Handball

Of non-european teams and their chance to advance, I'd say Brazil, Argentina and S. Korea have the best chances to advance (I based on the groups they're in, Egypt is in a rather unlucky group (Spain, France, Germany), but I hope they advance and send the French team out in the proces )

4 out of 6 matches are played in the friendly 4-nations tournament (Denmark, Sweden, Brazil, Tunisia) in Denmark. i've only been following Denmark in this small tournament, where our matches have given following results:
Denmark 38-29 Brazil
Denmark 29-29 Sweden

These small 4-nation tournaments are usually played as preparation to the real tournament.

Now, Here's a post about the Danish team, including a description of some of the players. The format I write this in:
Shirt number - name (club) - position - age - caps/goals
Role
Description (only for some players)

#1 - Niklas Landin (Bjerringbro-Silkeborg) - Keeper - 22 - 40/0
Role: First choice goalkeeper
Description: Niklas Landin has been given shirt number 1, after the retirement of Kasper Hvidt and now he has to step up from being the reserve, so naturally there are bigger expectations than there has been during the last two tournaments, where he has been the second choice. Landin is an unusual goalkeeper, as he is very tall (2 m, tallest on the team), slim and not very fast. Most keepers who are built the same way as Landin have great reflexes, a point where he's missing something compared to the best, which he has to make up for in ability to read the game well and take up so much place in the goal, that the shooters doesn't know where to shoot.

#2 - Thomas Mogensen (Flensburg-Handewitt) - playmaker - 27 - 65/154
Role: First choice playmaker

#3 - Mads Christiansen (AaB) - right back - 24 - 19/44
Role: First choice right back

#4 - Lasse Boesen (Flensburg-Handewitt) - left/right back - 31 - 134/370
Role: Second choice right back/wild card

#6 - Jacob Bagersted (AG København) - pivot - 23 - 9/16
Role: Reserve or 3rd choice pivot

#7 - Jesper Jensen (Skjern) - playmaker - 33 - 120/238
Role: Reserve

#8 - Rasmus Lauge (Bjerringbro-Silkeborg) - playmaker - 19 - 4/3
Role: Reserve

#9 - Lars Christiansen (Kolding) - left wing - 38 - 311/1430
Role: Second choice left wing
Description: The international handballing legend is the second most scoring player ever in the Bundesliga and is regarded as one of the best wingers ever. He's known for being fast and a very accurate finisher, but since he left Flensburg, his accuracy has been a bit off and on the national team, he has been made second choice after Anders Eggert, who took his place in Flensburg. An absolute legend though, but not as good as he used to be.

#10 - Simon Kristiansen (Bjerringbro-Silkeborg) - right back - 26 - 12/24
Role: Reserve or third choice right back

#11 - Anders Eggert (Flensburg-Handewitt) - left wing - 28 - 64/239
Role: First choice right wing

#12 - Søren Rasmussen (Flensburg-Handewitt) - keeper - 34 - 23/0
Role: Second choice keeper.

#13 - Bo Spellerberg (Kolding) - playmaker/left back - 31 - 170/258
Role: Second choice playmaker and wild card left back
Description: A few years back, Spellerberg always played in the left back position, because he wasn't an usual left back. His technical ability is among the best in the world, both when it comes to passing and dribbling. On his day, he can tear even the best defense in the world apart, like it was nothing. He has a great shot too, and can shoot in a technically very varied way. He lacks a bit of consistency, and isn't the best at setting up the backs, but when you need a pinpoint pass to a heavily marked pivot or to a winger who hasn't seen a lot of the ball, he's the player to make that pass.

#14 - Michael V. Knudsen - pivot - 32 - 212/709
Role: Wildcard or reserve on the pivot position
Description: Using the possibly best pivot in the world as a reserve probably wouldn't make sense to anyone, but there's a really good reason: He is very injury prone. When he was 100% fit, there was no argument: Knudsen was the best on his position. The problem is that he has been injured for almost a year and even at the last tournament, he was recovering from an injury. Since the Euro cup in 2008, which Denmark one with Knudsen playing a key role, he hasn't played a tournament at 100% (!). He is exceptionally good at everything a pivot needs to be good at.
I've seen Liverpool supporters use Skrtel as a measure of toughness, but Knudsen would make Skrel look like Cristiano Ronaldo on that point.

