Your independent news and commentary outlet for the Olympic sport of Team Handball
A news article on the European Championship Official Site highlights this new game currently in development.
http://www.euro06.com/CMS_Files/452_item.asp?root_id=28&node_id=452&item_id=2457
Apparently, it will be similar to other action oriented games developed for other sports like soccer, basketball and footbal. It'll be interesting to see if their player database will include International players from some of the 2nd and 3rd tier nations.
The IHF has released more information concerning the new format for Olympic qualification. [link=http://www.ihf.info/MEDIA/16871,0.pdf]New Olympic Qualification Format[/link]
Under the old system, the host nation and 1 representative from each continent (Asia, Africa, Europe, and PAN-America) qualified for the Olympics. The remaining slots were determined by placement at the preceding World Championships. For the Men, the top 7 qualified and for the Women, the top 5 qualified. This gender inequity has now been removed and now both tournaments will have 12 slots.
Under the new system, the host nation and the 4 regions will continue to get 5 of the 12 slots. But only the preceding World Champion will also get a free ticket to Beijing. The remaining 6 slots will be awarded at 3 pre-olympic tournaments, with the 1st and 2nd place teams each punching a ticket for Beijing.
The news release provides some of the details concerning this tournament, but a quick analysis yields several questions that will need further clarification:
– Who gets to host the tournaments? (perhaps, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place teams from the World Championships?)
– What’s the tournament format? (Round robin, with 3 games in 3 days?)
– How will the seeding be done for these tournaments? (The chart in the news release implies a potential structure, but I would argue that this structure needs to rethink how the 3rd and 4th rungs are set. As much as I’d like to think the rest of the world has caught up to Europe, that isn’t the reality yet. Any tournament with only 2 European teams would be seen as an easier path to qualify.)
– Will there be a draw to determine pool allocation? If so, will there be an attempt to balance the continents out like the World Cup draw for Soccer?
– If a Nation places 2nd through 7th at the World Championships, but then wins their Continental automatic bid what happens to their tournament placement? (Does, it go to the next lower placing team at the World Championships?)
– How is Continental Ranking determined at the World Championships for the 2 extra tournament places? (Average placement of the top 3 teams from each continent perhaps?)
– If Australia has to pre-qualify, how will this be done? (A home and away versus some other Nation for the last spot?)
I've just returned from the 2006 version of the [link=http://itajaihandballcup.com.br]international handball tournament in Itajaí[/link], Brazil. This fantastic tournament is, to my knowledge, the only week-long, one-game-a-day tournament for club teams. For all other competitions like that, you need to be member of a National Team.
It was a fantastic tournament with 78 teams of all age groups (male & female). Despite our small and very diverse roster, we managed to secure bronze, in an unexpected and outstanding team effort!
The tournament takes place in the Brazilian summer and sports not only indoor handball but also a very well-organized beach handball tournament. The level of play varies quite a bit as most teams do not field their standard roster from the preceding season. A good estimat is that the level of play is about 4th division in Germany, with a variation of one level up or down. Individual players may have a much lower or higher level, though. In total, the level is significantly higher than that of, e.g. US Nationals.
There are more pictures of this and the previous tournaments on [link=http://bjoern.brembs.net/e107_plugins/coppermine_menu/index.php?cat=3]my image gallery[/link].
The first two games were against the later finalists, the home team of Itajaí (9th of the past Brazilian div. 1 season) and the team from Unisuam, Rio de Janeiro (second Brasilian division), each of the teams sporting former and current Brazilian National Team members. Each of the games were 2x20min. Expectedly, we lost to both teams by significant margins. The game against Itajaí ended 21-14 and the one against Unisuam was lost also by 7 goals, 15-8). The final group game against Sao Paulo would decide if we had a shot at the semi-finals or play for 7th place. We beat the physically stronger team by only one goal 19-18 and went on to the cross-over game against Florianópolis (2nd of the other bracket). A young, fast-running team with their strongest player in a junior NT left back. However, the team apparently underestimated us, saving their best player for the anticipated semi-finals until about 10-15 minutes before the end of the game. By that time, we had a firm grip on the game and went to the semi-finals. The game ended 16-12.
The semi-finals were on the same day as the cross-over game and against the number one team from our group, Unisuam, who had beaten Itajaí in the group games. Even rested, we probably wouldn't have a chance against this team and with the cross-over game just 2-3h behind us, the match was no match at all. Notable in this game was a series of dubious referee calls in the last minutes against us, leading to Unisuam intentionally missing all their last shots in rejection of what even they saw as unfair calls in their favor. Unisuam was by far the most sympathetic team, on and off the court, not only because of this demonstration of fair-play!
