Tomorrow starts the handball world cup. Is anybody interested in it? I will be held in Portugal and I hope to go and watch the final as it will be played eight here in Lisbon.
For those who don't know, handball is a game similar to football (the european one), but played with the hands as the name shows and it's very popular in Europe (especially in the northern and Eastern plus Iberia), the arab world and in the far East, although here more within the ladies (Korea is a world power in the ladies).
Who do you think will win it? Will it be one more time Sweden, or are they to old? The same can be said about Russia. Is it this time that Germany finally shows the potential they have? Can Spain, underachievers also in handball finally win this? And France, will they successfully defend their title? Other teams to watch will be Yugoslavia, Denmark (really strong, may steal from Sweden the leadership of the game), Egypt and even Iceland. As for Portugal the goal is the 7th spot that earns a place in the Olympics in Athens 2004. It will be hard but it's possible.

Well, handball isn't a big thing here in America, but personally i think it is really fun and competitive. I used to play all the time in gym class and even during sometimes during lunch when the teachers would let us, it is too bad the US won't televise. (tell me if i am wrong)

Originally posted by Unregister
Well, handball isn't a big thing here in America

Yeah, I can imagine that. In what other sport could Greenland decimate the USA, as happened a few months ago in the qualifications for the WC: Greenland-27, USA-7. :lol:
And today Iceland beat Australia by 55-15. Can you imagine that? But Iceland is the country with the highest % of handball players in the world.

Originally posted by MCdread


Yeah, I can imagine that. In what other sport could Greenland decimate the USA...

How bout Curling?

:p

France is my favorite : we have our Réunion fighters :
Narcisse, Cazal and.....

JACKSON RIDCHARDSON (mvp2002)!

http://www.lequipe.fr/Aussi/Jackson.html and http://www.lequipe.fr/Aussi/Mond2003H_JackC.html
http://www.ff-handball.org/cgi-bin/cv.cgi?51

It's a pretty big sport over here, but I never really got into it. A lot of my friends do play it though. I have no idea who's going to win.

We're rapidly approaching the final of the competition. There are only 4 teams left to win the title. Tomorrow we have the semifinals Spain vs Croatia and Germany vs. France. It's a new world order for the sport: the two big boys of the last decade -Sweden and Russia- were beaten. Sweden particulary was disapointing, in a campaign culminated with a humiliation at the hands of the french yesterday. Too bad that Germany vs. France isn't the final as they have been clearly the best two teams of the competition, although it can be said that Germany had an easier rout to this stage.This should be a hell of a game though: reggae rastaman Jackson Richardson from the french Antilles against the punk tattoo man Stefan Kretzschmar.

Cool. We've used it at my fencing club for a warmup before, although I'm sure we mangled the rules.

How did your Portuguese go?

And more importantly, how strong is NZ?

Originally posted by lord_byron_nz
Cool. We've used it at my fencing club for a warmup before, although I'm sure we mangled the rules.

How did your Portuguese go?

And more importantly, how strong is NZ?

We didn't go as good as wanted, in the vicinities of a 10th place. Well it's still our best position ever, but being the hosts and all hat was supposed to be a good boost for another stage of evolution in the game. But the national federation is doing a good job: 10 years ago we were a 3rd rate team. Now we are a moderate power. The goal of the federation is to have a team capable of becoming worl champion 10 years from now.

Abou NZ, I don't think they are very good. There is one place for Oceania, but it allways goes to Australia, and their goal is only to try to avoid last place. Which they did this time btw, but it was thanks to a win over Greenland. But hey, you still rock in rugby. :goodjob:

And Basketball! 3rd in the World Champs!

Ok, just checked...there are 5 teams in the Oceania federation. Austrlia beat Vanuatu (51:14) and Cook Islands (Part of NZ so we'll claim 'em, 35:7). New Zealand and Samoa did not enter.

But of course, how could I forget the Tall Blacks. ;)

surely Argentina are the champions of this particular sport ;)

Originally posted by Rodgers
surely Argentina are the champions of this particular sport ;)

:confused:

Edit: ok, I goy it. The current champions are France, Russia in the olympics and Sweden in the Euro championship. The later are also traditionally the bigest power.

Originally posted by MCdread
This should be a hell of a game though: reggae rastaman Jackson Richardson from the french Antilles against the punk tattoo man Stefan Kretzschmar.


What !!!! Are you pulling my leg ???
Jackson is NOT from Antilles, but from REUNION ISLAND !! (in the Indian Ocean, I mean).
He is considered here as our worldwide Ambassador (such as Patrick CAZAL, and the young Daniel NARCISSE, which would soon become too)

Originally posted by MCdread


:confused:

Edit: ok, I goy it. The current champions are France, Russia in the olympics and Sweden in the Euro championship. The later are also traditionally the bigest power.


And for the first time, in an official competition, France umiliate both Sweden and Russia.....

Let's go Germany !

Hmm - I saw a handball team staying in the same hotel as me in Foz do Iguassu, Brazil in December.

I was watching them, watch a video of a game, and I couldn't understand the goalkeepers position. Admittedly he must make things difficult or the 'striker' but in nearly one hundred goals, I only saw one attempt saved.

..if that makes sense.

Originally posted by Elsaak

Jackson is NOT from Antilles, but from REUNION ISLAND !! (in the Indian Ocean, I mean).
He is considered here as our worldwide Ambassador (such as Patrick CAZAL, and the young Daniel NARCISSE, which would soon become too)
Let's go Germany !


