Handball Euro: USA vs. Spain - Final Score 22:24

I am seriously loving these Armageddon types 🙂

Rigged by the sportsbooks ☕

And of course, Balić ends up getting pinned as the main reason we lost.... 🤣

Come on, don't be ridiculous. Honestly, the whole squad was a total disaster, except for Mike, Laco, Čupić, and Štrlek...

I mean, you had Igor "the lecturer" Vori, Mark "the ego" Kopljar, and Slavko "the guy who thinks he's running the show" Goluža.

And here they go again, our local pundits broadcasting an interview with Karabatić, a man who has consistently been our greatest nightmare on the court.
The centerpiece of the American squad🤣

We all know exactly who's to blame here.

Some mandarin picker from Memphis...☕

Adam Williams2 said:Hey man, how is he being pushed if we actually have a coach on the bench? Seriously, how? Unless our coach is totally useless, in which case we have way bigger problems than John 🙄.

I don't even want to get into this because you guys are seriously getting on my nerves. Look, it's simple: we're either at the peak of Everest or we're straight-up trash. There is no middle ground. Just stay quiet and let us be objective, please!

Buddy, you're acting like a total clown. As far as I'm concerned, I'll happily pay for a monument to John for everything he did for American handball, but that mentality is just unbearable. They should have played Lac Duvnjak Buntić in the final minutes and called it a day. I have no idea what Goluza is thinking, trying to push Balić today. Sure, he had a few good plays, but he was mostly just fixing his own mistakes and ended up throwing away 70% of the balls... Unbelievable...

I'm telling you, Balić is acting like some high-and-mighty expert who knows everything. You can hear him trying to lecture the players, but honestly, he was a complete void out there today—especially against a top-tier national team. Props to him, I guess, but then he should change his attitude. Someone like Narcisse, who has done way more than Balić for his own country over the last four years, doesn't act like that... His character is just ridiculous. I know, because there are plenty of guys like him all over the neighborhood.

There really isn't much of a debate when you look at the facts: Balić is simply the superior player. While Duvnjak will likely never quite reach that legendary level of play, it's hard to deny how much he has evolved thanks to his experience playing in Germany.
One specific area where that growth shows is during those moments when top-tier clubs, following a solid defensive stop, look to exploit a quick transition for an easy score. We saw plenty of that kind of play today in our matchup against Spain.
When Duvnjak is on the floor, his ability to launch those long, precise passes—or just that initial outlet pass—frequently sets up at least a partial fast break, whereas when Balić is playing, we can pretty much forget about that transition element entirely.

analoggull4 said:We all know exactly who the primary culprit is.

That citrus picker from Memphis...☕

When experience takes a backseat, Gobac gets the final say.
There are plenty of athletes out there who are more skilled, more gifted, more striking, and hungrier to prove themselves—but what can one truly achieve when the world of sports is dominated by a political mafia operating through its own shadowy lobbies? ☕

It’s honestly better that we take this loss now rather than letting the Mexicans run away with a five-point lead later on.
I find it quite fascinating how some people are already pointing fingers at Balić as the primary reason for this, while acting as if Kopljar, Duvnjak, Goluza, and Gobac didn't play any part at all.
Americans, this is truly devastating.

analoggull4 said:We all know who the primary culprit is.

A mandarin picker from Memphis...☕

A farmer from Omaha ☕

Does anyone else remember that stroke of genius from Ketine back in 2011 during the game against the Danes? He pulled Laco and Balić right off the floor after just two missed shots, basically telling the coach, "What, was I supposed to just sit there and wait for them?" 🤣 Everything seems backward now. They’re pulling Laco out for reasons known only to him, yet they're leaving Balić in place despite it clearly not being his day. Someone really should have spotted that and handled it differently. 🤣

My God, what an absolute space cadet. You don't exactly run into that kind of idiocy every day. 🙏 He dropped the ball today.

