Sweden World Champions in Women’s Youth

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In women’s championships it is often a battle between Denmark and Norway, whereas the Swedish successes over the years have come on the men’s side. In fact, Sweden has never before won a medal of any kind in any international championship for women. But Thursday evening in Santo Domingo this trend was broken. Sweden managed to beat Norway in the final, 34-29.

It may seem as if it was a relatively close game, but in fact Sweden followed its pattern of having a long stretch in almost every match where they simply pulled away from the opponents. It was 6-4 after 15 minutes but suddenly 17-10 at half-time and 20-10 early in the second half. Thereafter the Norwegians managed to move gradually closer, but the Swedish victory never seemed threatened.

Sweden had been impressive throughout, having defeated the group rivals France (who finished fourth) by 31-18 and then taking a 22-13 half-time lead against Hungary. The quarter-final was the only tough game, where Spain took Sweden to overtime, but the Swedish girls prevailed 24-22. Then in the semi-final it was back to a big win, as the bronze medal team from the Netherlands was swept aside, 38-21.

The final rankings include one disappointing feature. The best non-European team was the home team from the Dominican Republic in 8th place, after an unexpectedly strong showing, but partly thanks to a favorable draw. The normal top teams from outside Europe here came in 9th (Korea), 10th (Angola) and 13th (Brazil). This is not a very promising outcome if one has the hope that the ‘non-Europeans’ might gradually catch up with the traditional powers from Europe. The only non-traditional participation at the end was that of the Iranian referees Mousavian/Taghavi in the final.

IHF invites representatives for European top men's clubs

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Following the recent 'ground-breaking' meeting between the EHF and the new entity representing the European top men's clubs, Forum for Club Handball (FCH) https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.1039 , there was a clear expectation that it would become untenable for the IHF to refuse to formally invite the FCH (and the original, more narrow grouping, GCH) to relevant meetings. And now it has been announced that for a meeting on September 17 regarding issues such as the competition calendar and the compensation to clubs, the FCH President Tomaz Jersic and the GCH President Joan Marin have indeed been invited. This is a major step forward, albeit belatedly.

At the same time it is also becoming clear that the professional handball players in Germany will finally follow the example of their colleagues in several other countries; in the next couple of weeks, they will be founding a German Handball Players' Union. As noted by Jaume Fort, Head of the European Handball Players' Union, the inclusion of the German players is obviously an important development in the efforts to gain recognition for the players as a full partner in all discussions concerning their situation, such as precisely on the issue of the competition calendar. One can only hope that this will soon become a natural occurrence.

Cuba's request for 'back door entry' to the PanAmerican Games denied by the PATHF Executive

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A couple of weeks ago, apropos the final results of the Central/Caribbean Games in Mayaguez, I mentioned a 'rumor' that Cuba (who had failed to participate in that event) would seek the privilege of participating in the 'final chance' competition for the one remaining slot in each of the men's and women's events in the PanAmerican Games next year. It did turn out that Cuba indeed made such a request, but it has now been confirmed that the Executive Committe of the PanAmerican Federation turned it down.

As I noted, this was of course the only reasonable outcome; anything else would have been a shameful manipulation and a great unfairness to the other teams who are eligible to participate in the 'final chance' event. These teams have expended money and efforts to participate in regional events in order to have this final chance, and it would have been highly improper to see another team 'entering through the back door', without having made the effort to go through the same qualifying process as the others.

There are some suggestions that the Cubans tried to use the argument that they had not been able to obtain U.S. visas to participate in the Central/Caribbean Games. It seems that one needs to be careful with such assertions, as such claims can easily be investigated. Instead one could imagine several other reasons for the Cuban absence in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, but I will not enter into such speculation here. The main thing is that the PATHF took the right decision, and they should be congratulated.

So what now remains is to see which teams will qualify directly from the USA-Canada matches (both men and women) for the PanAmerican Games in Guadalajara October 2011, and which teams will have to participate in the 'final chance' events. joining the men from Uruguay, Puerto Rico and Guatemala, and the women from Chile, Costa Rica and El Salvador, respectively, And then will come the important decision about which countries will gain the advantage of hosting these events. This will be determined following the USA-Canada matches in late December or early January.

