Your independent news and commentary outlet for the Olympic sport of Team Handball
[b]Match Results[/b]
Thursday, 29 March Mexico 29 – USA 20
Friday, 30 March Chile 31 – USA 30
Saturday, 31 March Mexico 27 – Chile 24
[b]Final Standings (W T L Pts GF GA GD)[/b]
Mexico 2 0 0 4 56 44 +12
Chile 1 0 1 2 55 57 -2
USA 0 0 2 0 50 60 -10
Mexico Handball Site: http://www.balonmano.com.mx/
Mexico and Chile will play this afternoon to decide who will win the 2nd Chance tournament and secure the 8th and final spot for the Women’s Handball tournament at the PANAM Games. Mexico soundly defeated the USA, 29-20 on Thursday night, while Chile overcame an early deficit to pull out a 1 goal victory, 31-30. As both teams are level at 2 points each, the winner of the match will win the tournament. And in the event of draw match, Mexico will qualify due to an 8 goal lead in goal differential.
[b]Results[/b]
Thursday, 29 March Mexico 29 – USA 20
Friday, 30 March Chile 31 – USA 30
[b]Standings (W T L Pts GF GA GD)[/b]
Mexico 1 0 0 2 29 20 +9
Chile 1 0 0 2 31 30 +1
USA 0 0 2 0 50 60 -10
Sources
Mexico site (includes pictures):
http://www.balonmano.com.mx/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=136&Itemid=2
Chile Forum site: http://foro.balonmano.cl/viewtopic.php?t=346
The Women's 2nd Chance qualification tournament for the PANAM Games starts this evening in Mexico City. Mexico, USA, and Chile will play a round robin tournament and the winner and the winner will secure the 8th and final spot for the PANAM Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil later this summer.
Thursday, 29 March, 1700 USA vs Mexico
Friday, 30 March, 1700 USA vs Chile
Saturday, 31 March, 1200 Mexico vs Chile
(Listed start times are local and Mexico City is 2 hours behind the US East Coast.)
This information was taken from the USA Women’s National Team Press Release: www.usateamhandballwomen.com and this Mexican Handball site: http://www.balonmano.com.mx/
US Women’s National Team Roster
Coach: Dawn Lewis
Assistant coach: Thomas Brond
Athletic Trainer Alissa Kordrupal
Back Courts
Megan Ballard
Edina Batar
Kathleen Darling
Tomuke Ebuwei-Holmes
Sarah Gascon
Left Wings
Tabitha Lowey
Sunny Chen
Right Wings
Melanie McCormick
Jennie Choi
Circle Runners
Anne Coulter
Jennifer Farrell
Goal Keepers
Jacquelyn Messel
Anca Stevens
Erika Bohn
Production has started in Sri Lanka on a feature film about the infamous Sri Lankan National Handball team which disappeared in Germany in 2004. The Sri Lanka team, which was not really a National team and included players who had never played the game before, duped German authorities into granting them visas for a Handball tour in Germany. The “team” reportedly made their way to Italy, where there is a Sri Lankan emigrant community. The film is being directed by Uberto Pasolini, who is best well known for producing the UK film, “The Full Monty.” The film is tentatively entitled, “No F’ing Handball” and is an Italian/German production.
Sri Lankan Newspaper Article on the film: http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070325/TV/023tv.html
BBC Story from 2004: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3658966.stm
Following on the success of the Miami and North Carolina web broadcasts, Santa Clarita will also provide a free webcast of their tournament this weekend.
Schedule
Saturday, 24 March (California local time)
1015 – 1700
Sunday, 25 March
0915 – 1500
Webcast site: http://www.livesportsvideo.com/teamhandball2/handball2.asp
Santa Clarita Site: www.thsantaclarita.com
I was very surprised by the recent resignation to Christian Latulippe as the US Women’s Head Coach. Reading between the lines of both Christian and the USOC’s statement it seems that the USOC had decided that the time had come to make a coaching change. While both statements dance around the subject, it seems clear that this is a case of “you can’t demote me, I resign.”
