Champions League (Round of 16- Second Leg) (Our Picks)

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[b]Last Week’s Results[/b]
Vezprem (-4.5) vs Kolding Bet 100 on Veszprem at 1.80 (32-22) WIN 80
GOG Svendborg vs. Ciudad Real (-4.5) Bet 200 on Ciudad Real at 1.80 (28-33) WIN 160
Montpellier (-2.5) vs. Barcelona Bet 100 on Montpellier at 2.05 (28-25) WIN 105
Chambery vs. Kiel (-4.5) Bet 200 on Kiel at 1.72 (33-39) Win 144
Gain/Loss: +489 Euros

[b]Season[/b]
200 Euro Bets 7-5; +104
100 Euro Bets 8-4; +285
Current Bankroll: 1389 Euros (Started with a 1000)

4-0 last week, but before we start bragging too much we’ll acknowledge that Ciudad Real and Montpellier both were half goal wins that materialized in the last minute of each game. But we’ve had some games that bounced the other way earlier this year and as Napoleon once said, “I’d rather be lucky than good.”

[b]This Week's Picks[/b]

Odds courtesy of StanJames: www.stanjames.com

Thursday, 7 December
19:00 THW Kiel vs Chambery (37-27)

Friday, 8 December
19:15 SG Flensburg-(-5.5) vs Celje (+.5.5) 1.85 1.85

Saturday, 9 December
16:15 KIF Kolding (-1.5) vs MKB Veszprém KC (+1.5) 1.85 1.85
16:15 Portland San Anto (-10.5) vs RK Gold Club Kozina (+10.5) 1.85 1.85
16:15 BM Ciudad Real (-7.5) vs GOG Svedberg (+7.5) 1.85 1.85
16:30 FC Barcelona-Cifec (-5.5) vs Montpellier HB (+5.5) 1.85 1.85
19:30 VfL Gummersbach (-5.5) vs Chehovskie Med… (+5.5) 1.85 1.85

Sunday, 10 December
17:00 CBM Valladolid (-7.5) vs SC Pick Szeged (+7.5) 1.85 1.85

[b]Flensburg vs. Celje[/b]
Celje goalie Gorazd Skof is probably still recovering from the pounding he received from Flensburg shooters last weekend. Sometimes a goalie gets hot and sometimes a goalie is turned into a hero by pathetic, inaccurate shooting. In my opinion the latter happened in leg 1. And every missed shot not only caused Flensburg to lose a point, but also resulted in a Koscharov fast break goal- a 2 point penalty. I look for Flensburg to find the back of the net early and often in this match as they push to overcome the 10 goal deficit.
BET: 200 Euros on Flensburg (-5.5 goals at 1.85)

[b]Kolding – Veszprem[/b]
With a 10 goal win in leg 1, Veszprem is in the driver’s seat to reach the quarterfinals. They are an experienced team and they will know how to play with the goal aggregate: slowly, not trying to miss many balls and they will select their shots to avoid quick fastbreaks by Kolding. All this being said, Kolding can and should win this match on their home court. We expected a handicap line of 4 or 5 goals and were pleasantly surprised to see 1.5 goals at StanJames.com. This narrow margin is well within Kolding‘s reach.
BET: 200 Euros on Kolding (-1.5 goals at 1.85)

[b]Barcelona vs. Montpellier[/b]
Montpellier held serve at Rene Bougnol, but playing at Barcelona will present a far greater challenge. With an ailing backcourt, Burdet out and Sioud and Hmam still not 100% they needed 10 goals from wing/wannabe playmaker center back Michel Guigou last weekend. Scoring from their set offense will be even more difficult at Palau Blaugrana. Last weekend, Barcelona actually controlled the game pretty well. They let Montpellier get a 3 goal lead in the last few minutes, but other teams have fared far worse in Montpellier. If they play just a little bit better than they did in the first leg they will win this match at home by 6 goals or more
BET: 100 Euros on Barcelona (-5.5 goals at 1.85)

