Handball World Championship (Men)

[Maradona37]

Anyone interested? Hosted by Denmark, Norway and Croatia. Begins in 14 January, runs for a few weeks.

I am developing interest in other sports such as track and field, swimming, volleyball and handball since the Olympics. Could watch some of this when there's no interesting football on.

I believe the women's version is at the end of the year also

2025 World Men's Handball Championship - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Porque]

Will Lenglet be there?

 

[Maradona37]

Will Lenglet be there?

Good one.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

Watched a big handball tournament a few years ago, didnt know anymore if it was WC or EURO but was pretty exciting, will probably watch it again

 

[khaled_a_d]

Another high expectation > bid disappointment is loading for Egypt.

 

[Maradona37]

Another high expectation > bid disappointment is loading for Egypt.

I know nothing about how good most teams are other than what I gleaned from the Olympics. At the risk of sounding Eurocentric I expect the best teams are all in Europe? I could google it in seconds I guess. Looking at the wikipedia page Egypt are the only non-Euro team in the top pot so I guess so.

Who do you think is likely to win it? Germany?

Edit: in fact, Egypt appear to be the only non-Euro team in the top two pots - the other 15 teams are European.

 

[khaled_a_d]

I know nothing about how good most teams are other than what I gleaned from the Olympics. At the risk of sounding Eurocentric I expect the best teams are all in Europe? I could google it in seconds I guess. Looking at the wikipedia page Egypt are the only non-Euro team in the top pot so I guess so.

Who do you think is likely to win it? Germany?

Edit: in fact, Egypt appear to be the only non-Euro team in the top two pots - the other 15 teams are European.

Handball is a European game, it is game where giants excels. Best teams has average height comparable to Basketball teams. In a world where average male height is 1.7m, while it is more than 10cm higher than that in some European countries, with less need if athletic bounce, but bigger need of wide body, it is a tailored made Sport for Europe. Add to that it isn't really a popular one, and yeah. It is entirely European.

Egypt has popularised the sports under the current IHF president, Hassan Moustafa, who was Egypt's federation president, and managed the game here almost perfectly. We won a youth WC in the 1990's that we hosted, I think around 1993, and it made the game popular here. A huge advantage and a rare sight outside of Europe.

If my memory serve me right, we are the first team out of Europe to play semi finals in the World Cup (2001) and the 2nd one to reach Olympics semi-finals. The former we were robbed by the referee against France.
Tunisia made a semi-finals in WC, Qatar had one with an all naturalised team. Korea has final appearance in Seol Olympics. Curiously, we are the only team to reach semifinals in either without being the hosts.

We competes well, and we are one of the more entertaining teams, but usually we end up losing games we were leading.

My uneducated theory is that, we have a team almost 2 inch in average shorter than opponents, it takes a toll by the end of games. Just a physical disadvantage.

 

[Maradona37]

Handball is a European game, it is game where giants excels. Best teams has average height comparable to Basketball teams. In a world where average male height is 1.7m, while it is more than 10cm higher than that in some European countries, with less need if athletic bounce, but bigger need of wide body, it is a tailored made Sport for Europe. Add to that it isn't really a popular one, and yeah. It is entirely European.

Egypt has popularised the sports under the current IHF president, Hassan Moustafa, who was Egypt's federation president, and managed the game here almost perfectly. We won a youth WC in the 1990's that we hosted, I think around 1993, and it made the game popular here. A huge advantage and a rare sight outside of Europe.

If my memory serve me right, we are the first team out of Europe to play semi finals in the World Cup (2001) and the 2nd one to reach Olympics semi-finals. The former we were robbed by the referee against France.
Tunisia made a semi-finals in WC, Qatar had one with an all naturalised team. Korea has final appearance in Seol Olympics. Curiously, we are the only team to reach semifinals in either without being the hosts.

We competes well, and we are one of the more entertaining teams, but usually we end up losing games we were leading.

My uneducated theory is that, we have a team almost 2 inch in average shorter than opponents, it takes a toll by the end of games. Just a physical disadvantage.

Fair enough, thanks for the info. Aye I overlooked the height advantage despite watching it a bit in the Olympics (and prior Olympics). That all makes sense then about it being a game for giants like basketball is.

It's interesting that Asian and African teams have got far here and there in tournaments though.

Hopefully Egypt can do well for you, I guess with your personally not expecting much you'd be happy with semis.