Editor's Note: Christer may have chosen not to speculate, but it should be noted that any Cuban who steps on American soil is granted residency in the U.S. with no questions asked. Even without the political dimension of defection this is a very tempting economic opportunity. Also, while Puerto Rico has it's own national teams and other aspects of an independent nation, it is still part of the United States.

Favorites prevailing in Youth World Championship

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The Women's Youth Championship is today moving into the final stage after the group play that started in the Dominican Republic a week ago. The event has been characterized by logistical problems but on the courts everything has looked normal in most respects. This includes the results so far.

From group A we saw Netherlands and Denmark move on to today's quarterfinals; while this was not so unexpected, perhaps it could be seen as a small surprise that the Netherlands won the group. (In combination with their strong showing in the Junior World Championship last month, it seems to suggest that the Netherlands has a new strong generation coming along on the women's side). Most observers will be confounded by the weak performance of the German team.

In the neighboring group, Norway did not meet much resistance until they played the host team from the Dominican Republic in the last match of the group play. So my prediction that the favorable seeding and draw of the host country team would see them through to the quarterfinals came true. Denmark and Norway are now playing in an intriguing quarterfinal match-up today. Netherland takes on the Dominican Republic.

In group B, Uruguay got the third place and next play Angola, even if up to the last minute the IHF seemed to misinterpret its own regulations and give that spot to Japan… German media were already discussing the suggested Germany-Uruguay match-up, which now correctly turns into a Germany-Japan pairing in the quest for 13th place.

Sweden was unexpectedly superior in group C, where it came down to the wire between France and Hungary for the other quarterfinal spot. Their game on the final day ended in a tie, with France moving on thanks to a better overall goal difference. In group C, the strongest one on paper, my suspicions were confirmed. Korea and Brazil tend to have to defend the honor of the non-Europeans in all women's events, but here they were unable to keep up with Russia and Spain.

So we now have interesting quarterfinals between Sweden and Spain, and between Russia and France, The perennial women's 'super powers' Korea and Hungary have to be content with fighting it out for 9th place. You can follow the results through the IHF web site: http://www.ihf.info/IHFCompetitions/WorldChampionships/WomensYouthWorldChampionships/WomensYouthWorldChampionship2010/FixturesandResults/tabid/5094/Default.aspx

IHF Junior and Youth Tournaments: What are the U.S. plans?

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In the Dominican Republic, about a 2 hour flight from Miami, the International Handball Federation (IHF) Youth World Championships are currently taking place. 19 nations from around the world and hundreds of athletes, 18 years old or younger, are participating in this event. The U.S. is not there as no team was sent to the earlier qualifying events for this hemisphere.

The decision not to compete is nothing new as U.S. participation in age based IHF tournaments has historically been sporadic and infrequent. There are a number of reasons why this has been the case, but I’ll briefly highlight 3 primary factors:

1) Cost: Not only can it be expensive to simply send a team to the actual championships, the costs for qualifying events also have to be factored in. And this could be 2 qualifying tournaments if the U.S. has to first play in a Div 1 event prior to the Pan American Championships. And if you want to prepare for these events in a meaningful way there will also be costs for team tryouts and training camps
2) Scheduling/Calendar: The IHF championships are in the summer, but the Pan American Championships qualifying events take place during the school year. Inevitably, this will mean that some High School and Collegiate athletes won’t be able to make these events.
3) Insufficient talent pool: Historically, most U.S. athletes have been introduced to the sport in their late teens and early 20’s. This means that there have been very few athletes to choose from for these events and that they were very inexperienced in relation to the other nations participating.