#15 - Jesper Nøddesbo (FC Barcelona) - pivot - 30 - 119/260
Role: Second choice pivot in a close race with René Toft

#16 - Jannick Green (AaB) - keeper - 21 - 8/0
Role: Reserve keeper

#17 - Lasse Svan Hansen (Flensburg) - right wing - 27 - 54/109
Role: Second choice right wing

#18 - Hans Lindberg (Hamburg SV) - right wing - 29 - 119/292
Role: First choice right wing
Description: The last season's top scorer in the Bunesliga is one of the top players, if not the top player, in the world on the right wing position. For Hamburg he scores loads of goals both in open playing and on penalties. What makes him an exceptional player is the variation in his shooting as well as his conversion rate of chances. Like most other wingers, he's also really fast, which makes him good when it comes to counter attacking.

#19 - René Toft (AG København) - pivot - 26 - 23/43
Role: First or second choice pivot

#22 - Kasper Søndergaard (Kolding) - right back - 29 - 77/177
Role: Second choice right back

#24 - Mikkel Hansen (AG København) - left back - 23 - 53/230
Role: first choice left back
Description: The big star on the Danish team. Mikkel Hansen has one of the most powerful and accurate right hands in the world as well as a great view for his teammates, which means he can play in the playmaker position too, if needed. He lacks a bit of in the defensive play, as well as when things aren't going well for him, he keeps shooting. If he learns to keep his head calm, he's not far from being named the best handballer in the world, because of his brilliant shot and great view of his teammates.

#26 - Kasper Nielsen (Bjerrlingbro-Silkeborg) - defense - 35 - 145/283
Role: Defense and can be used in the attack too if needed.

First match played and Sweden beat Chile by 28-18.

Says it all about the Swedes, good defense bad offense

Denmark-Australia tomorrow.. is the record for the biggest victory in a world cup match in danger?

Why is Australia that bad?

Tradition (or lack thereof) and hopelessly easy qualification (oceania), I guess...

I actually meant to say, "Why? Is Australia that bad?". But yeah I guess, the sport isn't popular over there.

Same guess here.

And the record for biggest victory is Iceland 55-15 Australia...

I also made a list of worst teams ever on the previous page.


EDIT: First half of Denmark - Australia over.. we're leading 21-8 .. honestly, we could do better, I don't think the team was doing well... best player of this first half was the Australian right back Bevan Calvert.
EDIT2: Denmark 45-12 Australia (which is the biggest Danish victory ever). I'll actually give the Australian handball Messi, Bevan Calvert, the MotM award here.

Today's Results:

Iceland 32-26 Hungary
France 32-19 Tunisia
Croatia 27-21 Romania
Germany 30-25 Egypt
South Korea 25-25 Argentina
Norway 35-29 Japan
Denmark 47-12 Australia
Spain 33-22 Bahrain
Poland 35-33 Slovakia
Serbia 25-24 Algeria
Austria 34-24 Brazil

Group A:
Egypt were close, only lost to Germany by 5 goals. France destroyed Tunisia, which makes me even more worried about France. Tunisia are about the same quality as Egypt. Maybe Tunisia has dropped since the African Cup. Although Spain won comfortably against a supposedly weak Bahrain, they let Bahrain score 22 goals! That's only 3 less than what Egypt scored against Germany. That kind of tells me that Spain has a weak defense. So maybe Egypt have a chance against Spain. The battle for 3rd place seems like it will be really tough and not end until the last match is played. Hopefully Egypt goes through from this group of death.

