as a televised American sport in July”
So his perspective on soccer as the prototypical American sports fan is an interesting take. One that surely resonates with the American handball fan who sees soccer’s growth and wonders, “Why not handball?”
A last personal note: Bizarrely, like Roger Bennett, I can often chronicle where I was during World Cup years. Bizarre, in that I am by no means a soccer fan. For instance, when Iran beat the U.S. 2-1 to eliminate any chance the U.S. had to make the knockout stages in 1998 I clearly remember being in Brussels, Belgium for a briefing at NATO HQ. How could I possibly forget the celebrations that erupted in the streets and thinking to myself, “C’mon. We suck at soccer so why are you celebrating our defeat? And, really, you like Iran better than the U.S.?”
Here’s hoping that someday a U.S. handball defeat strikes a similar chord. If that indeed happens, we will know for sure that we’ve arrived.