[b]CBM Valladolid vs SC Pick Szeged[/b]
Interesting match between 2 totally different styles: speed, fastbreak and tremendous offensive power for Valladolid, against calm and rough Pick Szeged defense. Valladolid is coming off a a good win on Wednesday at Granollers, always a difficult court; after all Barcelona lost there recently. The draw in Hungary was a good result for the Spanish team and all they need to do is win by 1 on their own court. Pick Szeged showed that they capable of playing with Valladolid last weekend. Valladolid, will win but not by 8 goals.
BET: 100 Euros on Pick Szeged (+7.5 at 1.85)

Euro 2006 Website Features Video Highlights for Download

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The European Women’s Handball Championships are underway in Sweden. 16 Teams will battle it out for the title over the next 10 days. In addition to several news articles the official website http://www.euro06.com/ features video highlights from each match that you can download on your computer and/or video IPOD. As they are downloaded files the video quality is a little bit better than what you might see with streaming video. The highlights I’ve seen last about 3 minutes each and feature English language commentary.

You can either download the files or subscribe to their feed using this link: http://www.euro06.com/media_podcast.asp

What’s Wrong with European Club Handball (Part 2)

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Disclaimer: European Club Handball is quite simply and unquestionably the best in the World. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some glaring problems that should be fixed. In my first installment https://teamhandballnews.com/2006/08/whats-wrong-with-european-club-handball-part-1-the-disparity-from-top-to-bottom/ I addressed the huge disparity between the top and bottom teams in the Champions League and the National Leagues. With only a couple of upsets in group play and no surprises among the 16 teams that advanced in this year’s Champions League the analysis continues to stand up. In this installment I address the presentation and arena shortcomings.

It’s More than a Game

I know this might sound sacrilegious to purists, but in a world where customers have many other options for their entertainment, sporting and non-sporting, this is a harsh reality. I’ll give you a personal anecdote that highlights some of the problems.

Last season after France’s dominating victory over Spain in the European Championships I noticed that Montpellier (France’s top club team) was coming to the Paris region to take on Ivry in a key French League matchup. Knowing that Ivry’s gym only seats around 1,500 I figured I better order my tickets ahead of time, so I logged on to Ivry’s web page to get ticket information. Of course, you couldn’t get a ticket on line (maybe next year), but they did have a phone number and I found out that you could purchase tickets at the gym ahead of time. This is OK for someone living in Ivry, but Ivry is a 1 hour round trip from where I live in Paris. So, I took my chances and showed up 45 minutes before game time. Bad decision! As I soon found outside the gym where several hundred people waited in line behind one ticket booth and one person selling tickets. As you might expect, I and several other people were shut out as they ran out of tickets about 10 minutes after the game started.

So my experience with Ivry was negative outside the gym, but I’ve also not been impressed when I’ve gotten inside the gym for Handball and Basketball games in Europe. For many people like me just seeing a good match, and I’ve seen some great ones, is enough. But my wife and daughters and other more casual fans would be bored silly at these matches because they generally lack the amenities that are commonplace with an American Sporting experience. Whether it’s a snack bar with appealing food and drink, a jumbotron screen, a friendly mascot walking around for the kids, cheerleaders or simply a comfortable seat these sorts of things are usually lacking. And I’m just left scratching my head and wondering, “Have these people ever seen a regular season NBA match. It would just rock their world.”

“19250!” Or Yawn, That’s Just Another Night in Sacramento

As I highlighted in the previous section the game itself can be great, but everything else surrounding the game can be lacking. And the underlying reason is that the arena itself is usually a small aging facility that would have been torn down years ago in the US. In fact I would estimate that in the US there are probably around 250 arenas larger and newer than just about every club handball arena in Europe. Certainly ever one of the 30 NBA and 30 NHL arenas (I realize there is some overlap here) are superior and there are probably about 200 NCAA collegiate arenas in the same category. Maybe the US has overdone it, but the counter argument is that those arenas are often full. And maybe the Europeans are sensibly getting by with modest arenas that work just fine for their local clubs. There probably is a little of truth in both arguments, but mostly it depends greatly on your perspective. I will argue that at least some Europeans are coming around to the American perspective. Case in point: Here’s the title of a January 2006 article in French Magazine, HandAction, “19,250.” The title refers to the attendance at a Gummersbach-Kiel regular season game that was played at the Cologne Arena (arguably the only arena in Europe comparable to a typical NBA arena). More revealing then the pictures of the match at Cologne Arena, though, were the side by side pictures of where Gummersbach plays it other matches (against the bottom of the league teams) in a life-less gym that looks like an aircraft hangar.

