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Jan Boye, Danish Handball President, passes away

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It is with great sadness that we today receive the report that Jan Boye passed away last night. Of course, the real shock came about two weeks ago in the form of the news that Jan had suffered a massive stroke, and that there was virtually no hope for a recovery. Jan’s passing came at the age of 49, at the height of multi-faceted career. We send our deepest sympathy to Jan’s family and to everyone in Danish handball.

Jan Boye was elected as President for the Danish Handball Federation just three months ago. This seemed like an excellent decision at a moment when the otherwise formidable Danish ‘handball machinery’ had suffered some setbacks at the managerial and institutional level. Jan was an experienced politician, who had served several years as mayor of Odense, Denmark’s third largest city and, among other things, famous for being the home town of Hans Christian Andersen. Jan had an energy and enthusiasm that seemed to inspire people and to get them to pull in the same direction.

But Jan was not just a career politician; he had his roots in handball. The reason for my feeling compelled to write about Jan’s passing is that I had the privilege to get to know him personally in his capacity as a top level international referee (where his partner was Bjarne Munk Jensen, currently member of the IHF Rules and Referees Commission). They performed successfully in both Olympic Games and World Championships, following in the footsteps of many great Danish referees. What I especially remember about Jan was his unflappable presence on the court and, above all, his disarming smile. Indeed, he really personified the famous ‘Danish smile’… May he rest in peace!

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New developments regarding PATHF competitions

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As John Ryan briefly mentioned a few days ago, it appears that important changes are tentatively underway regarding the competition system for PanAmerican championships. While the proposals need to be formally ratified during an Extraordinary PATHF Congress that is planned to be held in December during the Women’s World Championship in Brazil, it seems that the changes have gained sufficient momentum so that one could expect them to be approved. The person who ‘spilled the beans’ was PATHF Vice-President Mario Moccia, whose interview was captured by Ruben Gomez on his web site Mundohandball.com

Some years ago, a structure was introduced under which there would be an Elite Division and a ‘Division 1’, with promotions and relegations between the two levels on the basis of the rankings in these events. The Elite Division has had eight participating countries under this format. While this system on paper has a fair and professional look, it has caused major problems for those countries whose teams are on the borderline between the two levels or who rarely make it out of the Division 1 level. The main issue is that these countries have major difficulties in encountering government support or sponsors for the often expensive participation in these events.

Very few governments find it very interesting to support participation at what is really a secondary level, despite the label ‘Division 1’. Moreover, if the team does quality for promotion to the higher level, it entails a doubling of the expenses. And the interest among spectators, TV broadcasters and sponsors for a secondary level event is obviously also very limited, so there is not much of a PR value involved in hosting or participating in such an event.

Accordingly, the tentative proposal is to abolish the Division 1 and instead increase (from 8 to 12) the number of participants in THE PanAmerican Championship. Of course, the PanAmerican continent has a much larger number of countries with handball federations, so the issue of how the 12 participants will be selected clearly may become a matter of debate. The PATHF may find some formula for the first event in each category (senior, junior, youth for both men and women), on the basis of recent results. For future years, the lowest ranked teams may be replaced by the winners of some form of less costly regional qualifying. But these important details remain to be worked out.

It seems that there will be some difficulties in finding organizers for the expanded events, as few of the national federations in PanAmerica have the infrastructure, resources and experienced needed to host such large events. It is likely that the bulk of the events may have to be held in either Argentina or Brazil, something that would not be greeted with enthusiasm by the participants from the Northern or Central parts of the continent.

At least it seems understood that there is a basis for determining the host of the 2012 Men’s Championship. This event serves as the qualifying event for the 2013 World Championship, and it would make a great difference in the ranking and seeding for 2013 if a team wins or ‘only’ comes in second in the 2012 PATHF Championship. Both Argentina and Brazil would like to have that edge, which would be easier to obtain as a host. So it now seems agreed that the winner of tomorrow’s final Argentina-Brazil will win not just the Olympic tickets but also the right to host in 2012.

