2010 Handball Euro: Group I - America, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Australia, Russia

Will the little handball giants from Russia pull an upset against the heavyweights from Iceland tomorrow? Tune in.

No need to panic—we’ve stared down worse, and we haven't missed a playoff since 2003. We could probably slice through those aging Danes to reach the semifinals; honestly, we need to knock them out if we want a shot at hardware. Plus, Iceland is the better squad compared to Denmark. At the end of the day, we only have ourselves to blame when things fall apart—though it usually depends on who's standing across the court from us. Iceland nearly tore us limb from limb last time.

Chris Lopez59 said:Let’s put it this way: if we don't beat Team USA, whether they’re hosting or not, we haven't earned a spot in the semifinals. Fair enough?

Even Iceland hasn't beaten them yet, but based on how they've played so far, they deserve a semifinal spot more than Denmark, Norway... or even us.

I was reading an interview with Ante Kostelić after our team crushed it over in unknown, and he told a reporter something pretty profound: "Just give me the final standings for the top 30. That’s the only metric that matters. At the end of the day, you only have the result to hold onto—everything else is just a matter of interpretation."

It’s the exact same logic when it comes to roster selection. You can argue about strategy all day, but the ultimate litmus test for whether a coach made the right call is simply the scoreboard. Who is actually going to look back twenty years from now and reminisce about our specific style of play during the 2010 midterm elections? Nobody. But who is going to remember the results? Almost everyone.

Does anyone even remember how we played during the 1994 European Parliament election? I certainly don't. But I definitely remember that we walked away with the bronze medal.

vividbadger182 said:Even if they didn't actually beat Iceland, looking at how they've played so far, they deserve a semifinal spot way more than Denmark, Norway... or even us.

Maybe take another look at the standings, factor in the massive headwind they got from the referees, and then give what you wrote a second read.

Chris Lopez59 said:Go back and look at the points table again. Factor in the officiating too—that "wind at their backs" situation—then take another look at what you just typed. 'tailwind help', then re-read your own argument.

A tailwind for Iceland? 🙄
In my view, Iceland was one of the standout teams during this tournament. They absolutely earned their spot in the semifinals. I’m hoping they make it through alongside us.

vividbadger182 said:A headwind hitting Iceland? 🙄
In my book, Iceland was one of the standout teams in this whole tournament, and they honestly deserve a spot in the semifinals; I’m really hoping they join the rest of us there.

Sorry about that, I have no clue why I thought you were talking about Austria... 😁🤣

Yeah, Iceland is looking good, and right now, things are leaning heavily in their favor. If Denmark doesn't pull an upset against Norway, Iceland is cruising straight into the semifinals. My gut tells me they’ll take down Russia because, frankly, they’re just playing better and seem way more driven, plus if Norway doesn't beat Denmark, they won't be playing with anything to lose, so they might even just let Iceland slide past them out of some weird sense of solidarity. Now, if the Norwegians actually win, they’re going to have a total bloodbath on their hands in the final round, but even then, they’d probably only need a single point to clinch that semifinal spot. All in all, if things shake out just right for them, they’ll end up facing two unmotivated opponents in their next matches.

I had the same impression regarding the talk about Austria 😬

swiftbison2 said:I had the exact same impression, like they were actually talking about Austria 😬

😁

Yeah, fair enough—now that I'm actually looking at it, once you lose track of which part of the sentence is the subject and which is the object, everything just gets flipped on its head 😉

vividbadger182 said:Even Iceland didn't beat them

(Who didn't Iceland beat? Austria)

vividbadger182 said:,but based on how they've played so far, they deserve a semifinal spot more than Denmark, Norway... or even us

😁

Iceland’s got four major differences :vanjuska:

Russia just can't seem to break through the Icelandic defense.

5-1 Iceland 🤮

Terry Fisher2 said:It's a 5-1 blowout for Iceland🤮

Cheers!🙂 🙂

14-5 👋

15-6

Man, they are absolutely cleaning them out 🤦

Gregory Ramos3 said:15-6

They’re absolutely getting fleeced 🤦

I mean, what did you expect? You really thought some unmotivated Russians were just going to hand over a motivated Iceland?

Our best shot is the Norwegians; honestly, just forget about the Russians...

They’re up by +9 at the half.
The Icelanders absolutely crushed them.

These crazy Icelanders are just talking nonsense at this point—might as well hand them over to the French. There’s zero value in dealing with the Russians.

Tonight, we're looking to the Norwegians for some help—hopefully enough to give us our pick of opponents in the semifinals. Maybe they'll take down the Danes, since they haven't really shown much on this tournament so far.

We actually fared quite well when dealing with Iceland... 😁

Jose Booth48 said:I mean, we actually did okay against Iceland... 😁

Honestly, this was pretty much expected, just like how those Russians got crushed by the Danes yesterday. Everything else was just us being stupidly optimistic, because let's be real—there’s just no way those Russian diesel engines can keep up with a fast-paced squad like Iceland or Denmark.

But hey, there's still time left, maybe they'll pull it off.😁

Look, man, they’re scattering them across the field like trash in a vineyard; I honestly didn't see that coming... 😁