Denmark 47-12 Australia

I must say I've got great respect for those Aussies. They aren't any good, when the opposing defense puts them under pressure, but they play some nice technical handball in the attack, giving our defense some trouble. Especially Bevan Calvert, Australia's best player by far scored 4 and assisted 5 or 6 from his right back position (right backs are supposed to score quite a lot of goals, for those who don't know this game). He plays for the 2. Bundesliga club TSV Altenholz, and has played for two Danish second tier clubs previously. A technically great player, with a hell of a shot, but very short for an RB (only 177 cm or 5 ft 10). Had he been taller and strong, while still showing the same ability and mentality, he might have been playing for a much better club. Their defense is their biggest weakness, and that we didn't score 50+ and break the record for the biggest victory in the history of the tournament was that Mikkel Hansen almost didn't shoot at all (I think he scored 3) and Bo Spellerberg had a bad day (but if he needs to have a bad day, rather have it against Australia than anyone else).
Playing like we did against Australia would only win against a few other teams in this tournament, but a some of out players might have gained quite a bit of confidence from this match and then it was all worth it. We showed our potential in glimpses, and when we accelerated the game, the Aussies didn't know what to do against our attacking force. Another good thing about this game is that now we know that if someone doesn't play well, the replacement is ready and a substitution won't hurt that much, unless it's Mikkel Hansen leaving the game. I'm disappointed in our keeper Niklas Landin, as he let a 2-3 easy shots go in and only saved what should be saved + a penalty. Other than that, we played fairly well, but with none of out players showing brilliant skill. Not a good description of the game, but it's what I can give this time.

France v Egypt game is really intense.

The score is Egypt 6-8 France right now.

Fuck! Egypt miss a break away and then France reverse and score. It would have been Egypt 8-0 France. Now it's 7-10.

France's goalkeeper is really good.

Your keeper isn't that bad either.

Haven't watched a lot of that match, just went to the channel, but is Omeyer actually doing well or do your players have "we're playing against Omeyer, OMFG"-syndrome?
My point is that the French keeper is really good, but sometimes the opposing team makes him look better by half-assing in the shooting, with soft shots or shots right at him. We made that mistake in 09 against France, hopefully you guys aren't doing the same.

Halftime: Egypt 8-12 France

We were really close then started giving France the ball a lot. Now it's a 4 goal lead. If we come out strong in the second half, we can maybe get a draw.

Earlier today, Bahrain lost to Germany 18-38. Tunisia lost to Spain 18-21. Spain's doesn't seem as good as I thought they would be before the tournament. I think Egypt can beat them. If we can beat Bahrain, Tunisia, and Spain, then we can qualify to the next round.

Thuda wrote:Your keeper isn't that bad either.

Haven't watched a lot of that match, just went to the channel, but is Omeyer actually doing well or do your players have "we're playing against Omeyer, OMFG"-syndrome?
My point is that the French keeper is really good, but sometimes the opposing team makes him look better by half-assing in the shooting, with soft shots or shots right at him. We made that mistake in 09 against France, hopefully you guys aren't doing the same.

It's a mix of both, but mostly the keeper is good. We had a penalty in the first half and it was saved. But that penalty shot was just crap.

Just watched the highlights of the Hungary v Norway match. Looked really intense.

2 great saves by Egypt's goalkeeper, but the ball deflects off him and goes back to France and they score. 8-14 now. It's hard to come back now.

No way back for Egypt now. We are playing worse in the second half. 15-24

FT: Egypt 19-28 France

Poor second half from Egypt. France are the holders of the Championship though.

Spain is, IMO, rather overrated. They were really good some years back, but they haven't quite reached that level since. Rather odd, since they have one of the best leagues in the world, and teams like Barcelona, Ciudad Real and Portland San Antonio.

Denmark 39-30 Romania
A good result for the Danish team, showing our attacking force being simply world class when it comes to fast, technical attacking play. Thomas Mogensen was setting up loads of goals, after getting subbed in 15 minutes in and was the best Danish player today. All of our wingers looked efficient, both in organized attacking play and in the counter attaching phase, where Mikkel Hansen assisted loads of goals. Mikkel Hansen missed quite a lot of shots, but if he can find the goal when the matches become big, there's really nothing to worry about for Denmark, when it comes to the attacking play.
However, our defense was non-existent at times, and our goalkeepers didn't save as much as they should be doing. If our defense, our keepers and Hansen gets their good game on: Denmark will become the world champions.
If not... top 6 is still not only possible, but probable.

Fucking hell. Thomas Mogensen is out of the tournament with an injury. The replacement is the 19-year old talent Rasmus Lauge.

Denmark 35-27 Serbia

I didnt' watch the match, as I had to stay late at uni, but as far as I understood, especially Mikkel Hansen and Hans Lindberg were great.
Looking at the score, the Danish team had been the dominating one, at least in second half (first half had us leading 16-14), where our width has been key. I wonder how the young talent Rasmus Lauge has been playing ...