Of course my American reaction to the title of the article was simple amusement. They get a crowd like this for one match and it’s a cause for celebration? Why that’s just a typical sell out crowd in Sacramento. And a little research does in fact show that the Sacramento Kings of the NBA currently have an ongoing streak of 317 consecutive sell-outs of their 17,317 capacity ARCO Arena. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento_Kings So it is a couple thousand seats short, but you get the picture. And trust me if you’ve ever been to Sacramento (or Portland or San Antonio), you’d probably agree with me that there are more than a few cities in Europe approaching this wonderful metropolis in terms of infrastructure and population base.

Now, there are a number of reasons as to why the amenities are lacking and the arenas are smaller. But, the underlying reason is that the overall structure of club sports in Europe with multiple leagues in multiple nations spreads the product out too thinly. The clubs only have so much budget and amenities and arenas aren’t where they are going to spend it. Case in point, is the Paris metropolitan area with 5 LNH teams (Paris, Ivry, Creteil, Pontault-Combault and Tremblay) all within an hour’s drive or less from each other. What if those 5 teams were to combine budgets and form one club? I’d expect that not only could they field one of the better teams in Europe, I’d bet they could they play their games in a nice little 5,000 seat arena and hire some more people to work the ticket booth. But even if you could get those 5 teams to combine, because they’re playing in the geographically restricted French League, you’d have to find 4 more teams, probably in smaller towns to play against and those teams would not provide good competition for the new big club. Of course, you’d have some Champions League games, but as its currently structured it doesn’t have enough games to support the needed revenue stream.

So, what’s the solution? I’ll save that manifesto for another day. Stay tuned.

Team USA touring in Sweden

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The USA Women’s National Team is currently touring in Sweden. They will play a total of five games, engage in six training sessions, and attend four matches at the European Championships in Stockholm. For more information check the following links:

Press Release: http://www.usateamhandballwomen.com/News/Dec1_06.php
Trip Blog: http://www.wntabroad.blogspot.com/

2006 Asian Games Handball Competition Underway

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The Asian Games, Asia’s version of the PANAM Games are underway in Doha, Qatar. Handball is one of 39 sports being staged at this major competition. Arguably, it is only behind the Olympics and the Soccer World Cup in terms of overall scale and Qatar is putting on quite a show, investing $2.8 Billion to stage the games and showcase their ability to potentially host an Olympic Games. They have already indicated that they will bid for the 2016 Games

The Handball Competition will be extensive with games running from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM practically every day from 3-14 December. 15 Men and 8 Women’s teams will be competing and you can find more information here http://www.doha-2006.com/gis/menuroot/sports/Handball.aspx and in our links section on the right hand side.
For more information on the Asian Games check out this BBC Documentary podcast:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6159891.stm

Champions League (Round of 16- First Leg) (Our Picks)

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[b]Picks from Round 6 of Group Play (Results)[/b]
Celje vs Gummersbach (+3.5) Bet 200 on Ciudad Real at 1.85 (31-29) WIN 170
Kadetten Schaufa vs. Szeged (+1.5) Bet 100 on Szeged at 1.85 (22-23) WIN 85
Medvedi (-3.5) vs. Flensburg Bet 100 on Medvedi at 1.85 (33-27) WIN 85
Montepellier (-4.5) vs. Valladolid Bet 200 on Montpellier at 1.90 (29-29) LOSE 200
Gain/Loss: +140 Euros

[b]Season[/b]
200 Euro Bets 5-5; -200
100 Euro Bets 6-4; +100
Current Bankroll: 900 Euros (Started with a 1000)

A 3-1 performance to finish off pool play, but we're still down a 100 Euros for the season. Hopefully some strong plays will put me and Miguel on the plus side this weekend.

