Your independent news and commentary outlet for the Olympic sport of Team Handball
[center]A total of 12 games were featured today at the Von Braun Convention Center,in downtown Huntsville, AL
Here are today's scores:
[link=/e107_images/newspost_images/07cns.png][img]/e107_images/newspost_images/07CNS.jpg[/img][/link]
Below are the standings:
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Army’s Black team beat Carolina 20-15 to bounce back from a 19-18 loss to Carolina earlier in pool play. More details to be added soon.
Huntsville Times Article on Title Game: http://www.al.com/sports/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/sports/117852931923230.xml&coll=1
Huntsville Times Columnist Mark McCarter’s Take on Team Handball:
http://www.al.com/sports/huntsvilletimes/mmccarter.ssf?/base/sports/1178356600152090.xml&coll=1
From the HUNTSVILLE TIMES: [link=http://www.al.com/sports/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/sports/1178183849137530.xml&coll=1]article for to be read![/link]
Early Friday evening, Army Black defeated Army Gold in the first game of the 5 team round robin tournament.
Add the Hamburg Sea Devils American Football team to the growing list of Handball converts. Below is a short comment from player Teyo Johnson’s blog:
“That Wednesday night after we prepared for our home opener against Cologne, most of the team went to a team handball match. Not knowing what to expect, I think we were all pleasantly surprised to see a pretty cool sport and eleven thousand screaming fans.”
I would guess that Teyo and his teammates were probably expecting the more well known American Handball where a couple of guys slap a ball off a wall with their hands.
If the German Bundesliga wanted an example of how to introduce a new sport in another country they certainly don’t have to look very far. The NFL Europe has evolved considerably from when it was first started in 1991 and is now principally a German league with 5 of the 6 franchises located there. This aggressive marketing program is probably still a net loss for the NFL, but I’m sure they are still optimistic about the potential long term return on investment
Teyo Johnson’s blog: http://www.denverbroncos.com/page.php?id=334&storyID=6725
Hamburg Sea Devils Official Site: http://www.hamburg-seadevils.de/
Wikipedia article on NFL Europe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nfl_europe
USA National Team Goalie, Matt Van Houten, demonstrated his prognostic skills yet again, correctly picking the winner of both matches as well as the winners of the Karabatic/Lijewski and Christiansen/Kavticnik goals scored matchups. In addition, he picked up 6 bonus points by correctly predicting the margin of victory in game two, as well as the margin of victory for the Christiansen/Kavticnik matchup. For his efforts Matt wins the Kempa Handball Jersey. Fred Wallace of Glasgow, Scotland placed 2nd overall and 2nd in the final round and wins the Official 2007 World Championships Handball Program. Thanks to all who participated and [b]thanks to the International Sports and Academic Exchance (ISAE) [/b] https://teamhandballnews.com/page12.html for sponsoring the contest.
Final Standings
1) Matt Van Houten, 71 points
2) Fred Wallace, 64
3) Volker Grizmek, 54
4) David Bordeaux, 44
For this year, the great debate about whether the Bundesliga or the Liga Asobal is the better league has been settled decisively on the court. Kiel held off a late Flensburg rally yesterday to win 30-28 and secured their first ever Champions League title. As this was an all German finale it was preordained that a German club would win the most prestigious European title. In the other European Championships decided yesterday, German clubs took care of their Spanish counterparts. In the EHF Cup, Madgebourg beat Ademar Leon 31-28 to win the title with a 3 goal aggregate victory. In the Cup Winner’s Cup, Hamburg and Leon each won by 4 goals at home, but Hamburg took the title by virtue of having more goals scored in their away match. Korean veteran and all-time leading scorer in Bundesliga history, Kyung Shin Yoon, scored with 10 seconds remaining to make the score 33-37 and tie the total aggregate score 61-61.
This all German sweep, puts the EHF in somewhat of a bind for their annual European Cup European Club Championship, a weekend competition held in the fall featuring the three club champions and a wild card team. This friendly tournament benefits greatly when it features competition between clubs from several nations. With 3 of the participants being German clubs the matches could be a yawner for their likely German host. Look for Portland San Antonio or another Spanish club to get the wild card invite.
Note: The EHF Cup and the Cup Winner’s Cup are essentially consolation competitions for teams that either don’t qualify for the Champions League or are eliminated in the early rounds of the Champions League. The teams that typically make up the field are clubs that finished further down in the standings the previous year or won their nations cup tournament. The formula for which clubs participate in the Champions League and which clubs participate in the lesser tournaments varies from nation to nation.