Egypt beat Tunisia 27-23. Spain beat Germany 26-24. France destroy Bahrain. I can't believe Spain beat Germany. I was hoping they would lose so Egypt could have a better chance at qualifying.

By the way my dad tells me this Egypt squad isn't that strong because our older and better generation recently retired. We are just building a team for the future right now. So these results are pretty good for a young team.

With a victory against Algeria, the top 6 is statistically sure for Denmark. Why, you ask, well, let's look at some stats.
With a victory against Algeria, Denmark is sure to bring at least 2 points to the main round (depending on the result against Croatia). South Korea or Argentina will follow Sweden and Poland from the other group, where I assume that whichever of the two teams advance, they will have 0 points.
So we'll have a situation that is. I actually find the biggest "wrong" about this statistic is that Serbia-Croatia will be a very even match, as Serbia won't give up before the 60 minutes are over and fight hard to beat the rivals from Croatia

Denmark/Croatia/Sweden/Poland with somewhere between 2 and 4 points each, while Korea/Argentina and Serbia/Algeria will stand with 0.
This assumption also has the 2 teams with points beat the two without, which will leave them between 4 and 6.
I'll take the scenario that Sweden and Croatia win their respective groups and that bottom teams will keep losing until they face each other.
Before the two mathces that decide everything, we'll have:

Sweden 6 pts
Croatia 6 pts
Denmark 4 pts
Poland 4 pts

in the top.

That leaves two matches for, where one is played the 25th January, a day where my former high school holds the annual open house arrangement, so naturally, Denmark wins (we always do when that happens). That lead won't be taken and we will be top 3 in our main round group, which will have us in 6th place.. we just need to beat Algeria and Argentina or Korea...

at least statistically.

I'll throw my statistical post above out the window, as Argentina has just beaten Sweden.

While this would be normal for a football match, I'd say it's a huge upset in the handballing world.

Argentina - thanks for beating Sweden, now, Sweden, please beat Poland. kthxbai. (I would hate the statistically sure victory for us being against Argentina)

Denmark 26-19 Algeria

Another match where I had to stay late at uni. My compliments to the Algerian team for keeping us under 30 goals, but when you only score 19, you rarely win and never against Denmark.
5 teams stand with 8 points for 4 matches in each of their groups: France, Spain, Iceland, Denmark and Poland.
As a Dane, I'd like to say: Thank you Serbia for taking a point against Croatia (24-24). If we beat Croatia tomorrow, we're really close to the semi-finals already. Forza Danish dynamite.

Egypt lose to Spain.

Now we must beat Bahrain and Germany must lose their last match against Tunisia. Beating Bahrain will be no problem, but Germany losing to Tunisia is very tough. Even if it happens, we have get a huge goal difference.

Tonight, it's time for the final matches before the main round, where the big teams play for the 3-4 points in the main round and less well placed teams play to qualify.

Group A:
France and Spain are playing for 2 points in the main round.

3 teams can take the final spot with 0 points in the main round. If Germany gets a point against Tunisia, they're through. If Egypt beats Bahrain by the score Tunisia beats Germany with +10, they're through. If Tunisia beats Germany and Egypt doesn't beat Bahrain by 10+ Tunisia's advantage, Tunisia are through.

Group B:
Iceland and Hungary are sure to take two points through. Hungary can't take more through, while Norway has to beat Iceland to take two points with them. If Norway loses, Iceland takes 4 points.

Group C:
Denmark has taken two points through, while Serbia and Croatia have one each. The Serbia-Romania match is literally without any meaning now, as neither can use the points from that match, while Algeria-Australia decides the amount of point each team takes to President's cup (losers tournament). Denmark-Croatia (preview will be posted later) decides if Denmark goes through with 2, 3 or 4 points and if Croatia goes through with 1, 2 or 3. It's also the best attack (Denmark) vs the best defense (Croatia)

Group D:
Sweden-Croatia is the big match. Sweden currently has 0 or 2 points (depending on other results) to the main round, while Poland has a sure 2 points and are going for 2 more against Sweden. The Swedes will probably be hoping for a Korean victory against Slovakia and an Argentinian defeat against Chile, where the goal difference between Korea (+4) and Argentina (+9) gets evened goes in Korean favor.

Pique on the Spain team?