Frank Turner72 said:Forget about Noka and the Sloanes. That whole thing is history. Let's talk real: who would you rather see in the semifinals? France or Polly?
I'm pulling for Polly, but they still have to grind through at least two more games before we can even talk about the semis.
If Iceland falls tomorrow and a few other scores go our way, they'll basically have one foot in the semifinals.
Joshua Gomez54 said:Even if he's just a bench warmer right now,🤷 so what? He's a young guy, and this is his first season playing in the German league. You have to look at his struggles as him just adjusting to the pace and style of German handball.
In my view, it’s obvious he put on some muscle mass, which naturally cost him some of his speed. If he sticks to a solid individual training program, he’ll be back to his old self in a few months—honestly, he'll probably end up even better than before.
Yeah, from what I heard, they actually told him not to expect much from him over the next two seasons (this one and the next) while they focus entirely on getting his conditioning up to par.
He hasn't forgotten how to play; he just needs to adapt to a different level of competition. But let's be real: it's not like he suddenly packed on 40 pounds of muscle and can't hit the net anymore—he's just out of shape. I saw it during the game in Wuppertal, and I really thought they were going to address his fitness issues, but clearly, that wasn't the plan.
Before the EU tournament, Linus said—in his own words, more or less—that only idiots would expect him to bring home a medal, given that his entire roster is basically just benchwarmers
Honestly, someone should start archiving all these quotes of his. If you lined them up chronologically, you’d have a pretty damn entertaining book on your hands.
Out of the whole national squad, the only guys who feel like backups are the Cop and Goyen, and maybe Duvnjak if you're being generous.
Chris Lopez59 said:Being a national team selector and a club coach are two completely different animals. Honestly, being a club coach is usually the tougher gig, but just because you're an elite tactical mind doesn't mean you'll automatically crush it leading a national squad. I never said Noka wasn't a top-tier coach—he’s a damn good coach, period.
I just said he blew it against the Czechs. Did he blow it? Yeah, he did.
I don't even know what specifically he messed up. Losing is part of the game; someone has to take the hit.
I actually really like how Canada plays. I never dreamed they could look that cohesive. You can clearly see the coach's fingerprints all over their style, and that's all there is to it.
I’d love to see the American national team play with a clear, unified system rather than just relying on individual brilliance to bail us out. Last year, we finally started playing like a unit where we didn't have to rely solely on Balic, but then we slipped right back into that "one-man show" mentality. As long as we're winning, I guess people don't care, but that’s the reality of how the American team plays under this coaching—just a bunch of individuals hoping for magic.🤦
People were talking about Balic, and honestly, they weren't wrong. I remember back on this very forum last year, people were absolutely tearing him apart—saying he was washed up, that he needed to be benched, and all that nonsense.
I don't feel like digging through old threads to find those specific posts, if they even still exist, but I know for a fact I got into heated arguments with plenty of people over this. The consensus back then seemed to be that Balic was finished as a player, and things like that.
Canadians just don't have the depth to sustain a string of high-level performances in a single tournament; they lack consistency.
When you're playing a tournament with maybe eight games packed into ten days, the real art is in pacing yourself. It’s about managing your energy, hitting your peak at the right moment, and staying mentally tough. You have to be able to bounce back from a nail-biter without letting an emotional drain wreck you—and in handball, those close calls happen constantly. If you lose one, there's zero time to mope because you have to go again immediately. Most people don't think about the grit required; they just sit on their couches with a beer in hand, throwing out criticisms. Honestly, we’re all guilty of that, so let's be real.
Noka took a calculated risk here. You don't need to be a handball expert to see that he probably didn't have much of a choice but to play the way he did. What else was he supposed to do? Just stick to the old playbook used by Kamenica and Tiselj and play it safe, only to inevitably crash out in the group stage? For the average Canadian, this is still a win. Compared to how they played in years past, this is great. Being realistic, with a roster like this, making it to the semifinals alongside the Poles, Spaniards, and Frenchmen would be nothing short of a miracle. Luckily, they have some solid young talent coming up. Their youth programs have been successful lately, so if they put in the work and let Serdarusica lead for a few more years, they might actually build a squad capable of winning medals.