The European Handball Federation (EHF) proposal to switch the Handball World Championships from its current 2 year cycle to a 4 year cycle was soundly defeated at the recent International Handball Federation (IHF) Congress in Madrid. According to an article posted on the IHF website the proposed measure received only 32 votes, meaning that several European nations, in fact, did not support the measure.
The current schedule for Handball World Championships
Women
Dec 2007 France
Dec 2009 China
Dec 2011 TBD
Men
Jan 2009 Croatia
Jan 2011 TBD
IHF Website Article on Madrid Congress: http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idcat=57&idart=705
[center]This past weekend (April 21 and 22, 2007)in Colorado Springs, another edition of the Falcon Cup was hosted by the Air Force Academy. Here are the final results and standings:
[link=/e107_images/newspost_images/EFC07.jpg][img]/e107_images/newspost_images/fc07.jpg[/img][/link]
A list of the scoring leaders can be found [link=/docs/07fcsl.xls]here[/link].[/center]
According to an Iranian News report the Asian Handball Federation has discussed rules modifications that would allow women athletes to wear Islamic dress at future Asian games. Asian Handball competitions for women have mostly been limited to nations from the orient and central Asia. A modification to player dress codes would likely see teams from Iran and some other countries participate.
Source: http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-909015&Lang=E
Another [b][color=#cc0000]objective and factual description[/color][/b] of the current USA Team Handball situation and of the 2007 Nationals.
[link=http://www.miamisharksteamhandball.org/][b]Great read[/b][/link].
The International Handball Federation (IHF) Arbitration Commission http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idcat=112 has ruled that IHF Council decisions to change World Championship and Olympic Qualification formats and create a World League for Clubs to be null and void. This finding is based on the fact that these changes were not put before an IHF Congress, which is the highest decision-making body of the IHF and the body authorised to take decisions in matters relating to changes and amendments to the Statutes.
This finding is a clear victory for the European Handball Federation (EHF), which had initiated legal action and threatened to call for an IHF Extraordinary Congress to restructure and hold new elections for the IHF leadership. https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.198 At the heart of this power struggle was the EHF’s concerns that these new competitions would be outside of EHF jurisdiction and financial control and would lead to an excessive number of games for top players.
Next week’s IHF Congress will still likely address a number of issues to include the EHF’s proposal to hold the World Championships once every four years instead of the current two year cycle.
EHF Official Statement: http://www.eurohandball.com/inc/print.asp?oid=10253
THN article on Greenland’s Status Change: https://teamhandballnews.com/2007/04/greenland-membership-in-pathf-downgraded/
I’m an American and I don’t care what the sport is I’m always going to root for the team with USA written on their jerseys. As someone who had the opportunity to wear one of those jerseys several years ago I’m even more passionate about USA Team Handball squads. But when Team USA isn’t playing I feel free to pick a side. This past January at the Handball World Championships , I had the opportunity to see several of the Handball “minnows” play in the President’s Cup and it didn’t take me long to pick a 2nd favourite team- the team from way up North where the sun doesn’t shine much in the winter and the names are unpronounceable.
I am, of course, talking about Greenland. And judging by the reactions of the German crowds I wasn’t alone in this respect. But, there are more reasons than just being a “feel good” story for keeping Greenland as a full member in the PATHF. Herewith are those reasons as I see it:
Reason #1: It was already decided in 1998.
They joined as a full member in 1998 and that couldn’t have happened without someone or some body deciding that they should be a full member. What’s happened since then to make that decision wrong now? A cynical person would conclude that maybe they’ve qualified for the World Championships one too many times. Certainly, if they were consistently finishing in last place at the PATHF its safe to say that the USA would not have asked for a clarification of their PATHF status. And let’s don’t be too hard on blaming the USA for asking the question. Trust me, some other nation would have asked the same question sooner or later.
Reason #2: This team is not a Danish mercenary squad, but a true Greenland team.
I can’t bear witness to earlier incarnations of the Greenland National Team, but the story I often heard was that the ethnic makeup of their team was more blue eyed blond than darked haired Inuit. The insinuation being that the Greenland National Team was simply just a bunch of 2nd and 3rd class Danish Handball players looking for an opportunity to play in the World Championships. That certainly wasn’t the case with the 2007 squad, which certainly in appearance was a homegrown squad.
Reason #3: There is precedent in other sports for Nations to participate in World Championship events, but not the Olympics.
