1105 posts shown.
electricraven6 said:Since you're clearly "on the inside," I'm curious—what’s your take on Perkovac's coaching style?
slybadger99 said:Look, I didn't explicitly say he *was* great—just that he shows some good potential (and by "good," I mean if we’re talking about talent, since I wasn't even sure of his name to begin with). Personally, Mus didn't really blow me away, but maybe that's just because my standards for these young players are way too high... who knows. 😢
Nicole Palmer6 said:He basically hugged a player and got slapped with a two-minute penalty—completely lost his mind there... then right wing got called for a two-minute penalty too because he intentionally used his foot, so we ended up playing a man down for a minute and a half. Naturally, the Danes just capitalized on that and knocked in two goals...
Robert Cruz5 said:Do I really need to remind you how they let Karabatic elbow Balic right in the neck last year? You know—that iconic photo where Balic and Karabatic are just trading stares? Even back in the Egel era, they wouldn't even toss him out for stuff like that. And honestly, it’s great that you're an official too. So you get it—the rules say if you're targeting the head or neck, it’s a two-minute penalty, and in extreme cases, it’s a red card, right?
Robert Cruz5 said:The same crew basically ran us over during the 2010 season finals against the Danes—they wouldn't let us even get within a single point of them. Honestly, I’m surprised you forgot how they called a foul on Caleb when he had a perfectly clean fast break. And don't even get me started on how they were calling those crossing moves. Plus, was that two-minute penalty on Gojun yesterday actually legit?
Robert Cruz5 said:Look, I don't care about the pipette thing. You mentioned you used to play—or maybe you still do—handball. Either way, just tell me: what’s it like when you realize the refs aren't even playing the same game? Like, they're using one set of rules for you and a completely different playbook for your opponent.
Robert Cruz5 said:This time we decided to go for a gritty, unappealing style just to see if it actually works. Unlike before, we’ve got three solid pillars holding up the defense now—all we really need is one guy who hits like a sledgehammer, like a literal lumberjack—so let's see how things hold up once the heavy hitting starts.
Robert Cruz5 said:All those teams that actually played beautiful handball have moved on—and honestly, we’ve played some pretty decent stuff ourselves up to this point. But what does any of that even matter? We always end up facing the French or the Danes, usually paired with some officiating crew from Ukraine or those Pedersen types from last year who just blow every single call against us.
Robert Cruz5 said:And I heard through the grapevine that Irfan pipa Smailagic was lurking behind the bench yesterday, low-key giving Lina and the rest of the crew some "expert" advice on how to handle things.
Samuel Baker3 said:I’m just dying to know how you reached that brilliant conclusion—by watching the current work of Line Červar, I assume.
We all know how Coach Miller approaches basketball—sixty minutes of pure chaos. It doesn't matter what the final score is; the goal is just to outscore them. That’s high-octane, power-based ball right there.
That was the old Yale style, and that’s basically what the American national team looks like today.
The real issue, though, is that if your individual players lack talent, you can't win anything playing that kind of aggressive game.
And as for the Americans, their only real goal before the tournament started was just to make it past the first round. This whole thing was probably just a way for Miller to see who actually showed up—since he basically said during training camps that participation was his main priority. Plus, I bet the local club took this approach so they could keep a core group of national team players under their thumb longer, given how short the international prep windows are.
swiftcrane96 said:I caught one of their practices back when they were out in Miami—man, Balić is an absolute beast.
Jeffrey Wilson67 said:I’m back on board with this. Honestly, I never understood why people were pushing American so hard back then—if I recall correctly, he was playing for Zamet at the time—especially since Šprem was always absolutely incredible. You just don't see that kind of heart very often.
Dennis Doyle3 said:The thing is, there wasn't a single logical reason for American to even be on the national team—let alone starting ahead of Sprem (he switched clubs right in the middle of the tournament, if I recall correctly)—but here we are. If Sprem had played the whole tournament, maybe the final wouldn't have been such a mess. Look, the guy plays in the Bundesliga, and he was more than decent in Beijing. What did he forget about handball? And then you have American, who somehow manages to play like absolute trash for six or seven games straight, even though he's supposed to be world-class.
sorry for going off on a tangent.
boldhound8 said:We’re playing this 3-2-1 defense nonsense at this tournament—honestly, I suspect Červar just set everything to 6-0 mode, and we haven't actually run a real 3-2-1 in ages... so this 5-1 and 3-2-1 stuff is really just being used to shift the rhythm slightly whenever the 6-0 setup isn't working perfectly.
Look, 6-0 is fine if you actually pull it off correctly, but the Americans are going to tear us apart from the perimeter if we don't start stepping out to contest those shots. It makes zero sense to sit there in a 6-0 formation, hunkered down at the 6-meter line like you're playing volleyball and the net is somehow blocking your path forward.🙄 You have to step up to the shooter—especially against these 6'7" giants where your movement won't punish them with a drive like Balić would, and let's be honest, guys like him are rare enough as it is.🙂
Yesterday, we stepped out to challenge shooters a few times and did it well, but for most of the game, we just let them shoot uncontested from 7 or 8 meters. If that shot doesn't hit the block—and a block might only connect once or twice in ten attempts, especially against these tall players with high release points—that’s a 90% goal. Even when you have a goalie putting up 18 saves and a 45% stop rate, it doesn't matter.
It’s a shame we’re conceding such cheap goals, especially since we don't have those heavy-hitting long-range specialists we used to have back in the day. We're basically fighting tooth and nail for every single point. It’s a waste, mostly because all you really need to do is step right into their chest and hold them there—you either deny the goal, or you just frustrate the hell out of them with constant interceptions and tactical fouls that wear them down and make them twitchy (the kind of thing the French sell us every single year). Plus, the ref will blow the whistle way faster if you're aggressive than if you just let them dance around the perimeter, cross, and combo while you're jumping at some primate trying to get a block.😁
Alex Bennett3 said:You're lying...
I just caught the USA vs. Denmark game.
Honestly, after watching everything those American players brought to the court today, there’s really only one word for it: GRIT. Pure grit. They absolutely earned that gold medal—we'll see if it all pays off this Sunday.
rapidbison42 said:🙂
pinocchio