And really, what exactly did Duvnjak do better than Balić today? Both of them were completely useless, honestly. Let's just move on. Thank goodness I don't have to watch the game against the Frenchmen. 😬

Thomas Harris97 said:Honestly, I'd rather we lose now than get absolutely crushed by five points later on.
It’s actually pretty fascinating to me how people are reacting. Someone already pointed the finger at Balić being the main reason for this, while acting like Kopljar, Duvnjak, Goluza, and Gobac didn't even step onto the court.
Americans, man... it's wild.

In my book, Goluza and Gobac are automatically taking the blame here—that part isn't up for debate. As for Kopljar, he basically wasn't even playing for us today, so I don't even count him in the equation. Duvnjak actually looked decent during the first half; he was finding those nice lanes on the fast breaks, but he definitely lost his rhythm in the second. All things considered, we had them right where we wanted them, but once you pull a few of your key starters from that first half and swap in different guys, you really can't expect much more than this.

Balić can't just operate like a machine on autopilot; if he did, he wouldn't be the player with skills unlike anyone else in the world. Honestly, that genius is a double-edged sword. In some games, he saves us—which happens more often than not—but in others, he makes enough mistakes to cost us the ball. Today was unfortunately that second scenario. It felt like the Spaniards were reading his moves perfectly in defense, much better than most other teams. Kopljar actually delivered a few surprising, solid goals today, even if his flaws are still there. You can really see the difference in philosophy between Buntić’s individual style and Kopljar, who often acts as nothing more than a passer in our offense, and even then, he struggles. I'll never understand why he's forced into that starting lineup. As for Duvnjak, as good as he is, it feels like he still has a long way to go... he can't stay a "prospect" forever like Marin Čilić; it's time for him to truly mature. And once Goluža switched the defense from a 5-1 to a 6-0, everything just fell apart, for whatever reason. Meanwhile, in the final twenty minutes of offense, we kept forcing everything through the middle; the wingers might as well have grabbed some folding chairs and sat in the corner to watch. Looking back, there are stretches where we play beautifully, followed by periods where we fall apart both individually and collectively like a bunch of amateurs. I just hope things improve so we can beat those Frenchmen and knock them out of the tournament.

So, what now? We lost—on to the next one. We’ve got the Frenchmen waiting for us. Hopefully, we don't play like we did tonight. I guess if you play with fire, you're bound to get burned at some point—right? It's just that thing about us—when we hit that level in the final ten minutes, we're basically unbeatable. Anyone can pull it off—including us. We scraped by against Iceland, and we managed it against Canada too—but today wasn't our day. Maybe things will look better on Tuesday!

If you ask me, Mark Kopljar is really the one driving this whole mess. Even someone who isn't paying much attention could see what his role actually ends up being:

- just taking up space on the floor
- acting as a decoy so Duvnjak/Balić can find an open lane to pass the ball when Lac is smothered

I mean, have any of you actually watched these last four games? Did you see a single defender step up to him? My grandmother could see it—the kid just doesn't have the guts to step up and play aggressively when he needs to. And you know Rivera, Onesta, and the rest of those guys who spend every waking second analyzing our game film aren't going to miss that lack of grit...

I'm not even going to get into the other parts of his game, because honestly, there isn't much to say. He just doesn't get it. In fact, I think he might be one of the weakest players ever to wear the national team jersey...

So how can we blame Balić for the loss? It’s hard for him to even get an extra pass over to Lacković because Vori is stuck battling on the perimeter in this American showdown, all while Kopljar freezes up the second the ball moves his way...

Man, Metličić Pero... where are you hiding... 😢😢😢😢

Mark Kopljar is like a parasite spreading poison everywhere he goes. Honestly, even his own coach doesn't seem to get it; he knows full well that a guy who's basically a two-meter tall liability isn't going to sell himself to any other team. So why is he still on the court? What's the actual motivation here, and how much money has been poured down the drain to keep him playing?

The way he stalls every single offensive play is borderline comedic, but there’s no point in us dissecting it tonight since we can't change anything from here. It really makes me lose respect for all these journalists, too—not one of them has the guts to ask a single tough question about this absolute clown. They should all take a lesson from the French; there just shouldn't be room for organized crime interests in professional sports.