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PANAM Games: USA vs. Canada: LIVE AUDIO COMMENTARY

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Gary Hines and Team USA will take on Canada in Guadalajara

 

I will provide a live audio commentary of Saturday’s match between the USA and Canada.  This consolation semifinal is scheduled for 1:30 PM (U.S. East Coast Time).  Last December the two teams split a two game series with each side losing by identical 25-21 scores on the road.  Canada won a ten minute overtime, but that was played in Montreal, so this neutral ground showdown will serve as the unofficial rubber match between the two rivals.

The audio and video links are below:

Audio: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/team-handball

Video: http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/guadalajara-2011/en-vivo/

USA Federation Live Chat page: http://usateamhandball.org/

Undoubtedly, time delays will make traditional commentary unpractical, so I will try to focus on the overall situation.  If you’ve got comments/questions post them on the ustream chat or Federation chat pages and I’ll try to respond.

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PANAM Games: USA teams look for redemption in consolation brackets; PATHF considers cancellation of Men’s Div I tournament

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Mexico on the fastbreak

 

Commentary: The USA Men lost narrowly last night to Mexico, 33-32 to finish 0-0-3 in Group play.  It’s hard to sugar coat this disappointing loss as the USA was sloppy on offense and often uninspired on defense allowing many goals far too easily.  Fully assessing teams via an online video is somewhat difficult, but from the looks of things it appears that the USA was more experienced and physically gifted than the Mexican side.  In short, I would argue that the USA had a better individual player at every position, but somehow managed to lose.  The bright spot is that the American men have a clear shot at redemption with a chance to settle scores with Canada on Saturday morning in a consolation bracket semifinal.  The Canadian Men have also had a disappointing tournament, but were able to get a win against Venezuela yesterday, 28-25.  Depending on my schedule I will try and do a live audiocast commentary of the match via USTREAM.TV on Saturday.  Game time is 12:30 PM (US Central Time)

The USA Women have also struggled, and finished their group as well with a 0-0-3 record.  Their redemption opportunity will be today against Puerto Rico at 10:00 AM local (US Central time)

In other news Mundo Handball is reporting that the Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) is considering the possibility of cancelling the Men’s Division I Championship currently scheduled for next month in the Dominican Republic.  Instead, 12 teams would be invited to the Elite Championship which would be played next summer with the host nation opportunity being awarded to the PANAM Games Gold Medal winner.  This proposed change in format raises a lot of questions and we’ll address those in a follow up story.

Mundo Handball:  Mario Moccia Interview: http://www.mundohandball.com/Continentes/Panamerica/2011/Moccia-handballde1.html

USATH:  USA Men’s comeback falls just short against Mexico: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/10/20/usa-men-s-comeback-falls-just-short-against-mexico/45121?ngb_id=42

VIDEO: USA – Mexico Highlight: http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,340860.html

 

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PANAM Games: USA and Canadian Men lose again: Both relegated to 5th-8th place

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USA defender, Domagoj Srsen, jumps high to block an Argentine jump shot

Both the USA and Canadian Men lost their second matches in Group play yesterday.  As expected the USA lost to Group favorite Argentina, 36-19.  Some solace, however, can be taken from a strong first half performance that saw the USA down only 12-9 at the break.  The Canadian Men got roughed up a bit more than I would expect by Chile, losing 42-25.  Based on results so far Chile may even give Brazil a run for the money in a Group A showdown on Thursday.

Men’s Competition Scenarios

Most of the suspense has been taken out of the Men’s Pool as the semifinal participants are now set.  In Group A, Brazil and Chile will advance, while Argentina and the Dominican Republic will advance out of Group B.  Those teams will play each other Thursday to determine who will get the higher seed.  Accordingly, the lower 4 teams are also set.  Canada and Venezuela from Group A and Mexico and the USA from Group B.  Again those teams will be seeded based on their head to head matches on Thursday.