But, this is past history. Is there any reason to think that plans might change? Certainly, the Federation’s youth focus would seem to indicate that it is at least being considered. A youth team recently travelled to participate in the annual tournament in Partille, Sweden and the Futures High School program has been given a lot of emphasis by the Federation. Factor in the decision not to fund participation in upcoming Men’s and Women’s Senior events and one conclude that perhaps resources are being channeled in this direction. Not much can be done considering calendar issues, but the U.S. is working to broaden the talent pool. One could at least envision a high school all star team comprised of athletes who are currently playing in the futures program or have traveled to events like the Partille Cup.

So, are Youth and Junior Championships part of the Federation’s plans? So far there have been no official pronouncements and if all you did was check the U.S. website you probably wouldn’t know that these events even existed. Last May, I submitted a series of questions to the Federation seeking information concerning their future plans across the board and specifically what the plans were for participating in future PATHF and IHF events. I’m still waiting, but barring answers, perspective players can still look at the calendar and work backwards.

The IHF has settled into a routine for the Youth and Junior Championships. The Women’s events take place in even years (2010, 2012, etc) and the Men’s events take place in odd years (2009, 2011, etc). The PATHF webpage indicates that the Men’s Div 1 Junior Championships will take place this October in Venezuela. As this is around the corner, it’s probably pretty unlikely the U.S. will attempt to qualify. In terms of Youth Qualifying events nothing is listed for Div 1, so it may be that there are only enough nations for a championship in the April time. Bottom line, though is that it looks like time is running short for 2011. Perhaps 2012 will be the first time the U.S. will make a run at qualifying.

For more information on the ages for youth and junior tournaments check out our new qualification page in the links on the right side of our homepage: https://teamhandballnews.com/page38.html

IHF 2010 Youth Championships: http://www.ihf.info/IHFCompetitions/WorldChampionships/WomensYouthWorldChampionships/WomensYouthWorldChampionship2010/tabid/5092/Default.aspx
PATHF Women’s Youth Championships Results (April 2010): http://www.panamhandball.org/index.php?option=com_joomleague&func=showPlan&mode=1&p=13&Itemid=30
THN Commentary (26 Nov 09): Another PATHF Tournament in Costa Rica: Where are the Americans?: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.888

Handball on TV in the U.S: One last chance

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Most Comcast regional networks in the U.S. have already aired the matches from Chicago, but there still is one last chance to see the matches on TV. The Mtn. Network (aka, the Mountain) will broadcast both matches late Sunday night/early Monday morning (depending on where you live in the U.S). The Mtn. is available in most markets where this is a Mountain West Conference (MWC) collegiate team and is available nationwide on Direct TV, Channel #616.

USA Vs. LA 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM (Pacific Coast)
Germany vs. Poland 10:00 PM – 11:30 PM (Pacific Coast)

IHF website upgrade includes useful video analysis and nonsensical national rankings

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Last October, I was flabbergasted by the International Handball Federation (IHF) going an incredible 42 days without an update to their webpage. The IHF took a lot of criticism, but made a commitment and signed a contract for a much needed web update. Last month the IHF unveiled this much needed new look. Without question it’s a significant improvement on the old site in terms of style and aesthetics even if it is mostly a repackaging of the same information.

But in at least one area (Video analysis) the IHF deserves credit for providing handball followers new and useful information. At the recently completed Women’s Junior World Championship several short videos analyzing play are now available for download. The videos are edited with captions and use slow-motion to highlight strategy and techniques used during the tournament. While these videos are not the quality of a “Sports Center” breakdown they are pretty decent and should be informative for coaches and players. The videos also are a little hard to find, so follow the links at the bottom.

But, while I find the videos a nice addition I can’t help but be amused and perplexed by the national team rankings prominently displayed on the homepage. The methodology for these rankings are not explained and most visitors would probably assume that it is a rough measure of how National Teams currently stand performance wise perhaps using some weighted formula taking into account recent competitions. But, as the French Men’s team, currently in the midst of one of the more dominating runs in the history of the sport is listed as the 6th best Men’s side that’s obviously not the case. No instead, it appears to be a compendium of historical performance which even includes the 11 a side outdoor game played at the 1936 Olympics.