[b]This Week's Picks[/b]

Odds courtesy of Nordicbet: www.nordicbet.com

Saturday, 2 December (All times CET)
14:45 Chehovski Medvedi – VfL Gummersbach H(0.00 – 3.50) 1.95 1.75
16:10 Fotex KC Veszprém – KIF Kolding H(0.00 – 4.50) 1.80 1.90
18:00 Celje Pivovarna Lasko – SG Flensburg-Handewitt H(0.00 – 2.50) 1.95 1.75

Sunday, 3 December
13:00 SC Pick Szeged – BM. Valladolid H(0.00 – 1.50) 2.00 1.72
16:00 RK Gold Club Kozina – Portland San Antonio H(4.50 – 0.00) 2.00 1.72
16:20 GOG Svendborg TGI – Ciudad Real H(4.50 – 0.00) 1.90 1.80
17:00 Montpellier HB – FC Barcelona H(0.00 – 2.50) 2.05 1.68

Monday, 4 December
20:00 Chambery Savoie – THW Kiel H(4.50 – 0.00) 2.00 1.72

[b]Veszprem vs. Kolding[/b]
Kolding’s first loss of the season in the Danish league at midweek and injuries to Sebastian Seifert and Boris Schnuchel are not good signs for the Danish Champion. Add to the fact that their 5-0-1 mark in group play was primarily due to drawing the weakest group. Meanwhile Veszprem trounced fellow Hungarian Champions League entrant Pick Szeged by 12 goals in their recent clash. Logic dictates that if they can do it to Pick they can do the same to Kolding. Maybe not 12 goals, but 6 or 7 and that’s enough.
BET: 100 Euros on Veszprem (-4.5 goals at 1.80)

[b]GOG Svendborg TGI – Ciudad Real [/b]
They meet again in the Round of 16, 2 years after Ciudad Real trounced them 29-45 on their home floor. Ciudad Real has injury problems now with Rutenka, Fis and Zorman, but their bench is very deep. Recently, they didn’t have any problem defeating Altea, a similar GOG Svendborg level team, 22-29. Meanwhile GOG Svendborg has lost two games in Denmark. This will be a very easy double victory in both games for Ciudad Real.
BET: 200 Euros on Ciudad Real (-4.5 goals at 1.80)

[b]Montpellier vs. Barcelona[/b]
Barcelona had a terrible defeat at Portland San Antonio last week. Key players such as Romero, Nagy or Garcia are not playing well and their goalies Barrufet ,and especially Losert are having a terrible season so far. Montpellier hasn't lost a european competition home game since they lost to Kiel in 1999 and while they have been erratic this season they are a tough team at home. It also appears that Wissem Hmam is fully recovered from his hand injury. Although we are taking Montpellier in the first leg our expectation is that the second leg at Palau Blaugrana will yield an aggregate victory for Barcelona.
BET: 100 Euros on Montpellier (-2.5 goals at 2.05)

[b]Chambery vs. Kiel[/b]
Kiel is missing Karabatic, but they simply have way too many weapons to have much trouble with Chambery. Chambery has been erratic all year and has lost several games against weaker opposition. They will have to bring their “A” game to have any chance of keeping the score close. And I put the odds of them bringing their A game at about 10%. Bank on Kiel to turn this one into a yawner early.
BET: 200 Euros on Kiel (-4.5 goals at 1.72)

US Selects Coaching Staff for USA-Canada Matches

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According to Matt Van Houten’s website Darrick Heath and Chris Cappelmann will jointly coach the Men’s Team for the PANAM Games qualification matches in January 2007.
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=73440975&blogID=200076170&MyToken=472d47d1-22ff-43ff-8a20-d16ff383523a