Women’s Competition Scenarios

In Group A, Argentina and Mexico have secured spots in the semifinals.  Those two teams will battle on Wednesday to see who avoids Brazil in the Semifinals.  For the Mexican Women, this is surely a major Handball milestone.  In Group B, there is some suspense for the second spot due to the earlier Dominican Republic – Uruguay draw.  Currently, the Dominican Republic has a 35 goal differential lead over Uruguay, but that will be narrowed when the Dominicans take on Brazil in the first match of the day.  The USA will then have the opportunity to play the role of spoiler when they face Uruguay later in the evening.  Uruguay will know exactly how many goals they need to beat the USA by to advance and the USA should have the incentive to keep that number down or better, simply beat the Uruguayans.

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PANAM Games: USA Women fall to Dominican Republic

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The Dominican Republic stages a big second half comeback for a 33-26 victory over the USA

Commentary:  I did not have the opportunity to see any of this afternoon match, but the key numbers are simple:

Halftime Score:  USA 16, Dominican Republic 11
Final Score: USA 26, Dominican Republic 33

Based on what I saw in the first USA match Saturday against Brazil, I can only surmise that a lack of conditioning and depth played a major role in the final outcome of this match.

The loss eliminates the USA from the semifinals.  They will have one more shot at main round redemption on Wednesday when they take on Uruguay.  A victory over Uruguay will place them 3rd in the group and will give them an easier cross-over match in the consolation bracket.

USA Federation Summary: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/10/17/borg-s-10-not-enough-as-usa-women-defeated-by-the-dominican-republic/45035

Video Highlights: http://deportesus.terra.com/road-to-2012/videos/0,,339473.html

 

 

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PANAM Games: USA and Canadian Men lose and the battles for second place

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Brazil had no problems with Canada on Sunday, but the Canadian Men still have a shot at the semifinals

Both the USA and Canadian Men lost their first matches in Group play yesterday.  The Canadian ran into a Brazil onslaught and lost 46-17 in a game in which the outcome was never in doubt.  Despite this  blowout, though, Canada can still qualify for the semis with victories over Chile and Venezuela.

Canada-Brazil Highlights: http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338880.html

In contrast the USA men lost a hard fought match which was closer than the final outcome of 27-22 indicates.  In fact, the USA had a slim lead most of the first half which ended at 11-11.  In the second half the USA appeared to take command in the first few minutes jumping out to a 16-13 lead in the first six minutes.  Following a time out the Dominican Republic was able to settle things down and a USA scoring dry spell resulted in a 17-17 tie score with 14 minutes left to go in the match.  The teams traded goals and with about 6 minutes to go in the match the Dominican Republic had a narrow 22-21 lead.  When the Dominican Republic pushed the lead to 2 goals, however, the USA was not able to respond and appeared to panic with an overly aggressive defense which allowed the Dominican Republic to pad the eventual final scoring margin.

In terms of individual performance, Martin Clemons Axelsson was a steady and reliable performer throughout the match and led the team with 8 goals.  Gary Hines struggled to get on track and the focused and physical Dominican Republic defense held him in check most of the evening.  For 55 minutes, goalie Danny Caparelli was outstanding with several huge saves on some point blank shots.  In the closing minutes, however, he was out of position away from the net allowing two easy goals (including one at the buzzer) for the Dominican Republic.  With Mexico capable of beating the Dominican Republic, the bloated 5 goal deficit may come back to haunt the USA in their match against Mexico on Thursday night.

USATH:  USA Men suffer loss to the Dominican Republic: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/10/16/usa-men-suffer-loss-to-the-dominican-republic/45016?ngb_id=42

Video Page http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos.html (I couldn’t find a USA – Dominican Highlight, but one may get posted later today.)

