Handball

Talk about the sport of handball here.

This is sport is highly underrated in the USA (most people don't even know anything about it), but I know in Egypt it's the second biggest sport and Egypt is actually one of the best teams in the sport, both at youth and professional levels. It's also pretty popular in Europe.

It's rather nice to watch.

How's Egypt on the world rankings?

chemicalrubber wrote:It's rather nice to watch.

How's Egypt on the world rankings?

Men's Ranking: 15
Men's Junior Ranking: 7
Men's Youth Ranking: 5

Our Men's team reached the final of the African Cup the last 4 times (winning two with the last one in 2008). Our Junior team placed 4th in the 2009 Men's Junior World Handball Championship. Our Youth team won the Olympics in 2010. Our Beach team placed 1st, 4th, and 4th in 2004, 2006, and the 2008 Men's Beach Handball World Championships respectively.

I believe we're the Andorra of the Handball world..

Dan wrote:I believe we're the Andorra of the Handball world..

I can't find England in the rankings.

There's no England, it's Great Britain and has only recently been reformed because of the Olympics.

So, we've never entered any international tournament..

Is Henry on the French team?

And is Suarez on the Uruguayan one?

SBSP_FIFA wrote:Is Henry on the French team?

SBSP_FIFA wrote:And is Suarez on the Uruguayan one?

Good ones.

Suarez is of course the keeper of Uruguay while Henry is the playmaker for France.

Handball is great fun, where is Australia in the world rankings?

Ah, handball. I love that sport, it's the second biggest in Denmark too.

Egypt looks to have a bright future in the sport. Hopefully soon, Euro Cup =/= World Cup, which it, no offence, has practically been.

European qualifier, Denmark 41-33 Belarus

Mikkel Hansen was great in that match. Makes me wonder why Barca bought Rutenka, because there was no doubt that
Hansen >> Rutenka

Other than that, the attacking play was buisness as almost usual. Spellerberg is still a world class passer with an amazing view of the game, Mikkel Hansen has an insane shot and our pivots know how to score goals (Nøddesbo scored a few and Toft scored 6 or 7). The surprise in the attacking play was Kasper Irming. The right back showed great pace and view, mixed with his good shot.

I don't se anything that big to worry about in the attack other than efficiency (and that's said about a team who scored 41 - could easily have scored 50+). But out defense was sloppy at times and our keepers were far from great. Hopefully, the defense and esepcially the keepers will do better against Switzerland, because we probably won't be in a situation where we should win by that kind of margin. The sloppy attacking play by the end of the match, which gave Belarus a good deal of fastbreak goals simply should not happen on this level.

If you want to see like pro handball players go to http://www.ushandball.org/
Although there might not be a lot there probably are a few here and there because its mainly played in nyc
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In women's handball, Denmark qualified for the semi-finals, by beating Croatia 31-18.

In mens handball, the squad for the world cup has been named:

Keepers:
Niklas Landin (Bjerringbro-Silkeborg)
Søren Rasmussen (Flensburg-Handewitt)

Defense:
Anders Oechsler (Kolding)
Kasper Nielsen (Bjerringbro-Silkeborg)

Right wings:
Hans Lindberg (Hamburg)
Lasse Svan (Flensburg-Handewitt)

Left wings:
Lars Christiansen (Kolding)
Anders Eggert (Flensburg-Handewitt)

Right back:
Mads Christensen (AaB)

Left backs:
Mikkel Hansen (AG København)
Lasse Boesen (Flensburg-Handewitt)

Playmakers:
Thomas Mogensen (Flensburg-Handewitt)
Bo Spellerberg (Kolding)

Pivots:
René Toft (AG København)
Jesper Nøddesbo (FC Barcelona)


Other than the 14 mentioned players, 2 of the reserves will be called up too
Reserves:
Goalkeeper:
Jannick Green (AaB)

Pivot*:
Michael Knudsen (Flensburg-Handewitt)
Jacob Bagersted (AG København)

Right backs*:
Kasper Søndergaard (Kolding)
Kasper Irming (Aarhus)
Simon Kristiansen (Bjerringbro-Silkeborg)

Playmaker:
Jesper Jensen (Skjern)

*Of the reserves, one of the right backs and one of the pivots will probably be called up.

