Handball World Championship (Men)

Maradona37

Maradona37

Well-known member
khaled_a_d said:
Another high expectation > bid disappointment is loading for Egypt.
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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

khaled_a_d

Senior Member
Maradona37 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

Maradona37

Well-known member
khaled_a_d said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
Barcaman

Barcaman

Administrator
Staff member
khaled_a_d said:
Like a clock.

This time we found a new way to get defeated in a way to destroy the fans moral. Freakin creative
Click to expand...

I don't watch it even though it's played in Croatia. Apparently we got into semis in last seconds. Only learned about it because there were fireworks outside. :

Was visiting parents and caught last minute of Egypt - France. That was a lucky win for France in that last second.
 
Joan

Joan

Well-known member
I usually only watch big tournaments and some club games, but it never ceases to amaze me how much refereeing can influence this sport.

Tonight, it felt like France benefited from a much softer criteria than Egypt. Some of Egypt’s disallowed goals likely would have stood if they were scored by France.

Similar with Croatia against Slovenia, and Hungary against Croatia tonight.

Handball is a simple game, 14 players chase the ball for 60 minutes, and in the end, the referees have the final say.

Or the French always win.

Both work.
 
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