The Battles for 2nd Place

The first round of matches for both the Men’s and Women’s competition makes it fairly clear that the familiar sight of Brazil or Argentina at the top of their respective group is unlikely to change.  Accordingly, the only interesting battles will be the ones for second place and to help everyone follow along here are the current standings for each group, throwing out all the matches with Argentina and Brazil

Group A Women (Argentina likely winner)

2) Mexico 1-0-0 2 Points +1 GD
3) Puerto Rico 0-0-0 0 Points 0 GD
4) Chile 0-0-1 0 Points -1 GD

Head to Head Results
Saturday, October 15, Mexico 18, Chile 17
Monday, October 17 Puerto Rico vs Mexico
Wednesday, October 19 Puerto Rico vs Chile

Group B Women (Brazil likely winner)

2) Dominican Republic 0-1-0 1 Point +0 GD
3) Uruguay 0-1-0 1 Point -0 GD
4) USA 0-0-0 0 Points +00 GD

Head to Head Results
Saturday, October 15 Dominican Republic 24, Uruguay 24
Monday, October 17 USA vs Dominican Republic
Wednesday, October 19 USA vs Uruguay
(Note: Due to the Dominican Republic-Uruguay draw, the goal differential in the matches against Brazil could also be important

Group A Men (Brazil likely winner)

2) Chile 1-0-0 2 Points +9 GD
3) Canada 0-0-0 0 Points 0 GD
4) Venezuela 0-0-1 0 Points -9 GD

Head to Head Results
Sunday, October 16, Chile 37, Venezuela 28
Tuesday, October 18 Canada vs Chile
Thursday, October 20 Canada vs Venezuela

Group B Men (Argentina likely winner)

2) Dominican Republic 1-0-0 2 Points +5 GD
3) Mexico 0-0-0 0 Points 0 GD
4) USA 0-0-1 0 Points -5 GD

Head to Head Results
Sunday, October 16, Dominican Republic 27, USA 22
Tuesday, October 18 Mexico vs Dominican Republic
Thursday, October 20 Mexico vs USA

 

LIVE Audiocast: USA vs Dominican Republic

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I’ll be experimenting with a live audiocast of this afternoon’s PANAM Games match between the USA and the Dominican Republic.

Audio: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/team-handball

Video: http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/guadalajara-2011/en-vivo/

USA Federation Live Chat page: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/10/16/live-usa-men-vs-dominican-republic/45013?ngb_id=42

Undoubtedly, time delays will make traditional commentary unpractical, so I will focus on the overall situation.  If you’ve got comments/questions post them on the ustream chat or Federation chat pages and I’ll try to respond.

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VIDEO: PANAM Games day 1 match highlights

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Mexico celebrates after a key 18-17 victory over Chile

The terra.com platform has two minute highlight videos of all of yesterday’s matches.  Here’s the direct links for Saturday’s games

Group A
Brazil – USA 50-10 http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338686.html
Dominican Republic – Uruguay 24-24 http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338747.html

Group B
Argentina – Puerto Rico 35-26 http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338713.html
Mexico – Chile 18-17 http://deportesus.terra.com/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338757.html

Mexico scored a penalty shot with 15 seconds to secure the victory over Chile.  This result might very well put Mexico through to the semifinals, although Puerto Rico might have something to say about that.  The Dominican Republic – Uruguay draw assures that every second of their upcoming matches against the USA will be hard fought.  The USA, of course, can still qualify for the semifinals by beating those opponents, but should they slip up and fall behind, the key tiebreaker for a Dominican Republic-Uruguay tie in the standings will be overall goal differential.

The Men’s competition starts today (Sunday, 16 October) and team USA takes on the Dominican Republic at 6:00 PM USA Central Time

 

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AUDIO: Post game interview with US Women’s Coach, Chris Cappelmann

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Brazil scores 1 of their 50 goals in all out blitz of Team USA

Tournament favorite Brazil totally dominated the USA in all phases of the game, enroute to an easy 50-10 victory.  Coach Chris Cappelmann discusses the match and what’s ahead for Team USA at the PANAM Games.