EDIT: All players who are out of the squad with an injury, will have their names written with a line through.

Group A
Bahrain
Egypt
France
Germany
Spain
Tunisia

Group B
Austria
Brazil
Hungary
Iceland
Japan
Norway

Group C
Algeria
Australia
Croatia
Denmark
Romania
Serbia

Group D
Argentina
Chile
South Korea
Poland
Slovakia
Sweden

Egypt is in a really tough group. The top 3 advance to the next stage. There are three European teams in our group including defending champions, France. Also, Tunisia is in our group, whom beat us in the African Cup final.

Thanks for the groups mate.

Your group does look really tough. Bahrain will probably end with the big 0 in your group, while the match between you and Tunisia looks really important.

Ours.. Well, Croatia is one of the best teams out there, and Serbia are good too (even though we usually end up beating them). I don't know much about the Romanian team, tbh. Neither the Algerian. Australia = walkover.

Thuda wrote:Thanks for the groups mate.

Your group does look really tough. Bahrain will probably end with the big 0 in your group, while the match between you and Tunisia looks really important.

Ours.. Well, Croatia is one of the best teams out there, and Serbia are good too (even though we usually end up beating them). I don't know much about the Romanian team, tbh. Neither the Algerian. Australia = walkover.

I don't know about anybody in your group except Algeria. Egypt played them in the African Cup semi-final and beat them 26-24. Algeria also drew with Tunisia in their group earlier in the tournament. They are no pushover, but I don't think they are a match to the strong European teams.

The Romanian womens team beat ours in the EC bronze match.

About the mens team, Anders Oechsler is out of the tournament with an injury, which has given Kasper Nielsen a safe spot on the team. I don't know what this means regarding Knudsen, if his spot on the team is safe too, or he's battling it out with Jesper Jensen.

About the groups, the toughest look to be A and B.

Jacob Bagersted has been called up for the squad, and will possibly play if Knudsen is too injured to go.

The Danish league top scorer, Kasper Irming, became injured in the cup semi-final and can't play in the tournament.

When does the World Championship start?

The opener is played the 13th january - Sweden vs Chile

Egypt starts out against Germany, the 14th january, at 18.15 CET

Denmark starts out beating the shit out of Australia the 14th january at 20.15 CET.

Some of the historically worst teams
- USA has one of the worst team in world cup history - they have qualified for 6 world cups, losing 25 matches (0/0/25) and with a goal difference of -401.
- Canada is up there too, with 3 world cups, 11 lost matches (0/0/11) and a goal difference of -214
- Luxemburg must, however, be the absolutely worst, 1 world cup, 3 matches (0/0/3) and a GD of -108.
- Australia has been in 6 world cups, played 30 matches (1/0/29) and a GD of -589. Their victory was in 2003 against Greenland
- Greenland has been in 3 world cups, played 16 matches (2/0/14) and a GD of -144. Their victories were against USA (2001) and Australia (2007)
- Great Britain (which has an unified team in handball) has never played in a world cup. Neither has Ireland

The biggest victory in a world cup match, was also in 2003, Iceland 55-15 Australia.

It's really popular in Ireland but it's just counties playing against each others I think.

SBSP_FIFA wrote:And is Suarez on the Uruguayan one?

Is Zigic on the Serbian one?

Scholes plays for Great Britain, Messi plays for Argentina, and Ronaldo plays for Portugal.

Does Maradona play for Argentina as well?

Or is he their former manager?

Danny wrote:Does Maradona play for Argentina as well?

Or is he their former manager?

He is a national legend. He was manager for about a year, but decided to quit his job and concentrate on being Messi's mentor. He is also trying to get his grandson in the game at an early age.

I think Messi would make a great right winger in handball too (or left winger, I just assumed he's left handed).

Argentina are the current pan-american champions.

There's a show match between a Bundesliga players not called up for world cup all stars vs a legend team, with quite a lot of Swedes

I'm missing a Danish winger on the legends team (Stryger or Jacobsen), though. Since the old generation of wingers, Christiansen, Jacobsen, Stryger - the best Danish wingers are some of the top players on their positions in the world. a good match though, and a great show match.

I'll advice every american interested in this great sport to follow the world cup