There are several examples of this. Most relevant is probably the Faroe Islands, another nation with Danish passports. The Faroe Islands is a member of the EHF and soccer’s UEFA. In particular, they are competitors in European Championship and World Cup soccer competition. I’ve even seen the French side play at their stadium in Torshavn. And I’ll never forget a couple of German officers nervously following the score of a European Qualifier where the Faroe side took a 1-0 lead into the 2nd half before Germany rallied for a 2-1 win. The Faroe Islands, however, does not participate in the Olympics, and someone from there could only participate under the Danish flag.
Another example is the United Kingdom… of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Depending on the sport, the “nations” of the United Kingdom field separate or combined teams. For instance, they field separate teams for rugby, soccer, and handball. Of course, when it comes time for the Olympics they field a combined UK team. For Handball England and Scotland only recently decided to start fielding a UK team for International Competition.
Reason #4: They have real fans.
Of the Handball minnows participating in the World Championships Greenland had the most vocal and supportive fans in attendance. Certainly, it is safe to say that their contingent was much greater than the US has ever had for a World Championship. On top of that they had their own television crew broadcasting the games live back to Greenland. In the US, we’d be lucky to even have the scores listed in the newspaper.
Reason #5: It is a feel good story.
Handball certainly has its share of controversies whether it’s the officiating at the World Championships or the ongoing power struggle between the EHF, IHF and the major European Clubs. But, everyone (well, almost everyone) can get behind a nation of 57,000 people that has a rare turn in the spotlight on the world stage. And the fact that they have some good young talent playing only made the story better.
What’s really a shame is that several players on Greenland’s Senior Team, including their leading scorer, Angutimmarik Kreutzmann, could be playing right now at the PATHF Junior Championships. In my opinion, they would have contended for the title and would probably have qualified as 1 of the 2 PATHF representatives to go to the World Championships this summer.
Let’s hope that the PATHF and the IHF see the light and correct this injustice.
Earlier THN article on Greenland at the World Championship with Podcasts: https://teamhandballnews.com/2007/01/greenland-handball-a-national-passion/
… not a peep from anyone "in-the-US-Team-Handball-know" regarding who (if anyone?) would be representing the United States of America at the IHF Congress about to start in Madrid in less than 10 days (April 27-29)… Should anyone like to take a “stab” at this, I’ll throw in a free t-shirt!
Oh yes, one more thing. Yesterday, I was the lucky recipient of en email informing me that the team I brought to the 2007 Nationals, (Houston Stars) was no longer eligible to receive back its performance bond.
Fifty dollars! Gone… Just like that!
Here is a copy of the email authored by Jan O'Shea and approved by the US Team Handball Competition Committee:
"Bogdan, because your team did not have numbers on the front of their jerseys as required by the rules of the tournament (IHF rules as well), the Competition Committee determined that you would not receive your performance bond back. This has been a rule now for several years and it is one that the Committee considers a major performance bond item."
What??? A major performance bond item? You mean like, uh… James Bond?
Let me get this right. I just spent two full months coercing, bribing, heck… even begging my players to participate to the 2007 Nationals Competition (announced on short notice and held over the Easter Weekend Holiday). Never mind the endless hours spent emailing, making lodging and airfare reservations, changing business and personal schedules and spending money none of us had! And, never mind the fact that I volunteered to update – LIVE on the web, mind you – the 2007 Nationals tournament scores, stats and standings, using my personal internet connection, on my personal spare time and laptop. All of this, set up on a folding table I had to personally find and drag around the Delaware Fieldhouse complex, despite prior written requests to the Competition Committee for a THN MEDIA courtesy table.
Oh… to hell with it.
Shame on me! Really. Shame on me, for going above and beyond what most gravy trainers would! I deserve what I got! I stand guilty as charged. Let’s be honest. My team, my players did not have those damn little numbers on their jerseys. And yes, I am also guilty as charged because I failed to read the fine print and disregard the IHF rules.
Did I just type IHF? Oh yes, I did!
You know, the International Handball Federation. The same federation which so happens to clearly state in its rules that, among others, the legal handball court size for adults is 40 meters +/- 1 by 20 meter +/-1) and that a full adult game should last 60 minutes (2 x 30 minutes halves) with 1 timeout per half, per team… I could go on and on… but you get the gist.
The moral of this story (ok, rant!), is this.
Beware of the USA Team Handball Competition Committee. It is comprised of a detailed and experienced former team handball players, coaches and international team handball veterans. This Committee has an intrinsic understanding of what it takes for a US team handball Nationals tournament to be successful: i.e. it SEES and GETS the big picture. Which is exactly why the Competition Committee is so exigent. Style over substance IS how they roll!
Take it from me folks.
Next time you pay four hundred of your hard earned dollars to cover the cost of your team’s jerseys, remember: it’s the small numbers that count!