I suppose this is mildly interesting, but it would have been much better to have come up with a ranking system that’s focused on recent performance. Other sports, such as soccer and rugby have been using rankings like this for years. While the formulas used for those sports have also resulted in questionable rankings, they usually have been in the ballpark and are a useful marker for nations to assess where they stand compared to their peers. Hopefully, the IHF will rethink the rankings and come up with a new system to reflect this.

THN Commentary (1 Oct 09): 42 Days and Counting: IHF misses the boat on self promotion and new media
https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.836
THN Commentary (21 Oct 09): IHF to seek more progressive web presence: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.852

IHF Home page: www.ihf.info
IHF: IHF website offers new content and new design: http://www.ihf.info/TheIHF/Organization/President/Wordfromthepresident/tabid/1719/Default.aspx
IHF Women’s WC Analysis (Article): http://www.ihf.info/MediaCenter/News/NewsDetails/tabid/130/Default.aspx?ID=388
IHF: Women’s Junior WC Video Analysis:
http://www.ihf.info/IHFCompetitions/WorldChampionships/WomenJuniorworldchampionships/WomensJuniorWorldChampionshipinKorea2010/VideoAnalyses/tabid/5624/Default.aspx

IHF Rankings: http://www.ihf.info/TheGame/RankingTable/tabid/98/Default.aspx
IHF Rankings Spread Sheet: http://www.ihf.info/files/ranking/EWIGEBES.XLS (Extra credit to any reader that can explain what all the numbers mean in this file)

World Championships for Women Junior and Youth

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The [b]JUNIOR[/b] event finished today in Korea. The final stage was a first-rate one, with the battle for the medals taking place between the home team Korea, the women superpowers Norway and Russia, and the new sensation on the women’s side Montenegro. It is really remarkable how Montenegro is suddenly the dominant one among the former Yugoslav republics in the women’s competitions. As I have commented in recent time, their senior women’s team has been doing extremely well in EHF competition and will be a serious contender in the EURO 2010 later this year.

In the end, Korea was the team among the top four who failed to win a medal. After losing a semifinal to Russia (26-30) there was considerable hope that a bronze medal could be won as a consolation. But Montenegro, who had lost its semifinal to Norway with big numbers (16-26), bounced back and won the bronze match with the smallest of margins (24-23). The consolation for Korea is the unanimous praise they received as organizers. ‘The best ever’ was a common remark!

The final was won in superb style by Norway. After the convincing win in the semi-final, last year’s European champions just pulled away from 8-8 to 13-8, and then in the end the margin was nine goals for 30-21. For information regarding the All-Star team, see this: http://www.ihf.info//MediaCenter/News/NewsDetails/tabid/130/Default.aspx?ID=392 Top scorer was Nathalie Hagman from Sweden with a total of 75 goals.

In the placement matches, Hungary grabbed 5th by beating Netherlands 29-28 in a match between two teams that are normally strong in women’s handball. Germany won 7th place through 31-30 against a Swedish team that had come into the Main round with zero points, after having had the bad luck of contending with both Russia and Montenegro in the group play.

Apart from Korea, Brazil was the only other non-European team in the Main round where they finished last, i.e., in 12th place. This means that PanAmerica will be back down from four to the mandatory three teams as an allocation next time, two years from now. This must have been a bit frustrating, because a very strong performance by Brazil in the group play was followed by three straight defeats in the Main round.

The [b]YOUTH [/b]event will get underway on Monday in the Dominican Republic, who has the unenviable task as (relatively inexperienced) organizers to follow directly after Korea. We wish them good luck! Here the number of participants is 20 rather than 24, with the Europeans outnumbered 9 to 11.

On the A/B half, it would be a conservative guess that the perennial powers of Denmark, Norway, Germany and Netherlands will be able to do well, with perhaps Angola as a ‘dark horse’. The home team got, as is customary, a favorable seed and might be able to contend for a quarterfinal spot.

On the C/D half, there is likely to be a strong fight for the two top spots in one group among France, Hungary and Sweden. The other group seems to be the ‘group of death’, with Korea and Brazil defending the honor of the non-Europeans against Russia and Spain. I will not stick my neck out and predict the outcome of that group….

