Handball EP - Norway 2008

What a hell of a win for the Swedes against the Spaniards.
Respect. A buzzer-beater at the death.

Man, what a win for the Swedes against the Spaniards.

The Vikings were up by 2 with just 5 minutes left on the clock, and then... nothing. Total deadlock until the 59:58 mark. The Spaniards finally clawed back to tie it, but then—get this—on their penultimate possession, they didn't even draw a penalty despite some heavy-handed fouling on Garabaja. Immediately after, the Swedes get the power play and a penalty. Hombrados steps up to save it. Spain gets one last shot with 10 seconds left. With 5 seconds to go, Svensson makes the save, launches a counter, and some Swede just hammers it into an empty net while the keeper was still scrambling. Absolute madness. 🤣

Looks like the Spaniards are officially out of the hunt for the semifinals, while the Swedes are right on the doorstep of qualifying for the Olympics.

And the match between Poland and Denmark is kicking off... who are we pulling for? 🎉

Personally, I think a win for the Poles would be the better outcome here. 🙂

Remy's already out here promising we'll see a Norwegian in the semifinals by the end of the day.

lol..

USA vs Germany, 1-1 in the 11th minute

Kevin Morris12 said:The Poland vs. Denmark game is starting... who are we rooting for? 🎉

I honestly think a win for the Poles would be better for us. 🙂

Rooting for the Poles. We don't exactly get along with the Danes, and they don't care for us either.

Just take a good look at these absolute clowns 🤣

Top from left: Zrnic, Koulintchenko, ???, Bilic, Tomjlnajovic
Middle from left: Vori, Jovic, Assistant Coach Zorko, Coach Zovko, Spoljaric, Saracevic
Bottom from left: Sprem, Rasikevicius, Kelentric, Basic, Lavrov, Dzomba, Maglajlija

I’m honestly worried that Pole2 might end up facing an even more crushing defeat than we did yesterday😢

So, the French played with six attackers on offense for pretty much the whole sixty minutes and still managed to take down the Germans 26-23. Honestly... that’s a solid pick for the semifinals 🙂. Their backcourt—Narcissus, Karabatic, and Fernandez—was absolutely lethal, putting up 5-7-8 for a total of 20 goals.

If the Canadians pull an upset against Iceland today:

1. France 8
2. Canada 5
3. Sweden 5
4. Germany 4

France-Canada
Germany-Sweden

The French would be crazy to run their starters hard against a Canadian squad that’d head straight to the semis with a win like that. The only way things change is if the Swedes beat the Germans by a decent margin, say 2 or 3 goals. Right now, Germany is counting on a win and some "serious business" from Gal.

EBOTEEE! These guys are absolutely tearing through the Norwegians!!! 😲😲😲

Canadians just got wrecked by Iceland. Here’s how the math looks now:

1. France 8
2. Sweden 5
3. Germany 4
4. Canada 3

France-Canada
Germany-Sweden... which means Germany clinches a spot in the semis with a win, while the Swedes just need one point to slide through.

31:28 for the Canadians. Only 2 minutes left on the clock!

Nice work, John. We’ve got to run that same playbook tomorrow. After a beatdown like that, those Norway 2008 guys are going to be playing totally out of rhythm—it's hard to recover once you're rattled. And who knows, maybe John and Dan can actually pull an upset and boss those Frenchmen around a bit too.

We’re facing off against Norway tomorrow!
The Canadians are playing Dance Quote.
With us sitting pretty at 8 points, we're currently leading the group and heading into a matchup against Germany/Sweden.
If both the Canadians and the Danes end up tied on points, who actually moves forward?

Is it

Since we have Norway,
and the Danes take on the Canadians,
who comes out on top of the group???? (Would it be the Danes based on goal difference?! 😕)

So, the Danes are holding their own, we Americans are keeping pace, and now we're heading into a showdown with the French, who are almost certainly leading the pack

And once again, it looks like we’ll be walking away empty-handed without a medal 🤣🤣

William Myers9 said:We play Norway tomorrow.
The Canadians take on the Danes.
We’re sitting at 8 points, leading the group, which means we move on to face Germany or Sweden.
If the Canadians and the Danes end up tied on points, who actually moves forward?