Oops... Sorry about that. How about Gilles, he's great too. I have tickets for the match this afternoon btw. It's gonna be great! :)

so JoeM, after the French defeat of today against the pathetic Germans, you should have an explaination :
their goalkeeper made a great great match....
Você ja fui pra Foz do Igusso ? E legal, nao é ?

And you have seen only ONE Gilles (the older), his young brother was injury... This is a quite good family.

Originally posted by Elsaak

Let's go Germany !

Well, it seems that your wish came true! :lol:

And you have seen only ONE Gilles (the older), his young brother was injury... This is a quite good family.

I know, I've seen the other on TV only. Too bad for France that Bertrand Gilles was almost absent of the match. He got twice two minutes suspensions earlier in the first half. It was a great match and really fun because I had a lot of french fans in the rows behind me and the germans were besides me and in front of me. There was a great spirit. You are right about the german keaper H. Fritz but Martini was in great shape too. In my neutral eyes I think Germany won fairly in the end.

The other match, Cratia-Spain, was even great. Two extra-times were needed to find the winner. For 40 minutes it looked like Spain would crush, they were allways leading by 4 to 6 goals. Then the croatians came and the spaniards suffered a lot and were loosing by 3 in the last 4 minutes. They leveled the score with 1 second to go. This was due to an error in the croatian defence which made them completelly mad with each other. Some were even crying. In the extra-time the spanish dominated but the croatians managed to equalise with a 7 meter free shot (the equivalent to a penalty in handball) in the last minute and defended desperatly with 1 player less (due to a 2 minutes suspension). The croatian keaper made an excellent save in the last seconds and a new extra-time was needed. The crowd was crazy: the croatians, the large spanish contingent, the frencg behind me were on a low-profile, still digesting the defeat, the germans next to me were cheering for the croatians, so were the portuguese (for obvious reasons...). In the second half of the second extra-time the croatians got a two goal lead and they never let the spanish equalize even if they had (again) 1 men less. In the final play they managed a goal two maintain a two goal lead and the match was over. The spanish didn't even try to reduce, it was only 10 seconds to go.

So for today I think the germans are the favourites, even more because of the tremendous effort the croatians had to take in the semifinal. But it's a final and everything can happen.

By the way Elsaak, where did you learn portuguese?

Eu fiquei no Brasil durante 4 meses, em SP (durante a Copa '94, légal !!)
Tenho ainda amigoes pra la, e eu tenho vontade de voltar em octumbre.

Mas nao conheço Portugal ainda....

Originally posted by Elsaak

Você ja fui pra Foz do Igusso ? E legal, nao é ?



Isso, muito legal. E agora, eu tem tres cem photografia...so da cachoeiras!

Originally posted by Elsaak


Eu fiquei no Brasil durante 4 meses, em SP (durante a Copa '94, légal !!)
Tenho ainda amigoes pra la, e eu tenho vontade de voltar em octumbre.

Mas nao conheço Portugal ainda....



Eu vai a Sao Paulo em dois semanas para oito dias...

E o qué focê vai fazer la ?
Estudiar ? Trabalhar ? Viajar (por oitos meses, é demais !!!)

I'm French, and the Brazilians took back OUR Futebol WorldCup , but I still love this country... ;-))

Originally posted by Elsaak
E o qué focê vai fazer la ?
Estudiar ? Trabalhar ? Viajar (por oitos meses, é demais !!!)

I'm French, and the Brazilians took back OUR Futebol WorldCup , but I still love this country... ;-))

Casamento...com minha namorada da tres anos. Eu ja nao sais o quando, mais nos vamos vai a Nossa Senhora do Brasil.

*Your* cup ha, ha!

Et tu aimez habite en Brasil, pourqoui?

(Forgive my Portuguese and French, but I have to practise!)

I particulary appraciate the people ; I used to lived in a familly, the girls take me away with all their friends, it was as if I was a member of their familly.
I was working in siderurgic industry, in Sao Caetano (and I had to take a bus+a metro+a train during 3 hours a day...!)

So great it was !!


Yes, it was OUR cup, and I still cannot understand how this tragedic korean journey happened...

Bravo! Estou impressionado. :goodjob: Têm ainda muito a melhorar em termos de ortografia, mas não está nada mal mesmo. Só é preciso é deixarem de lado esses termos brasileiros e passarem a usar as palavras do português correcto. ;)

On topic: the world cup is over. And the winner is... CROATIA. Great final yesterday, and an absolutely fantastic first half. Great plays and great and skilled athletes. In the end the croatian keaper, Sola, was the key to victory, saving every ball whe it was necessary. In the other side, Hennig Fritz, despite being considered the best goalie of the competition, couldn't emulate Sola. The germans also felt too much the absence of a handfull of injured players (Stephan, Zerbe, Kretzschmar). Kretzschamr in particular was a great blow (broke a finger in the semifinal), I don't remeber any goal scored by his substitute. But the croatians deserved the victory, and it was a hell of a surprise. After the gold in the olympics in 1996 they were absent of the world top and his coach is not very known even in Croatia. He only steped because no one else wanted the job, didn't want to loose reputation with a hopeless team.
France beat Spain to get the bronze medal. Sweden is the disapointment of the WC. Prior to the competition they had a record of 14 consecutive presences in the semifinals of major competitions and I think 9 consecutive finals. They were 13th and need to do a serious renovation of the team like Croatia did.

Originally posted by Elsaak
Yes, it was OUR cup, and I still cannot understand how this tragedic korean journey happened...

Probably the same way you failed to win the handball WC or we, portuguese failed in korea too: over confidence.

you are defenitly right !!!