2011 PanAm Games Qualification: Now USA and Canada know what will await them!

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Following the South American Games last March, the Central American and Caribbean Games have now been completed as far as handball is concerned. This means that, on both the men’s and the women’s side, most of the 8 participants in the handball tournaments in the PanAmerican Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, in October 2011 are now known. And in Guadalajara it will be determined who will be the direct qualifiers from our continent for the Olympic Games in 2012.

The fields in the PanAmerican Games are as follows so far:
[u]MEN[/u]: Mexico (host), Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic and Venezuela. One further team will be the winner Canada-USA, and the final slot will go to the winner of a ‘final chance’ tournament between those next in line: Uruguay, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and the loser Canada-USA. See also our ‘2012 page’ for the men: https://teamhandballnews.com/page35.html

[u]WOMEN[/u]: Mexico (host), Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Also here the winner Canada-USA, plus the winner of the ‘final chance’ event: Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador and the loser Canada-USA. See our ‘2012 page’ for the women: https://teamhandballnews.com/page36.html

[u]Commentary[/u]: I have earlier commented on the women’s competition in the Central/Caribbean Games. The men’s side had a bit more drama, as it was clear that one quite strong team would fail to qualify directly for Guadalajara and instead would have to try the route via the ‘2nd chance’ tournament. And this tough situation is now what awaits Puerto Rico, which is surely disappointing for the ‘islanders’. They had prepared meticulously but it was not enough. Venezuela turned out to be too strong. What doomed Puerto Rico was the one-goal loss against Mexico in the group play. This led to a semifinal against the favorites from the Dominican Republic and another loss after a valiant battle.

By contrast, Venezuela got to play Mexico in the semifinal, and they surprisingly pulled it off, by a rather good margin 29-23. This is really quite remarkable for a country where handball in a serious way did not start until five years ago. The government has provided very generous support for the rapid build-up and preparations, but it was still not quite expected that Venezuela would do this well. There is now jubilation in the sports community, and as seen from the linked news report, http://www.solodeportes.com.ve/2010/07/28898/balonmano-clasifica-a-la-final-y-a-los-panamericanos-2011/ the credit is now given to President Chavez personally! Let us hope that Chavez did not get too distraught by the clear loss (28-40) in the today’s final against the Dominican Republic.

An awkward rumor has arisen in the aftermath of this week’s competition. As I noted a few days ago, it is remarkable that Cuba is not participating. But now it is being suggested that somehow pressure will come to let Cuba in ‘through the back door’ to the PanAmerican Games, by allowing them to participate in one or both of the ‘final chance’ events mentioned above. The notion is that one or the other of the clearly weaker Central American teams who have just qualified for the ‘final chance’ would voluntarily withdraw and leave a place vacant.

This would clearly be unconscionable, considering what it would do to teams that have properly and fairly participated in the prescribed qualification process. It involves not just a chance to play in Guadalajara but also the final opportunity to have a shot at qualifying for the Olympics for teams such as Chile’s women, Uruguay’s men, and Canada and the U.S. Personally I can only assume that the whole rumor is based on someone’s wishful thinking or on somebody else’s worst fears of foul play. Surely the PATHF/IHF and the ODEPA/IOC would not tolerate such shenanigans in any case! So one must hope that PATHF would want to make a statement and confirm the rules, in order to dismiss these rumors.

Eric Gull – PanAmerica’s most ‘cosmopolitan’ player

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Eric Gull is widely known, not just in PanAmerica but in most other continents. At age 37, he has played handball for 32 years, and he has been playing abroad for about 13 years now. He has been very ‘mobile’ as his affiliations cover almost a full dozen clubs in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. He has won numerous league championships, scoring titles, and above all the Champions League. (For a list of all Eric's clubs, see this http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Gull )

Eric played for all the top Spanish clubs including Barcelona and most recently Ciudad Real. And of course he has participated in no less than six World Championships for his dear Argentina. I caught up with Eric after his return home to Argentina, where he will resume playing for the club where it all started, Quilmes.
[i]
CA: Eric, how come that you got started with handball rather than with one of the more traditional sports in Argentina?[/i]

EG: My father (ed.: who came over from Switzerland) played handball and so did my brother. I did try swimming, field hockey, tennis and volleyball, but in the end I decided to focus on our beloved handball.