Now certainly a case can be made that the team’s performance over the past few years justifies a change at the top. A brief summary of the less than spectacular results includes:
2004-05 Quebec League (5-15-1 record)
2005 Panam Championships, 6th place, out of 6 teams) (0-5 record)
2005-06 Quebec League (10-8 record)
2006 USA Cup, 2nd place, out of 3 teams) (1-5 record)
2007 Canada vs USA Qualification games (0-2 record, losing by 6 and 9 goals)
2006-07 Quebec League (8-8 record, so far)
In fact, strictly going by results, the only logical question would be, “What took you so long?”
As anyone who has followed the events of the past couple years knows, however, the women’s program has been run on a shoestring and might not even exist if not for the efforts of Coach Latulippe. Regardless, of Christian’s dedication, at [i][b]some point [/b][/i]I was expecting the USOC to evaluate his and the team’s performance and decide whether a change was needed.
But when should that “some point” have been? Maybe it should have been in 2005 after the disastrous showing at the Panam Championship. In fact, the much maligned (and deservedly so for some of his actions) former President of USATH, Mike Hurdle, took a lot of flak for tweaking Christian’s contract in light of that performance. In the end it was decided to keep the program intact and see how it progressed. And there have been some signs of progress, but it’s safe to say, that from a results standpoint it hasn’t been very satisfactory. Maybe, losing both games to Canada in January in less than competitive fashion could have been the decision point.
In the end the decision point was the first week in March, following some losses in the Quebec League and only 3 weeks from the PANAM Games 2nd chance qualification tournament. Maybe there were other factors involved, but you wouldn’t know that from the official statements.
So, by what logic do you fire a coach 3 weeks from a key tourney, especially if you’ve kept him around for 4 years? Well, depending on your perspective, it’s either an act of desperation or a decisive action. Here’s the case for either:
[b]An Act of Desperation[/b]: My goodness this National team probably won’t even make the playoffs in the Quebec league. You can’t just stand by and do nothing. So to show that you’re engaged, you fire the coach. Never mind the fact that you’ve kept him around for 4 years and that such a move so close to a major tournament is bound to be disruptive to the team. Throw a Hail Mary and hope for the best.
[b]A Decisive Action[/b]: Well, the easy thing would be to just stand by, do nothing and hope for the best. No, a shakeup at this critical juncture is just what is needed to light a fire under an underperforming Women’s team and give them some added “sense of urgency” prior to the Mexico tournament.
What do I think? Well, I can’t really know the full story as to what’s going on, but I lean toward this being an act of desperation. If you’re going to make a coaching change, January 2007 would have been the time to do it. Since the decision wasn't taken then, it would have been better to wait until after the next major tournament, not right before it. Changing coaches in mid stream might work well for an experienced, professional sports team, but it is more likely to create turmoil on an amateur team, no matter how smooth the transition.
The good news is that, regardless of who’s coaching the USA team, they should still be able to beat Mexico and Chile. Neither of those programs have a strong handball tradition and they certainly don’t have a full time training program like the US. Here’s hoping that the USOC’s move does in fact “bring an energized focus to the goal of successful qualification for the 2007 PAG.”
Quietly, Eurosport has expanded the availability for viewers world-wide to watch live streaming of handball matches. This weekend, in particular, no fewer than 5 matches will be available for viewing. Those matches are
Friday, 23 March, 1945 CET Flensburg vs Valladolid (1st Leg, Men’s Champions League ½ Final)
Friday, 23 March, 2015 CET Hypo vs Aalborg (2nd Leg, Women’s Champions League ¼ Final)
Saturday, 24 March 1700 CET Sarajevo vs Hamburg (1st Leg, Men’s Cup Winners Cup, ½ Final)
Sunday, 25 March 1600 CET Portland San Antonio vs Kiel (1st Leg, Men’s Champions League ½ Final)
Sunday, 25 March 1615 CET Larvik vs Gyor (2nd Leg, Women’s Champions League ¼ Final)
The link for viewing the matches is: http://www.eurosport.com/handball/ In the right hand corner of the page is the video link. Wait, however, to click on this link until the match has started. Otherwise, you will probably get a blank screen.