In the bronze medal game, we faced the second team from Rio de Janeiro. They had won the other bracket and lost to Itajaí by one goal in overtime in the semi-finals – despite being one man short because of work commitment of some of their players! So we were warned that this would be a hard team to beat, even one man down. Their consistent 1.95m backcourt surely was physically impressive!
However, the team seemed to still be tired from th semi-final. After 4 successive post-shots from their backcourt players, only the goalie kept fighting. Past-season's Most Valuable Goalie of Brazil elminated one wing shot after the other from our 17-year-old wing players, even from very good angles. However, in the end, even he resigned and we won the bronze by a safe margin.
[link=/e107_images/newspost_images/itajai06team.jpg][img]https://teamhandballnews.com/e107_images/newspost_images/itajai06team_thumb.jpg[/img][/link]
The successful team. Upper row from left: Diana Pauly (PT), Björn Brembs, Olaf Degen (both VfL Lichtenrade, Germany), Alexander Schmidt and coach Horia Markel (both HSC Bad Neustadt, Germany).
Lower row from the left: Arthur Tenorio Bibeiro Clark, (17-year-old Brazilian player who helped us out), Michael Deller, Florian Kirchner, Florian Demling (all HSC Bad Neustadt, Germany) and Silvio Alvin Soares de Laureano (Sao Caetano, Brazil).
According to the [link=http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-licong024610211feb02,0,2744492.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines]Long Island Newsday[/link], Italo Zanzi, a USA National Team Goalie and a member of the USA Team Handball Board of Directors is seriously considering running for Congress:
According to the Cook Political Report, the 1st District in New York is considered a likely Democratic win, but could be a “potentially competitive” race. The current representative, Democrat Tim Bishop is finishing his 2nd term and won 56% of the vote in 2004.
A few burning questions:
– Will Mike Hurdle endorse Italo’s candidacy?
– Does his platform contain a provision for a Representative Italo Zanzi Team Handball Act to replace the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act?
The official website is posting a daily highlight video featuring the match of the day.
http://www.euro06.com/CMS_Files/758_item.asp?root_id=28&node_id=758&item_id=2293
The site also has good summaries of the matches that have been played. Tomorrow should definitely be interesting in Pool 2 as Croatia, Russia, Iceland and Denmark all have a realistic chance to advance to the Semifinals. In Pool 1 it looks like Spain and France will advance.
The big showdown last weekend saw #2 ranked Atlanta Team Handball (ATH) beat the #1 ranked Atlanta Metro Condors 38-31. ATH then promptly lost to upstart Benedict College 29-28 in a match decided by a penalty shoot-out. Going in to the final weekend the current standings are:.
Team Wins Loses Goal +/-
Atlanta Team Handball 7-1 +72
Benedict College 5-1 +56
Atlanta Metro Condors 6-2 +78
Georgia State 1-7 -103
According to the Canadian Handball Federation Website: http://www.handball.ca/newsletters/70.doc
“Senior men Pan American Championship is likely to be celebrated in Brazil, April 10th to April 16th, 2006. As the PATHF executive adopted a competitive structure and ranked Canada 9th in the PATHF (first eight countries are competing), we are yet to know if Canada will compete or not. In this matter, they are having an extraordinary meeting in Feb. 15 – 19 in Argentina to deal with this unfair matter.“
Canada placed 3rd at the last Pan Am Handball Championships in 2004, but apparently either did not participate or placed poorly at the 2002 Championships and at the 2003 Pan Am Games, resulting in a 9th place aggregate placement. Brazil and Argentina are overwhelming favourites to place 1st and 2nd, but Canada would certainly also be considered the odds on favourite for the 3rd place and qualification for the 2007 World Championships. Using a formula which puts equal weight on the results from 2002 to decide who participates is quite simply absurd. The tournament should either have preliminary qualification games or be structured to allow all interested Pan Am nations to participate.
The US is currently ranked 3rd, and so has qualified for the tournament. It will be interesting to see, however, if the US does in fact field a team for this tournament which is now only 2.5 months away.
Team Handball News is pleased to announce the results of our inaugural poll for the Top 5 Men’s Club teams in the United States.
1. Atlanta Metro Condors (3) 11-0-1 [5-0-1]
2. Atlanta Team Handball 10-1-1 [6-0-0]
3. New York City 9-0-1 [9-0-1]
4. Cal Heat 3-0-0 [3-0-0]
5. Garden City (1) 0-0-0
Others Receiving Votes: NJ-Adelphi, Cleveland, Utah
The esteemed panel of voters consists of Andrew Washington, Christian Latulippe, Bogdan Pasat, and Karl Laundy.