[i]CA: What do you think are the main reasons for having had such a successful career?[/i]

EG: It has been a great advantage to be left-handed, in combination with my height (204 cm). But I have also had the luck of playing for great coaches, from my first one, Cacho Rothmund, through Enrique Menendez, Olle Olsson, Vladimir Maximov, Juan Carlos Pastor and Talant Dushebaev, just to mention a few.

[i]CA: Your first step towards becoming a professional player was a period in Brazil, but after that you have adapted to living in playing in a variety of very different places such as Russia, Sweden Tunisia, Qatar and of course Spain. How have you managed to adapt so well in so many different environments?[/i]

EG: I felt at home in all these places, and I believe I am basically a positive, happy person who is able to communicate and to establish new friendships everywhere.

[i]CA: Which locations or affiliations did you enjoy the most?[/i]

EG: I would probably mention Valladolid and Barcelona, simply because that’s where I had my biggest successes purely from a handball standpoint. But more generally I would not really want to mention one place ahead of the others; I enjoyed all of them.

[i]CA: You already participated in six World Championships; but what are your thoughts now about Sweden 2011? After all, this is one of the more ‘exotic’ countries you have lived in…[/i]

EG: Well, I hope I will be selected, because it would surely be something special to participate in one more Championship precisely in Sweden. Of course, Argentina’s preliminary group will be played in Goteborg, but it will give me an extra incentive to help the team qualify for the main round, as this might mean that I would get to play in Lund.

[i]CA: But how do you look at Argentina’s chances realistically?[/i]

EG: Of course, the dream would be to repeat the fantastic performance from the World Championship in Portugal 2003, when we defeated Croatia and tied Russia. But it will be tough to advance to the main round. Poland and Sweden are of course among the top teams, and we must focus on doing well against Korea and Slovakia.

[i]CA: Which teams do you see as the favorites this time?[/i]

EG: I would say France, Croatia, Spain, and then Sweden playing at home.

[i]CA: Beyond the World Championships, how do you view your continued career; how many years do you think you have left?[/i]

EG: I am back in Quilmes now partly to have a less demanding schedule so that I can build myself up in an optimal way for the World Championship. A near-term goal is then to play in the PanAmerican Games in Guadalajara in October 2011 and help Argentina qualify for the 2012 Olympics. So I can see myself as playing in Europe again in 2011. But at least we have decided that, in any case, our children will go to school here in Argentina.
[i]
CA: Your comment about the PanAmerican Games reminds me about the traditional Argentina-Brazil rivalry. We recently had the World Cup in football, although Argentina and Brazil did not get to play each other. But the rivalry is really a major one also in handball, is it not?[/i]

EG: It certainly is. There is the same passion when we meet in handball. I have many friends on the Brazilian team, but when our countries play each other, then there is no limit to our readiness to battle.

[i]CA: When your days as a player are over, do you see yourself continuing with handball in some other role, as a manager, coach, or even as a referee?[/i]

EG: As I see it right now, I am now anticipating such a new role; I would probably be more inclined to have a situation where I can finally spend the weekends with my family.

[i]CA: Finally, Erik, if you were asked to give some advice to a young talented Argentine handball player, what would you say?[/i]

EG: I would tell him or her to be humble but also to have the ‘hunger’ to be the very best; it is necessary to pursue your dreams with absolute determination, but you cannot ignore your studies as you must have something to fall back on if it turns out to be impossible to become a professional handball player.

With that we thank one of our continent’s foremost handball profiles and wish him good luck, first in Sweden in January and then in all his future endeavors on and off the court!