Note: Daylight Savings Time starts in Europe on Sunday mornin. For Friday and Saturday’s matches there is a 5 hour time difference to the US East Coast. For Sunday’s matches the difference will be the standard 6 hours.
So do you think you know your Handball? Specifically, Men’s Champions League Handball? Here’s your chance to prove it. Predict the winners for the Semi-Final knockout stage and the margin of victory (total goal aggregate for both games) for each match. Also added for the semi-final rounds are two player vs player matchups as to who will score more goals in the semi-final matches
How to Enter: Click here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=884363518331
Contest Scoring:
Correct Club/player: 5 points
Correct Club/player and margin of victory (8 points)
Prize: Winner receives a Kempa Handball Jersey courtesy of the International Sports and Academic Exchange (ISAE): https://teamhandballnews.com/page12.html
The Semi-Final phase of the contest closes Friday, 27 March, prior to the start of the Portland San Antonio – Kiel match. The contest will continue through the finals with accumulated points throughout.
Current leaders: Three contestants picked 3 out of the 4 quarter-final matches correctly and also accurately predicted the margin of victory. Those 3 leaders are David Bordeaux, Matt Van Houten, Mark Telthorster and they are tied with 24 points each. There are still plenty of games to predict, though, so their lead can still be overcome.
One entry per person please
The USA Women’s National Team posted the following USOC statement to their website on 17 March:
“Christian Latulippe has made an extraordinary effort to develop and structure a quality Women’s National Team (WNT) program. During the last four years he has endured organizational short comings and yet his loyalty and devotion to the success of the overall WNT program never wavered. He was central to the genesis and nurturing of the Resident Program at Cortland University.
Successful qualification for the 2007 Pan American Games is an important benchmark for the WNT for the short and medium term. It is our desire to continue the support of the WNT program with the goal of restructuring the roles within the program in the attempt to use all available resources within existing limitations to bring an energized focus to the goal of successful qualification for the 2007 PAG.
It is also our desire to retain Christian within the future for U.S. Team Handball and to position him to have perhaps a larger impact on the national program including both administration and coaching duties. Christian will begin working closely with Mr. Cavanaugh on a range of High Performance Planning, Event Direction and Technical Planning issues.
We are very optimistic about the realistic chances of the WNT to successfully qualify for the 2007 Pan American Games. To accomplish that goal we will need a total team effort from the athletes, coaching staff and administration supporting the WNT program. Best wishes for continued solid training and preparation for Mexico City.
Jay Warwick Michael D. Cavanaugh
Director – Sport Partnerships Manager of High Performance – Team Handball”
USA Women’s National Team Website: http://www.usateamhandballwomen.com/content/view/132/1/
The statement was read to the Women’s National Team on 6 March and obliquely references Coach Latulippe’s resignation as “restructuring the roles within the program.” The statement also hints as to rationale with the text: “to bring an energized focus to the goal of successful qualification for the 2007 PAG. Later this week, Team USA will be traveling to Mexico to participate in the 2nd Chance tournament in Mexico. The winner of this round robin tournament (Mexico, Chile, USA) will secure the 8th and final spot for the PANAM Games this summer in Brazil.
The USOC has issued a press release highlighting the upcoming US Club National Championships at the University of Delaware, 6-8 April 2007: http://www.usoc.org/11597_51732.htm
Each year in March, literally, millions of fans in the United States scramble to fill in their brackets for the NCAA Basketball tournament. Perhaps the most appealing aspect of the NCAA tournament is the opportunity it gives for the small colleges to play the major basketball powers and pull off a miracle upset. In Europe, most nations stage a similar tournament for all their clubs with a few major differences. The tournament is usually conducted throughout the year and interspersed with regular league matches. Additionally, the lower division club usually gets to host the match making the possibility of an upset a little more likely. Recently, Canadian International Backcourt, Alexis Bertrand, and his Div 2 Cesson Handball teammates had their own chance to pull off a miracle as they hosted perennial French champion (7 in a row at last count), Montpellier this past Tuesday in a Round of 16 matchup in the Coupe de France.