PATHF Congress Report

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Dennis Berkholtz, the VP for North America has written a report summarizing the results of the recent PATHF Congress:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=73440975&blogID=200075136&MyToken=472d47d1-22ff-43ff-8a20-d16ff383523a

Key Elements
– Chile (not Puerto Rico) will host the Men’s 2nd Chance tournament for PANAM Games qualification from 28 March to 1 April 2007
– Mexico will host the Women’s 2nd Chance tournament from 22-25 February 2007
– The Dominican Republic is scheduled to host Women’s Pan Am Championships from 16-22 April 2007

We are seeking more information and clarifications and will post additional information in the near future

Handball on TV in Australia

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In a previous posting, I hypothesized that Australians could perhaps get Eurosport via French satellite offerings in the South Pacific. https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?extend.153

Now that my cable system has added Eurosport 2 to their lineup I regularly check the Eurosport TV page and I noticed a schedule for Eurosport Asia/Pacific. A quick google search indicates that getting Eurosport is a lot simpler than I thought. In fact, best as I can tell there are two satellite options.

1) Select TV http://www.selectv.com.au/ This satellite service has the Eurosport Asia/Pacific channel as part of it’s $29.95 “Great TV” package.
2) LBF French Digital TV http://www.lbf.com.au/ This service will get you both Eurosport and Eurosport 2. The pricing on the website is somewhat confusing, but they are running a promotion for installation.

If I was living Down Under I’d go with option 2 as the French Eurosport channels offer more handball (the 12 games in 10 days my other post highlighted) Of course, the downside is that the broadcasts are in French as opposed to English.

Now if they can only get Eurosport on some North American system before I move back to the States……

IHF, EHF and Now GCH (Handball G14 Formally Established)

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Last Friday, 25 November 2006, a new and important acronym was added to the Team Handball vernacular- the GCH. The GCH or Group Club Handball was formally established at a meeting in Dusseldorf, Germany. The GCH is modeled after soccer’s G14 of elite clubs and seeks to represent the interests of the major European clubs. The 14 “self anointed” clubs are:

Kiel (Germany)
Flensburg (Germany)
Madgeburg (Germany)
Lemgo (Germany)
Ciudad Real (Spain)
Portland San Antonio (Spain)
Barcelona (Spain)
Ademar Leon (Spain)
Montpellier (France)
Celje (Slovenia)
Kolding (Denmark)
Veszprem (Hungary)
Zagreb (Croatia)
Medvedi (Russia)

This membership was principally based upon having won a European Cup since 2000, but new members may be added in the future based on performance. Additionally, Kolding, Veszprem and Zagreb were added based on the prominent role those countries have in
the handball world.

GCH leaders, in interviews have emphasized their desire to work with the EHF and IHF on a number of different issues and that their mode of operations would be “cooperation instead of confrontation.” There are a number of different issues where the GCH will likely play a major role in the near future. Those issues include:

– The EHF’s proposed 4 year cycle for the World Championship
– The total number of games top players are expected to play for club and national team competitions
– The IHF’s proposed World League of Clubs
– The EHF’s future plans for the Champions League (both in terms of marketing and structure)

Sources: (in German)
http://www.handballwoche.de/nncs/handballwoche/2006/11/22/4968200000.html
http://www.handballwoche.de/nncs/handball/2006/11/25/4992400000.html

Eurosport Further Increases it’s Handball Presence

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You might think that living in Europe that Team Handball is on TV all the time and that every major match is available for your viewing pleasure. Well, prior to this year that would have simply been wishful thinking as I watched yet another match of my favorite team, Montpellier. http://teamhandball.blogspot.com/2005/10/top-10-reasons-why-i-love-to-hate.html
This year, however, has been a different story, courtesy of the EHF’s contract with Eurosport. Case in point was this past weekend in which I watched the better part of all 4 matches in the European Club Championships in addition to the weekly LNM match (Nimes surprising draw against Montpellier). Add in several Women’s National Team matches from Norway and it was almost too much.