Cuba's absence creates opportunities in the men's competition at the Central/Caribbean Games

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I commented earlier that the women's competition had been rather clear-cut, with the three strong teams advancing to the PanAmerican Games and the next ones in the ranking getting a chance in the upcoming 're-qualifying' event. On the men's side I noted that it promised to be a little bit more exciting, as there would be three teams vying to be among the two joining hosts Mexico in Guadalajara in October 2011. It could have been tougher, also on the women's side, but most definitely on the men's side, if Cuba had not decided to refrain from trying to qualify. Their men's team showed enough strength in the recent PanAmerican Championship that a top position this week would have been a certainty.

As it now is, after two days of group play, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela have already joined Mexico in the semifinals and in the hunt for a direct ticket to Guadalajara. At this point it would seem premature to speculate about which team among the three will have to be content with a chance in the 're-qualifying' instead. The opponents that these teams have had are too weak to serve as measuring rods. But among the three weaker ones, Guatemala may seem to be in the best position to beat out El Salvador and Nicaragua in the chase for the second 're-qualifying' slot. The deciding matches will be played on Friday.

Miami and Chicago: Assessing two European Handball Ventures in America

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In April 2009, the French Professional league staged their league’s Final Four Cup in Miami. Last week, the German and Polish National Teams played an International friendly in Chicago. As perhaps the only person to attend both events in person here’s a comparison and contrast of the two events and some speculation regarding future ventures.

Venue: The Miami event was held at the American Airlines Arena, the home of the NBA’s Miami Heat. It is a world class arena with a seating capacity of 19,600 and is a magnificent venue for any sporting event. The University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC) Pavilion, on the other hand is a more modest, somewhat aging facility with a seating capacity of around 7,000. Setting aside attendance, there’s no comparison as to which venue is better.

Attendance: Of course, you can’t set aside attendance, though. In reality, it’s probably the single most important metric to assess the success of a major sporting event. The paltry number of fans (300 – 1,000) that showed up in Miami was made even more stark by a large cavernous arena. Aesthetically, for those in attendance and watching on TV seeing rows and rows of empty seats can take the energy out of an event. By contrast fewer fans were needed to fill seats in the more modest Chicago arena. Even still there were noticeable pockets of empty seats. Judging attendance involves some guesswork, but if the venue holds around 7,000 for sporting events, I would guess that there were around 4,000 – 5,000 fans in the seats. Far short of a sell out, but easily the most people ever assembled to watch a Handball event in the U.S. outside of the Olympics. In and of itself, that is a major achievement.

Local Promotion: So, why were there fewer fans in Miami? The simple answer is that there appears to have been a fairly effective campaign in Chicago directly targeted at the Polish community there. Certainly, anyone in attendance could not miss the loud and boisterous Polish support in the stands. The Miami promoters sought out French supporters, but in reality there is no significant French community in the U.S. For that matter, there is not much of a German community despite the fact that are over 100 million Americans of German descent. In fact, there are only a few places left in the U.S. where assimilation hasn’t made “Little Italy’s” into nothing more than a place to eat Italian food. Clearly Polish Chicago is an exception to the nearly total assimilation of European ethnic groups in most parts of the U.S. Also, I didn’t conduct a survey, but I would speculate that a fair number of those Polish fans were there more to wave a Polish banner than they were to see a great handball match. Nothing wrong with that, though, and who knows maybe some of those folks left the arena as converted handball fans.

In terms of getting non-Polish fans in attendance, though, the Chicago effort appears to have been largely unsuccessful. The very low attendance for the U.S. – L.A. game is certainly an indicator of this. While Germany – Poland is clearly more of a marquee matchup American fans of Handball (without a Polish or German connection) would logically also have found time to arrive early and see the U.S. National Team play. There were fans that did this, but the number was around 300 – 500 or Miami like numbers.