Poll Methodology:
– Voters submit their top 5 teams (in order)
– Points for each vote are awarded as follows:
#1 – 5 points
#2 – 4 points
#3 – 3 points
#4 – 2 points
#5 – 1 point
– Each individual ranking is then pooled for a total ranking
– There are 4 voters (1 from each National Region)
– Votes will be done roughly once a month
Poll Philosophy and Guidelines (Guidance provided to the voters):
– Current performance in this year’s season should carry the maximum weight. If a team is not actively participating in any matches this should carry significant weight in your assessment. We are trying to encourage competition. Sure, there are many teams that can probably play no games during the regular season and still be a contender (heck, even win Nationals). The purpose of the poll is not to predict who will win Nationals. The purpose is to acknowledge and reward the active programs.
– Quality of competition should carry significant weight. If a team is playing good teams that should be rewarded. A team can have some quality losses and still be considered better than a team solely beating up on weak competition.
– Margin of victory should carry some weight. If a team is winning by large margins that does say something. Of course, it could also say something about the competition they are playing against.
– Significant attention should be paid to inter-regional competition like the Carolina Tournaments. This can provide a rough assessment of the quality of one region against another.
– More recent games should generally carry more weight than games from a couple of months ago.
– Previous National Championship performance can be considered. While these results are old, they are also relevant in that teams are generally at full strength and it is the best opportunity for inter-regional comparisons.
Current Record of Results
The poll, of course, can only be accurate if all relevant results are included. For the first poll, all results (since Oct 2005) in the 3 active USA Leagues, as well as the results of the Tar Heel tournament in October were included. A composite record of the clubs that were considered and their W-L-T record is provided here:
If you feel the record for your club is inaccurate or additional tournaments should be included please contact us with the results of those matches and we will update the database for the next poll.
See the press release from the NETHC site: http://www.nethc.org/news/1_25_06.html
The Brazil Men’s National Team has been very active in January as part of their preparation for the PANAM Handball Championships in April. They played 3 matches against Cuba (all 3 wins 28-19, 31-30, and 28-24). They then travelled to Spain where they played in a in a tournament against Spain, Ukraine and Russia and followed that up with a couple matches vs some top Spanish Club teams and Japan.
13 January 22 Brazil vs Russia 32
14 January 18 Brazil vs Spain 37
15 January 22 Brazil vs Ukraine 28
18 January 19 Brazil vs BM Aragon 30
20 January 28 Brazil vs Japan 30
22 January 30 Brazil vs Barcelona 39
This trip has probably been a minor disappointment for Brazil, as I’m sure they’d like to move to the top tier of national programs like their Women’s team has. These results show that they still have quite a ways to go yet. It’s probably safe to say, however, that they weren’t fielding a full strength team. In particular, their top player, Bruno Souza, who plays with 1st Division Goppingen, has been injured and did not play. If you add a consistent backcourt scorer, I would guess these games could have been closer.
Matt Van Houten, the Athlete’s Advisory Council Representative, has informed us that it was his understanding that only Matt, Jim Thome, Jan O'Shea and Theresa Eckstrom had submitted written replies to the complaint filed by the USOC. Additionally, he indicated that there is a telephonic hearing scheduled for 2:00 p.m. MST on Tuesday, 24 January, in connection with the decertification process. As of Friday afternoon, the only individuals who had notified the USOC that they were going to participate in the hearing were Matt, Jim Thome, Jan O'Shea, Theresa Eckstrom and Peter Siskind.
Furthermore, Matt indicated that he had stressed to the appropriate individuals at the USOC that USA Team Handball has several urgent issues that need immediate attention: specifically the Men’s PANAM Championships in Brazil (10-16 April), the Women’s National Team program, Club Nationals and College Nationals. The feedback that he has received it that the USOC’s first priority is making sure that the team handball athletes, both national team members and the general athlete population, do not miss out on the upcoming opportunities to compete.
He is hopeful that we will soon learn what the “plan” for Team Handball in 2006 is and that we he would give us an update following the meeting on Tuesday.
Last weekend Atlanta Team Handball (ATH) and Atlanta Metro took turns beating a young Georgia State Club by scores of 30-10 and 31-20 respectively. The current standings for the SETHC are below. On 29 January, ATH and Atlanta Metro will meet in a battle for SETHC supremacy.
Team Wins Loses Goal +/-
ATH 6 0 66
A. Metro 5 1 70
Benedict 3 1 50
Ga State 1 5 -95
Detailed stats and scores are available by downloading this [link=https://teamhandballnews.com/docs/SETHC Stats.xls]file[/link]
The first round of games for this new conference took place this past weekend in Fremont, California. Cal Heat dominated the competition, winning all 3 of their matches. The remaining teams, LA THC, Salt Lake Warriors, and Santa Clarita each posted 1 win and 2 losses. More detail on the matches will be available soon at the Offical WTHC website: http://www.wthc.thsantaclarita.com/