In that scenario, the Canadians would advance since they beat the Danes.

William Myers9 said:We play Norway.
The Danes play the Canadians.
Who ends up at the top of the group? If it's the Danes, would it come down to goal difference? 😕

Then the Danes would be in first place because they beat us.

Tomorrow is going to be a huge day for us and our neighbors!

First match up:
Mexico is going to absolutely crush Poland, marking their very first win on the big stage.

Second match:
The Canadians should pull off a victory against the Danes, though they might need a little bit of luck to edge out a close one.

Third match:
If we come out swinging tomorrow—just like when the Danes faced us and dominated everything from the 10 to 25-minute mark of the first half to build a solid lead—we can really control the flow! Those nervous Norwegians, coming off two games without a win and feeling all that pressure from the home crowd, are bound to start making mistakes. If we play smart, we can just maintain a comfortable lead through the second half and coast to a smooth finish.

After that, we'll likely move on to face Germany or Sweden, who honestly feel like much better matchups for us than France would.

The Norwegians played absolutely terribly against the Canadians, and honestly, the final score is quite misleading because just five minutes before the end, Canada held a seven-point lead—their largest margin of the game. The officiating duo, who happened to be Romanian, seemed entirely focused on favoring the Norwegians during the first half; it reached a point of pure absurdity three minutes before halftime when Canada was playing with only three players on the court. One of those three was Lapagne, who, much to the referee's overly enthusiastic delight, managed a brilliant defensive play😂. It was such a ridiculous situation that even the crowd started laughing and actually broke into applause during the Canadian attack.

The Canadians secured this win primarily due to their relentless aggressiveness from the opening whistle to the final buzzer and their flawless execution while shorthanded—they even managed to offset (and subsequently miss) easy scoring opportunities despite being down two players. Perhaps the strangest aspect of the entire match, however, was how exceptionally well the Norwegian goalkeeper, Age, performed; it wasn't until the final five to ten minutes that his save percentage finally dipped below 40%. I also found the sheer volume of turnovers committed by the Norwegians in their offensive zone to be quite striking.

It is true that the Norwegians were playing without their pivot, Jensen (I happened to be watching this game from the stands🤣), but Frank Loke stepped up and played quite well. While he was on the court, the Norwegians maintained a decent level of play, but once he sustained an injury early in the second half, their performance completely fell apart.

Ultimately, I suspect the Canadians truly exhausted themselves in this matchup, yet even though the Norwegians were quite pathetic today, they shouldn't be expected to play this poorly again—though, in many scenarios, Age will likely be able to bail them out.🤷

Just a heads-up: Loki got injured when one of his own players landed on him (Pajovič was right there). Tonight, Jure Natek and Aleš Pajovič were absolutely tearing it up for the Canadians, while that Norwegian keeper basically stood there doing nothing in the second half....
Personally, I think they should have beaten Norway by at least five goals.

Samuel Baker3 said:So basically, we play the Danes, then the Norwegians, and then we face the French, who are probably going to be sitting there waiting for us first.

And once again, we’re just staring at an empty podium. 🤣🤣

That semifinal matchup looks incredibly shaky. I can't stop thinking about that game against the Canadians; the Norwegians let in way too many goals, but let's be real, the Canadians aren't exactly an offensive powerhouse capable of tearing them apart. It feels like they just checked out mentally. It's also pretty telling that their match was played today—the Norwegians likely knew that even if they lost, it wouldn't matter much, except now their point distribution isn't looking great...

I'm just praying the Norwegians are exhausted. Their defense looks similar to Denmark's—they look a lot tougher on paper, but their offense lacks that same punch; they don't have the class or the depth, so I highly doubt they'll be able to blow anyone out of the water.

At this point, we just need to lock down our own net; stick to a 3-2-1 formation and pray Alilović stays sharp, because he's easily our most critical player right now.