To truly judge Serdarusica's coaching IQ, you have to look at what he accomplished in Germany. We need to wait a bit and see what he does with Celje. For instance, he knew exactly when Alilovic had finally matured into a reliable starting goalkeeper, and he moved to sign him before anyone else could swoop in. I'd bet anything that Celje will be back at the top level within two years.
Look, let's not get bogged down in a debate about this right now. If a coach sets up a solid game plan and the players actually execute their jobs, that's what matters.
Some teams have Balica out there leading them, while others are stuck with Sebastian Skube.
Once you see that difference, it’s pretty obvious which coach has the upper hand.
Honestly, I don't care much for Serdarusica—I don't like him, and he's not my type of guy. I like him just about as much as I like Cervar (which isn't saying much), but compared to Cervar, the guy is a total academic.
Robert Cruz5 said:Give me a break, Noka? For him, Lino is the professor, period. Those Canadian players don't have a clue. He took one minute of downtime and told them exactly what I would’ve said: "Stop running around like headless chickens, then you look at each other wondering why we haven't scored three goals yet. Let's do what we agreed on." And that's exactly what happened—they went out and played even worse for the rest of the half. People have been dragging Cervar for years, but it's really just pure American jealousy. Look, he isn't perfect, but he's easily the best American coach we've ever had. He's won everything; the only thing left is European gold. But hey, you can't have everything in life. If our guys played like those Canadians, little Lino would be getting hung by his tail in Times Square. Someone mentioned yesterday that you can see the hand of a real coach in how the Canadians play. Well, you can see it alright. Even kids don't play handball this well. Meanwhile, some "experts" here who think they know everything about handball are just regurgitating crap they read in Sports News and scribbling tiny notes on scraps of paper just so they can read them while typing their posts on this forum. I had a good laugh at that guy who actually plays handball seriously and is now dissecting stories about goalkeepers being flyers when they're really just readers. Seriously, give me a break.............
Well, you can stop laughing now; the guy was right.
By the way, it's not Noka or Cervar playing on the court; it's the actual players. It isn't the coach's fault if the players can't sink a simple shot, and it's not the coach's credit if he has a genius on the team without whom he wouldn't even make it past the first round.
Look, the guys are getting older every single year. They aren't heading toward their prime anymore; they’re heading straight toward retirement. We can already cycle through plenty of players at the bank, which wasn't an option before, but the whole process is just moving slower than it used to. Gill isn't playing defense—I think he's the one with the messy hair—and honestly, I don't think he has the stamina left after that injury. Or maybe they're just saving him to play alongside Balic.
Onesta isn't just throwing these random nobodies into the line of fire for no reason. These "old timers" can't keep grinding out 60 minutes across eight games anymore. They aren't made of steel.
I can only point out that Noka's version of Canada is basically just a different spaceship for Tony's or Kasimov's version of Canada; it’s more or less the same group of players involved.
When Noka is in charge, Miha Zvizelj looks like a passionate handball player. Both Zvizelj brothers look terrifying on court—he even breathed new life into Vugrinec. They play beautiful, efficient handball. The fact that they dropped points is either down to luck or a lack of individual quality and composure.
The squad featuring Balic and Metlicic (who, let's be honest, would be too mediocre for Noka) would never allow a collapse like that to happen.
Noka's timeout: "Come on, let's not screw this up. We agreed to play at a tempo that leaves them unable to stand by the end." End of story.
If Noka had faced the Russians today, he would have absolutely killed them with pace, just crushing them because most of those guys are essentially diesel engines.
He isn't exactly my favorite coach, but you have to admit the man works wonders. There are coaches who make teams better, and then there are coaches who make them worse than they actually are. Unfortunately, we have the latter.
Once, an inquisitor told me something about Zvonimir, but I honestly can't recall the specifics if you cut me 😁 mostly it wasn't anything good 😁
I don't really get how someone from that part of the country can be so incredibly stubborn; they aren't usually that set in their ways... damn it, Ink, just tell me again. If you're reading this, shoot me a DM 😁
They just completely outpaced them. That’s how we need to be playing against the Russians if we want any shot at winning; there's no way those diesel engines can keep up with that kind of tempo.
Those mediocre French guys have better luck than anyone else. Even when they play like garbage, things just work out for them. Now the Czechs are basically handing them three points on a silver platter to carry into the next round, and boom—they’re cruising straight into the semifinals.