USA Team Handball: USA Women fall to Brazil in opener: Http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/10/15/usa-women-fall-to-brazil-in-opener/45004?ngb_id=42

 

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PANAM Games Open: Online video quality looks promising

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Team USA at the PANAM Games Opening Ceremonies

The PANAM Games have officially started with the traditional opening ceremonies in Guadalajara, Mexico.  The festivities were shown live at www.terra.com and at www.espn3.com .  Several Handball athletes can be seen in the ESPN3 replay:  http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/source/espn3/id/264854/size/condensed/ (Team USA enters the stadium at the 43:15 mark)

The terra.com website claims that they will have 12 channels in operation during the games and I was able to get a pretty decent video stream when sampling the videos they had available on demand. Hopefully, the same quality will be available for the matches

Terra.com on demand videos:  http://deportesmx.terra.com.mx/rumbo-a-2012/videos.html

Canadian Delegation clip: http://deportesmx.terra.com.mx/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338518.html
USA Delegation clip: http://deportesmx.terra.com.mx/rumbo-a-2012/videos/0,,338568.html

The USA women are scheduled to play against tournament favorites Brazil on Saturday, 15 October at 1:00 PM, (Guadalajara Local Time) which is the same as U.S. Central Time.  (This is 7 hours behind for most Europeans.)  If I find a Direct Link, I’ll post it and the USA website has indicated that they plan on having an open webchat running at the same time.

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USA Teams arrive in Guadalajara

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Can Team USA keep a low profile and advance under the radar into the semifinals?

The USA Men and Women have arrived in Guadalajara for the Pan American Games.  I spoke briefly last night with USA Women’s head coach, Chris Cappelmann and he indicated that they’ve been please so far with the welcome and accommodations.  Part of that welcome was an offer to have a friendly scrimmage with the Mexican Women’s team yesterday.  The result was a 21-21 tie, which is a far cry from the results the last time the two teams played back in 2008 at the Pan American Team Handball Federations (PATHF) Div I Championship.   At that event the USA women lost twice to Mexico by scores of 31-23 and 33-14.  There are few holdovers from the USA roster from those defeats, however, and I have no clue as to what changes may have taken place in the Mexican roster as well.

The Women’s Tournament gets underway this Saturday with the USA Women taking on tournament favorite, Brazil in Group play.  Coach Cappelmann indicated that there were some plusses and minuses to playing the tournament favorite.  On the minus side it will be tough to meet the Brazilians in their first fully competitive match.  On the plus side, though, this scheduling will allow them to observe their other group rivals, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay prior to playing them.  The Men won’t have that luxury, though, as straight out of the gate on Sunday, they will have a key match vs the Dominican Republic.  With both sides knowing little about each other, how fast the teams can respond tactically could prove pivotal in that first match

Over the next two weeks, we plan to have several interviews with the Men’s and Women’s team coaches and players.  In particular, we’ll shoot to have audio podcasts of the interviews posted as soon after the match as possible.  For those that can’t wait to get their handball fix, be sure to check out the USA Federation and the Mundo Handball website, which has several articles on all the teams participating in the tournament.

Mundo Handball: http://www.mundohandball.com/

PANAM Games Schedule: http://usateamhandball.org/news/2011/09/12/pan-american-games-schedule/44549?ngb_id=42

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Reunion Island: The French Handball Iceland due East of Madagascar

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Just in case you were wondering, here's where you can find Reunion Island.

 

An ehfTV video has got me thinking that it’s a great time for a post on two of my favorite areas of study: Geography and Handball.  The subject video highlights top German side Kiel’s summer trip to Reunion Island in Travelogue fashion.  Apparently this team building trip to Daniel Narcisse’s home has put them in good stead so far this season.