Quality of Competition: The U.S. – L.A. match was competitive, but the overall skill level of the players was a couple of steps down from professionals. The Germany – Poland match involved players with world class talent, but as a friendly months away from any meaningful competition the match was used by both teams as an opportunity to experiment with different player combinations. They played hard, but there was nothing really at stake. Last year’s French Clubs were a notch below talent wise, but as these teams were playing for a title, in my opinion there was more purpose and intensity in those games. Perhaps, though, there are only a few knowledgeable handball fans currently in the U.S. that can fully appreciate the difference between exhibition and competitive matches.

Overall: I think most observers with an American perspective will agree that overall this event was clearly a success. Quality match, decent crowd and TV exposure: All positive outcomes. Some might argue that Federation resources could have been better spent on Grassroots efforts, but I think it makes sense to continue to stage promotional events like this in the future. There’s no denying that there are substantial cost in both time and money, but the overall promotional benefit is worth it and it should feed grass roots effort with increased interest from fans and potential players. Surely, somewhere out there, is a kid who saw the U.S. National play and is already making plans to give this game a try. It won’t surprise me either if this currently unknown individual when asked in 2016 or 2020 how he first got interested in Handball mentions seeing this event on TV in 2010.

Don’t get me wrong. An effective Grassroots program is still the most important element of the Federation’s overall program. Events like Chicago shouldn’t become the over-riding focus of the Federation, but they still need to be staged periodically to promote the sport.

The Future

The buzz in Chicago is that a similar event will likely be held next year, perhaps with four teams. There are problems with scheduling that need to be addressed, but my sense is that this is an event that will be repeated. In terms of location, though, the Polish connection is a lesson that won’t soon be forgotten. Until there is a much larger base of handball fans in the U.S. it is probably imperative that such an event be staged in a city where national ties can be counted on to fill a good portion of the seats. This means there are only a few locales where such an event can be staged successfully. Chicago has proven itself and the next most logical candidate is New York City. New York City will likely add more logistical challenges as it is an expensive city to stage an event in. But as they say, “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”

THN (18 Apr 09): Commentary on Miami Tournament: Link

Central American / Caribbean Games – the women’s competition

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The outcome of the handball competition in these Games which currently take place in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, are certainly of importance to the entire handball continent. This is one of the three basic qualifying events for the PanAmerican Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, in October 2011; and the PanAmerican Games, apart from obviously being important in their own right, also serve as the qualifying event in handball for the 2012 Olympics.

With the Panamerican Games being held in the Central/Caribbean region as now is the case in 2011, the eight slots for the handball event (in the same way for both men and women) are filled as follows: South America: 3, Central/Caribbean: 2 plus the host Mexico, and then USA/Canada: 1. The eighth and final slot is then filled through a special tournament with the next one team from the South (=Chile), the next two from the Central/Caribbean and the loser USA/Canada.

The women’s competition in Mayaguez is finished as far as the slots for Guadalajara are concerned. The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico will play in the final today, while Mexico will play Costa Rica for the bronze. However, as noted above, Mexico is already qualified as a host, so regardless of the result, Costa Rica can do no better than grabbing one of places in the tournament determining the eighth slot in Guadalajara. The other such chance goes to El Salvador who placed fifth. The only empty-handed team is Guatemala in the last place.

Prior to the semifinals, all the six teams played in a round-robin format, but it was already from the first day clear that there were ‘3+3’ teams in the competition. The finalists plus Mexico were several classes above the other three teams. The average result when one of the top three met one of the bottom three was a resounding 41-16…. The three top teams were more evenly matched, although with the sense that Puerto Rico and Mexico would have to be content with a fight for silver and bronze.

It also seems clear that [i]Chile and the loser USA/Canada should have little to fear from Costa Rica and El Salvador in the upcoming fight for the eighth PanAmerican slot[/i]. Chile and USA/Canada have typically been more at the level of the top three Central/Caribbean teams. And to sum it up then, apart from this eight team, the other women’s teams qualified for Guadalajara are [b]Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico[/b], and the [u]winner USA/Canada[/u].

Comments on the men’s event, which starts later today, will be provided in a few days time. Here a battle between three teams (Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela) for two slots (again together with Mexico) can be expected.