I had some email correspondence with Alexis and he assured me that Cesson was more than a little bit excited about the opportunity, but were also realistic about their chances. In fact, they had recently played Montpellier and lost 33-23 in a friendly tournament. And that match had taken place during the World Championships and Montpellier had played without their International stars. This time around Wissem Hmam, Michel Guigou, David Juricek and others would be playing in a match that counted. That being said the goal was to keep it close and provide a packed gym of 1,200 fans a good show. And if they could keep it close then who knows what could happen in the last few minutes.
Cesson did, in fact, keep the match close in the first half, trailing only 11-9, but the wheels fell of the wagon in the 2nd half with Montpellier winning 28-18. With their Coup de France dreams over, Cesson will now try and focus on finishing 2nd in Division 2 and gaining promotion to Division 1. Currently, they are in 4th place, just 4 points behind 2nd Angers, who’s also played 1 more game than Cesson. Alexis has indicated that injuries have had an impact on the team and that he still isn’t 100% yet. Still the schedule is favourable for Cesson as most of their home games are against the teams in the top half of the standings. If they can win those home matches and also take care of business on the road against some of the weaker teams they may very well have 2 matches against Montpellier next year—in the First Division
Montpellier article: http://www.montpellierhandball.com/actus.php?m=1&a=510
Cesson article: http://www.cesson-handball.com/article.php3?id_article=610
Former USA Women’s National Team Coach, Christian Latulippe, has provided TeamHandballNews.com with the following official statement:
“After a major disagreement with a decision made by the USOC regarding a restructuring of my coaching duties, I have decided to step down from the head coach position of the US Women's National Team in Team Handball. I will be working until April 20th for the USOC to finish the NETHC season, to help Mike (Cavanaugh) during the National Championship and to help with the WNT transition. Finally, I might reconsider a reassignment of my duties with the USOC. The USOC will have until April 20th to come up with a proposal.”
Chris Cappelmann, USA Men's Coach has announced the roster for the upcoming 2nd Chance Tournament in Chile. The selection consists of the following players
Troy Steffen, Wing, Atlanta Team Handball
Ryan Hansell, Wing, Atlanta Team Handball
Levi Henderson, Wing, Atlanta Metro Condors
Gill Bozeman, Wing, Atlanta Team Handball
Patrick Oliver, Circle, Atlanta Team Handball
Jeff Goss, Circle, Atlanta Team Handball
Gary Hines, Back, Tolimar Tres de Mayo (ESP)
Derek Brown, Back, Atlanta Metro Condors
Alex McGlynn, Back, Univ of North Carolina
Bill Bigham, Back, Atlanta Metro Condors
Divine Jackson, Back, NY Athletic Club
Tom Fitzgerald, Back, NY Athletic Club
Bobby Dunn, Back, NY Athletic Club (Withdrawn)
Darrick Heath, Back, Atlanta Metro Condors
Italo Zanzi, GK, Atlanta Team Handball
Danny Caparelli, GK, NY Athletic Club
Matt Van Houten, GK, NY Athletic Club
The US will conduct a training camp in Lake Shore, Alabama from 31 March to 2 April and then depart for Chile on 3 April. The tournament matches will be played in Nunoa, a suburb of Santiago, from 6-8 April 2007. Schedule: (To be confirmed)
6 April USA vs Venezuela
7 April USA vs Chile
8 April Chile vs Venezuela
The winner of the round robin tournament will secure the 8th and final spot for the PANAM Games this summer in Brazil.
More information on the tournament is available on the Chile Federation website:
http://www.balonmano.cl/