As one who likes to think of himself as a “maphead” I’ll have to admit that before I lived in France I knew very little about France’s overseas Departments and Territories.   I knew of Reunion Island, however, because many years earlier my curiosity had been piqued by the talented Jackson Richardson.  Who is that Rasta looking Frenchmen with the American sounding name?

That investigation eventually led me to an atlas to find out just where the heck this Ile Reunion was.  Located in the Indian Ocean due East of Madagascar this French outpost is about as far away as you can get from the U.S.  That’s not an exaggeration as Reunion Island is almost an “antipode” of the Western U.S.  In other words if you start digging a hole straight through the center of the Earth, you’ll eventually come out in the Indian Ocean not far from this unlikely French Iceland.

French Iceland?  Well, while I doubt that Handball is a part of the culture on Reunion Island to the same extent it is in Iceland, there’s no denying this island of 800,000 souls has produced two of the world’s best players ever- Jackson Richardson and Daniel Narcisse.  We can debate where those two gentlemen rank among the all-time greats; top 10? Top 20? Top 50? But, it’s undeniably remarkable that this remote outpost can lay such a claim.

Why Reunion Island? How did this happen? Well, if anything this result is indicative of France’s effort to integrate all of its outlying Departments and Territories into France proper.  In an American context, Reunion Island and the departments of the Caribbean/South America Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana are France’s versions of Hawaii.  Those “Departments” have full representation in France’s State Assembly, in much the same way Hawaii is our full fledged 50th state.  And while those Departments have their own culture quite a bit of effort is expended to make sure those citizens also realize they are French just as much as someone growing up in Paris.  And one of those efforts is financial aid in the sporting department.

I’m not certain as to exactly what is provided, but it’s clear that sports are well organized as athletes from these departments are well represented on French National teams in several sporting disciplines.  In addition to Richardson and Narcisse, Joel Abati, Didier Dinart and Cedric Sorhaindo are recent products of the overseas departments.  And those are some of the most notable players.  There are also plenty of talented player playing for French Club teams.

If one’s perspective is to look at these French outposts as part of France, this representation is only somewhat remarkable.  Sure, these parts of France are over represented in terms of their relative population, but this is true in other countries and in other sports.  For instance, there’s a preponderance of ice hockey players in the U.S. from Minnesota and very few from Texas.  There are more beach volleyballers from California then there are from Illinois, etc., etc.

But, if one’s perspective is to compare these French outposts to their non-French neighbors the difference is night and day.  I’m guessing that a Reunion Island Department level all-star team could beat every national side in sub-Saharan Africa with the possible exception of Angola.  They certainly could easily handle any nation with a coastline on the Indian Ocean.  In the America’s, Guadeloupe and Martinique would probably give Cuba a run for the money in a Caribbean championship.  They would be a notch below Argentina and Brazil, but I bet you those sides a battle would be in the hunt for the top 3 spots at any of the recent Pan American Championships.

So, are these handball success stories a model to follow or are they just interesting anomalies to the Handball geography of the world which is overwhelmingly centered on Europe?  Well, in one sense they do in fact demonstrate that the sport can become popular in some unlikely locales.  Unlikely in that these Handball hotbeds are surrounded for the most part by other countries where the sport barely even exists.  But such popularization doesn’t come cheap or easy.  More than anything it’s a minor testament to the soft power and financial investment that Mainland France has projected onto these far flung dominions.  There’s almost no movement for independence in these islands for a number of reasons.  France has treated these citizens well, made them feel French to a great extent and developed their internal infrastructure much more so than could be expected on their own. And one small aspect of that infrastructure is ready access to gyms, coaching and equipment for the sport of handball.

But, there’s no denying the significant impact of this investment to the Handball world, particularly to France.  Imagine their national side for the past decade without players like Richardson, Abati, Dinart, Narcisse and Sorhaindo.  They’d still be good, but I don’t think we’d be talking about the same number of World and European titles.

ehfTV Inside the Game Video: http://www.ehftv.com/video/001806