But starting this Saturday, it’s going to be downright silly! Over the course of 9 days, I will get to see 12 of the round of 16 Champions League matches on TV. And due to a lucky draw (lucky for me and other Eurosport watchers) the 4 matches I’m going to miss (Both legs of Gold Club Kozina – Portland San Antonio and GOG Svendborg – Ciudad Real) are probably going to be very one sided affairs.

Eurosport has also dramatically improved their website’s Handball news and information page: http://www.eurosport.com/handball/. Overnight this page has become the best site (in English) for brief news updates on what’s happening in the handball world. Look for us to add an RSS feed in the very near future.

EHF Raises the Stakes for IHF: To Propose IHF Restructure, Extraordinary Congress, New Elections, and to Change World Championships to a 4 Year Cycle

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The EHF-IHF impasse over IHF plans for a new qualification format for the World Championships and a World League appears to not be heading towards a peaceful resolution. At the EHF Presidents meeting in Vienna last week 47 EHF members agreed to propose 12 motions at the next IHF Congress in April 2007. Foremost, the EHF is proposing that the IHF be restructured and that an Extraordinary Congress be held 3 months later to hold new elections. These motions raise the stakes significantly for the IHF leadership as they are essentially a threat to vote them out of office halfway into their 4 year term.
http://home.eurohandball.com/ehf_files/ehf_news/NEWS2006/159_1911.pdf

According to Article 14 of the IHF By-laws http://www.ihf.info/upload/PDF-Download/Regulations/01_-_Bylaws.pdf only a simple majority is required to request an Extraordinary Congress. The IHF has 160 members, so the EHF with 47 members can not reach a majority alone. Hence their recent meetings with the Asian and African Federations to develop a consensus majority voting block.

Additionally, the EHF is also proposing to hold the World Championships only once every four years. The proposed sequence of events would be

2012 Olympics
2013 Continental Championships
2014 World Championships
2015 Continental Championships

As far as when this change would take place, the EHF article does not go into detail. The 2009 World Championships have already been awarded (Croatia- Men, China- Women), but they could probably be moved to 2010. Additionally, the EHF has already awarded their 2010 European championships. As the Continental Championships would move to odd years a transition, in which there is either a short 1 year or long 3 year gap would have to be decided upon

Previous reports on this issue:
13 September 2006: EHF Sues IHF Over New World Championship Qualification Tournaments https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.145
26 October 2006: EHF/IHF Impasse and the Proposed World League https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.177

About the About the Site and Contribute Pages

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We’ve added an “About” webpage to our Home Directory. https://teamhandballnews.com/page.php?9 I’ve received queries from time to time as to just what is the focus of Team Handball News (THN) and I hope that this section will provide a little bit more clarity. Certainly, readers who have been with us since we first came on line in January will have noticed that the site has evolved considerably. Our original focus was to try and provide some sanity and transparency into the turmoil surrounding USA Team Handball’s decertification by the US Olympic Committee. We’ve since moved on from this narrow US focus to cover news in other countries and this is reflective both of our world-wide audience and the increasing global connectivity that is enabling fans to follow top competitions apart from their local area.

We’ve also added a “Contribute” section. https://teamhandballnews.com/page.php?10 No, we’re not looking for monetary donations, but we are looking for more people to write and conduct audio podcasts. As the primary contributor, I’ve tried to cover a wide variety of topics. While my interest in Handball is truly broad and global, my intent has also been, to a certain extent, to simply highlight what could be done. The reality is that as much as I’d like to, I can’t be everywhere and follow everything that’s going on in the Handball world. If we could add regular contributors from the US, Australia, Canada, the UK and other countries it would really enhance the site with more stories and better information from people closer to the action. Someone with a devoted interest in Women’s Handball would also be a great addition. Here are just a few possibilities of what could be done: opinion pieces on Handball Issues, reports on tournaments, audio interviews with coaches and players.

Bottom line: If you got a story to tell, write it down or make an audio recording and send it to us: editors@teamhandballnews.com