What penalties? Everything was played strictly by the book. It was all going perfectly until that one ball. Honestly, I still can't wrap my head around how someone could be that dense. If the ref blows the whistle next to the goal, just toss the ball in the trash... why on earth are you adding it to the line? We could have done whatever we wanted in that moment... instead, we concede a goal that basically knocks us out of the tournament.
It's the kind of sheer stupidity that's going to haunt American handball for decades.
Robert Cruz5 said:Man, he hit the nail on the head. The Spaniards just didn't have the hunger to win. Not even 0.01%. And our guys? They basically refused to turn this whole mess into an even bigger circus!
I mean, why did Vori seriously have to bury it in the 59th minute to take the lead? Who can actually blame him for missing? Honestly, half the players would screw up a ball like that right now against the French.
Look, I wouldn't even be this worked up if the Spaniards had just played like absolute garbage from the jump. If they'd been throwing the game, then fine—we can't exactly make ourselves look like total amateurs by failing to capitalize on a blowout. Just win the damn thing and move on. But no, they kept handing us opportunities on a silver platter. I think we were up by three goals with fifteen minutes left on the clock? Then, out of nowhere, right before the whistle, he decides to pull some unprovoked nonsense and misses the one shot that would have saved his entire reputation 🙂
How are we saying we didn't calculate this?! Why lie to yourselves? The game was intense for five minutes straight—we did our math, and then we still ended up looking like absolute idiots.
Anyone can trip up, but what we just saw from Balic was on another level. Just straight-up insane. A Spaniard basically snatched the ball right out of his hands like he was some kid in a playground during the very first possession. And after that? He just kept tossing the ball into a bottomless pit for the rest of the game. Attack after attack, just total chaos.
As for Goliath and his so-called "game management," there’s really nothing left to say. You can't expect anything better from an idiot.
Regarding the other tragic figures out there, Kopljar was actually somewhat tolerable, considering how high his own standards usually are. Vori played exactly how he’s been playing throughout this whole tournament—nothing special.
Duvnjak was mediocre at best; decent fast breaks, sure. But he was nowhere near where he needs to be. If he had actually put in more minutes during the second half, we probably would have cruised to a win.
Absolute garbage from Balić. Honestly, hands down one of the most pathetic performances by any handball player I’ve ever seen. And to top it all off, you've got that idiot on the bench still forcing him onto the court...